Would you pay a teacher for after-school help?

[Kath2003]

I wouldn't charge, but there's a limit to the amount of after school help I CAN give for free, simply because I still need to meet the basics of the job requirements. If your child requires more than 30-60 minutes 1-2 times a week, you need to get them a paid tutor, simply because I cannot do much more than that PLUS get everyone else's assignments mark and plan lessons to a reasonable standard. I also have staff meetings, training session and detentions which are immediately after school 2-5 nights per week (depending on who didn't do their homework!).

I don't know the legal ins and outs but I cannot imagine it would be legal for me to charge a pupil I teach for additional help. Actually the concept had never crossed my mind....

 

[Teacher03]

I sometimes stay and help kids in my class after school, but I never tutor (for pay) anyone in my class. However, I tutor a girl in fifth grade at school for pay. I used to do it in the public library, but it is just easier for her family if she stays after school. My principal knows and does not have a problem with it. To be honest, I do it because this little girl struggles so much, and she is one who touched my heart when I had her. I only get paid $10 a day, but I tutor for 1 1/2 hours plus drive her home.

 

[MareQ]

My kids' school has organized after school help twice a week from 3:30-5:00. The teachers each take a turn leading so nobody has to do it all the time, but I don't think they get paid. .

We have the same thing but the Teacher's do get paid. It's from 3 - 4 for 1st and 2 grade and 3 - 5 for 3 - 6th grade.

 

[Darcy03231]

The teachers in our district are required to stay one day per week after school for help for about 45 min. Each subject has a different day (ie Monday is math, Tuesday is science, etc). Other than that they don't stay (right now they're working without a contract - but that's another story).

 

[LisaNJ25]

When my teem was in 3rd grade a teacher charged $25 an hour for after school help.

He is going for after school help in high school and there is no charge.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I would have a problem with paying my child's teacher.
There would be too much of an incentive for a teacher to not teach during the day or lower grades so that parents would feel it was necessary to sign up for extra tutoring. Also, I have found over the years that if my child didn't understand it when the teacher said it in class, chances are pretty good that he won't understand it when it is repeated to him after class - a different person with a different approach is needed.

I would have no problem with paying a different Teacher to provide tutoring. Some Districts prevent contracted Teachers from doing that also.

 

[4greatboys]

When one of my sons was in middle school I hired a teacher as a tutor. She was not his teacher but a teacher in the school and he was tutored at the school. I liked it. It was so much easier for him to stay late a couple of days a week.

 

[Camicar]

I’m going to put on my flame suit here and say that the notion paying a teacher to tutor his/her own students in his/her own classroom in a public school is symptomatic of the demise of professionalism brought about by teachers’ unions. It’s all about the money and not about educating the students.

I am so SICK Of so-called professionals telling us that they can't do x or y or z because "It's not in my contract/I don't get paid extra for that." Example: DD's 4th grade teacher would not even greet me (as in responding to my 'Hello, Ms. Smith') one day in her classroom because it was 3 minutes before she was contractually obligated to be 'on' for students. IMO, if a professional wants to be paid for every little 'extra' thing they do, they are no longer professionals -- they are hourly-wage workers and should not expect to have the respect professionals garner, in part, by their dedication to their calling. You can't consider yourself a professional if you demand payment for every little extra thing you do.

Obviously there is a limit to the amount of after school tutoring any one teacher should give, because time and resources are not infinitely expandable. But the notion of charging your own student for occasional help in your own classroom is anathema to me and any teacher who would do so has immediately lost my respect.

 

[golfgal]

I’m going to put on my flame suit here and say that the notion paying a teacher to tutor his/her own students in his/her own classroom in a public school is symptomatic of the demise of professionalism brought about by teachers’ unions. It’s all about the money and not about educating the students.

I am so SICK Of so-called professionals telling us that they can't do x or y or z because "It's not in my contract/I don't get paid extra for that." Example: DD's 4th grade teacher would not even greet me (as in responding to my 'Hello, Ms. Smith') one day in her classroom because it was 3 minutes before she was contractually obligated to be 'on' for students. IMO, if a professional wants to be paid for every little 'extra' thing they do, they are no longer professionals -- they are hourly-wage workers and should not expect to have the respect professionals garner, in part, by their dedication to their calling. You can't consider yourself a professional if you demand payment for every little extra thing you do.

Obviously there is a limit to the amount of after school tutoring any one teacher should give, because time and resources are not infinitely expandable. But the notion of charging your own student for occasional help in your own classroom is anathema to me and any teacher who would do so has immediately lost my respect.

In your profession if someone asks you to do some contract work outside of your regular work hours would you not expect to get paid for that? Being available after school for all students is what is expected but if one student is there several days a week for long periods of time that is abusing the teacher's position in school and she should rightly be compensated for that.

I also don't think anyone it talking about occasional help, the OP's DD is clearly getting regular voice lessons from the choir teacher and I would most certainly expect to pay for that or BE paid for that matter.

 

[BrerMom]

Not on the school property... however if you went off site that could be worked out.

However, you will have a hard time getting parents to pay since it has been free. You know the saying why pay for milk when I can get the cow for free--it applies in this case.

You could reduce your own "free time" hours. My son's Math teacher is like that--she sort of makes it difficult for the students/parents to come so she gets limited students, but she does offer herself up for "free" so to speak.

The Math teachers hourse were be at school by 7 am on morning a week. In order to get there that early, students had to get a pass from her one week prior to the tutoring date, write out the pass, get the parent to sign the pass, give it back to the math teacher, have the math teacher log it, stamp it give the pass back to the student. Student then had to show up with this pass present it to the office staff and then sign in with her.


Quite honeslty that whole pass business was such as pain, not many students did it... (the pass was lost, parent didn't sign, etc.) However, there were a few that did.

Oh, I don't have any plans at all to try to start charging. I've just been wondering if there's a double standard for core classes and electives. I'm still paying DD's teacher and am appreciative of the extra help. As I've said, DD thinks it's ok because it's promised to be one-on-one help. At the same time, I just couldn't charge one of my students for extra help, even one-on-one; it just doesn't seem right to me. Can you imagine the outrage at open house if I announced that I would help kids one-on-one with their math after school, but only if I were paid by the parent?

Regarding the pass situation, that may be an administrative issue. I used to teach in a different middle school in the same district. If a student wanted to stay after school, I had to either get written permission that the parent was aware of the fact or talk to them on the phone (and either option had to be at least one day ahead of time) or the student wasn't allowed to stay. I also had to notify the office which students had permission to be in the building after hours. Life is much less complicated in this building. I post a note on the whiteboard saying which days I'm staying after school to help this week and kids show up. If nobody shows, I get an extra hour of planning. Sometimes I'm asked to write a "yes, Johnny was with me from 2:50 - 3:30" note, but that's as complicated as it gets. If the teacher you're talking about is the only one that does this, s/he may have been criticized in the past for keeping kids after school without parental knowledge and this is his/her solution.

Camicar, You've obviously had a nasty experience along the way. We're not all like that.

 

[golfgal]

Oh, I don't have any plans at all to try to start charging. I've just been wondering if there's a double standard for core classes and electives. I'm still paying DD's teacher and am appreciative of the extra help. As I've said, DD thinks it's ok because it's promised to be one-on-one help. At the same time, I just couldn't charge one of my students for extra help, even one-on-one; it just doesn't seem right to me. Can you imagine the outrage at open house if I announced that I would help kids one-on-one with their math after school, but only if I were paid by the parent?

Regarding the pass situation, that may be an administrative issue. I used to teach in a different middle school in the same district. If a student wanted to stay after school, I had to either get written permission that the parent was aware of the fact or talk to them on the phone (and either option had to be at least one day ahead of time) or the student wasn't allowed to stay. I also had to notify the office which students had permission to be in the building after hours. Life is much less complicated in this building. I post a note on the whiteboard saying which days I'm staying after school to help this week and kids show up. If nobody shows, I get an extra hour of planning. Sometimes I'm asked to write a "yes, Johnny was with me from 2:50 - 3:30" note, but that's as complicated as it gets. If the teacher you're talking about is the only one that does this, s/he may have been criticized in the past for keeping kids after school without parental knowledge and this is his/her solution.

Camicar, You've obviously had a nasty experience along the way. We're not all like that.

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with it if your district allows it. If you are offering one-on-one help on a regular basis, not just the occasional "I don't understand this chapter" help you are then a tutor and should get paid. If you are giving regular voice lessons to a student after school, you should get paid. If it is more of a 'let's put in a couple extra practices before the play' deal, no, you shouldn't get paid.

I can understand where districts wouldn't want you tutoring your own students (elementary) because it would be too easy for someone to say that the students need help when they really don't--not that this would happen but it could. High school is different. I wouldn't go to the algebra teacher for help with Calculus, not that the algebra teacher doesn't know calculus it is just not what they are currently teaching.

 

[rgf207]

My wife stays for 1.5 to 2 hours after school every day and would never think of charging a fee. She does it to help the students do better

Also, my wife can tutor students off school property but she is also not supposed to tutor her own students because that could be a conflict of interest.

 

[bluerendezvous]

Kindergarten Teacher here. I actually do teach an after school tutoring class on Tuesdays & Thursdays at my school. I am paid with Title I funds at $22 hour. The class is taught in my classroom from 2:40 to 4:00. I have six Kg. students. There are two other tutors that have six students each also.

We are happy to offer this service to our students and their parents.

Until recently, we were unable to keep students after school for extra help. We were simply not allowed. Most of our students' parents are unable to leave work (and sometimes home) to pick up their child at 4:00; therefore, making after school tutoring unavailable to them. So, you see, even if I had chosen to stay later, I wouldn't have had many students! We are now able to provide a bus ride home for these students. I nearly always stay until 3:30 or 4:00 each day. Hours not required by my contract BTW.

So, in short, I will gladly take my $22 hour and be permitted to help struggling students at school where I have all my resources available to me. I am blessed that we are a Title I school and receive the funding that allows my students to benefit from me, a veteran teacher, my school with its resources, and a bus ride home.

 

[Feralpeg]

Many teachers in this area tutor. This is not the same as helping a student who is having a problem with something they've just covered. The teachers tutor students on a weekly or bi-weekly basis week after week. These are kids who could not make it without the extra help. Many of them do the tutoring in their homes or the students homes on their own time. They get paid for the efforts.

 

[wishspirit]

It really depends what you mean by tutoring. If its the occasional help after school for a math problem they couldnt get or to sort out what homeworks due, then that shouldn't be paid for. If it is an every week thing (and not due to school negelgence, for example i did extra drama classes in year 9 to catch up for GCSE's because our school made a goof up!) and they take a good hour out of their time, then yes they should get paid for it.

I had a french tutor outside school at GCSE, she wasn't one of my teachers but she taught at another school nearby part time. This made it ok. You can not get taught by your teacher or a head of department for cash at school, it is a conflict of intrest. However at A level one girl was really sick and missed a lot of school, so our teacher (the only person who could help her catch up on this stuff as it was very speciallised) tutored her for cash at her home.

However if doing stuff outside of school is part of the teachers job, they should not get paid extra. Drama teachers putting on schoolplayer or taking us to see shows in london in the evenings never got paid to do so because it was their job, if we didnt see plays, we didnt pass our exams,(although i think they didnt have to pay for their tickets)

So it really does depend

 

[disney4us2002]

My son was really struggling with geometry this year. He also wanted to be one of the "cool" kids so he would absolutely not ask much in class. We emailed back and forth with the teacher to discuss ways to improve his grade and help him "get it" and she said he should come to afterschool tutoring that she provides Mon thru Thur from 2:30-4pm. He started going 2x per week and within one month his grade has improved from a 64 to an 83 and he scored a perfect 100% on his most recent chapter test - and he was the only student to do so!! This teacher doesn't charge for her time but I'd be happy to pay it given how much improvement we've seen.

Before this experience I probably would've thought differently.

 

[BrerMom]

Most of my after-school kids come at least once a week. Most of the "regulars" fall into three groups. The first are kids that have been tested for special ed and just don't qualify. I love helping these guys because they try so hard to keep up. The second group are kids involved in sports and want to make sure they stay eligible. They usually only come during the sports season they play and want the help. The third group is varied. Some use me as free babysitting; these kids don't really need the help, but the parents can't trust these 8th graders to stay home alone. Also in this group are the "punishment" kids - you WILL stay after school until your grade is higher than (insert grade here). They are sometimes surly and not motivated to use their time wisely. Sometimes I wonder who's being punished, the kid or me.

 

[MM27]

I am always in my classroom at least an hour and a half before school starts and most days the same amount after school (if not longer). My school has an after care program that is free to the parents because it is paid for by a grant. The kids go to a classroom teacher for the first hour where they do their homework and get any help they may need. Then they go to the cafeteria until their parents pick them up. They do different activities with them there.

My students (44 of them) know that I am in my room and when they have questions or need help with their homework they come to me. Some of the aftercare teachers send me other kids sometimes because they (the teachers) don't understand how to do a problem
I would never expect extra pay for that.

I have organized study groups at various points in the year where I've invited kids that I saw needed a little extra work on certain skills. Again, never even considered that I should charge. A couple of years ago I had a girl that was attending along with about 5 other kids and she would continually fool around and waste time. It was very distracting for the other kids and she wasn't getting anything out of it herself. I told her one day that she was not to come back. Her mother called me the next day threatening to call the superintendent on me because her daughter needed the help. She would not listen to a word I had to say. All she wanted to do was tell me, "it's your job" and "that's what you get paid for". I actually hung up on her after telling her that I would have my principal call her, because it was getting downright abusive.

I don't mind doing it, but to say that I have to do it because I'm a professional is crazy. There are many teachers in my building that have second jobs after school and they can't stay late. Would your lawyer or doctor or any other professional offer you extended services because you weren't clear about something?

 

[BrerMom]

My son was really struggling with geometry this year. He also wanted to be one of the "cool" kids so he would absolutely not ask much in class. We emailed back and forth with the teacher to discuss ways to improve his grade and help him "get it" and she said he should come to afterschool tutoring that she provides Mon thru Thur from 2:30-4pm. He started going 2x per week and within one month his grade has improved from a 64 to an 83 and he scored a perfect 100% on his most recent chapter test - and he was the only student to do so!! This teacher doesn't charge for her time but I'd be happy to pay it given how much improvement we've seen.

Before this experience I probably would've thought differently.

Write a letter telling her how much you appreciated the extra time and how much it helped your son. Give a copy to the principal. I can guarantee you it would be a wonderful way to say thank you.

 

[momrek06]

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY.....

If the NHS is at your local high school (and MOST in this country have NHS), the students in the Society are the top students in the h.s. and as a member in good standing in the Society every student needs volunteer hours. My oldest DS went to public high school in our town, was a member of NHS and volunteered mornings (before classes) and afternoons to any and all students in his h.s. His h.s was grades 7-12. All members of NHS had their regularly scheduled volunteer hours.

My youngest DS went to a private high school an hour away from our town, was a member of NHS and exactly like older DS volunteered mornings and afternoons helping students at his h.s.

Contact the Guidance Dept at the local high school your DD's and DS's attend and arrange to have a NHS student volunteer to help.