Georgia Tutor is offering virtual tutoring over Zoom for high school students in math, science, language arts and social studies. The program, run through Georgia Virtual Learning, offers free tutoring to students by Georgia teachers in 25-minute increments.
The GA Tutor program requires students to explain what they need help with in the request form to help their tutor better assist them.
Midtown math teacher Tre’nee Uzoka is a tutor for the GA tutor program.
“As a tutor, there are some modules that I had to complete, [such as] getting familiar with the tutoring process and how students schedule a tutor,” Uzoka said. “Students have up to two hours to reserve the tutor they want, [then] we tutor them through Zoom, and it is [the students] coming with questions.”
Prospective tutors have to complete a multi-step hiring process before they are chosen to work for GA Tutor.
“I completed a Google form and after the form, they [GA Tutor] will reach out and send you an email for an interview,” Uzoka said. “I had a virtual interview with Ruth Brown, the person over it [GA Tutor], they asked questions about my teaching, what topics I teach, and what I would be interested in tutoring. About a week later they sent me a notice that they wanted me for the position.”
Uzoka recommends the program for high school students because she believes learning through a different teacher’s method can help students learn what works best for them.
“I highly recommend [the GA tutor program] because another teacher can teach something in a different way that my students can understand,” Uzoka said. “Especially in math, there are different ways of finding the correct answer. I think it is a good opportunity for students to connect with teachers around the state of Georgia.”
GA Tutor has some conditions, such as a teacher is not allowed to tutor certain students.
Uzoka believes this rule was put into place to avoid conflict of interest issues.
“If any students sign up for the tutoring service [from] Midtown, I cannot tutor them,” Uzoka said. “You can only tutor students who do not attend your school. If we teach our students it may be perceived that we are getting money and helping them get a better grade.”
One feature of GA Tutor is that a teacher only tutors one student at a time.
Junior Jackie Santana believes this will help deepen students’ understanding of the information.
“One-on-one learning can be helpful because students can take their time learning the curriculum and ask questions without any sort of distractions,” Santana said. “It can definitely motivate the student to work harder.”
Another benefit of one-on-one learning is identifying specifically what a student needs help with. Midtown math teacher Peyton Williams believes one-on-one learning can better help students’ comprehension.
“With individualized teaching, you can directly address what the student is struggling with because not every student is struggling with the same thing,” Williams said. “It gives you better insight into how that student thinks about things and to better understand how to help. ”
Williams believes tutoring may be necessary for certain students who need more support to understand a concept.
“You are able to get the individualized reinforcement of things you do not understand,” Willams said. “Sometimes a concept takes more explanation or examples to actually grasp a concept, and you tend to learn things faster and easier when you have the direct interaction.”
Uzoka believes there are certain classes that some students commonly struggle with, and part of the reason she became a tutor was to help students better understand the material.
“I signed up to help other students be successful in class,” Uzoka said. “I know, especially being a math teacher, students need all the support they can get in math.”
Santana believes this new form of tutoring can be especially helpful for students and help them get better grades.
“I think tutoring is beneficial for students because with the extra help, they perform better, and it can help students develop critical thinking skills,” said Santana.
GA Tutor aims to help students who need extra assistance, which Santana believes is beneficial as another option for learning.
“Every student is different, and with that, every student learns in different ways,” Santana said. “Having a different range of resources to help the student learn and understand better is so important.”
