How do I tutor?

tl;dr: what do I do?

  • Jump onto https://groklearning.com/tutor-messaging/
  • Subscribe to the subset of the 5 streams you want to tutor.
  • Either manually claim incoming chat threads or set yourself to “auto-assign”. 
  • Click on the Help button at the top of the tutoring page for documentation on how to use the tutoring interface.
  • Jump in Slack and ask for help if you're not sure what to do or how to best advise someone. 

(But you should really read all the info below too, it's useful and interesting!)

1. Claim a thread

Access tutoring at: https://groklearning.com/tutor-messaging/

When you're tutoring, if you see an available unreplied thread, claim and open it:

2. Read the student's question

Make sure you're answering their actual question!

3. Read the problem & solution

Familiarise yourself with the problem and the recommended solution, so that you can guide the student in the right direction. 

4. Have they completed previous questions and slides? 

Check to see if they've correctly answered previous questions. If they haven't, suggest that they have a go at them first. (Questions often build on previous knowledge.)

You can check this by looking at the orange/green question pips. 

5. Check for saved replies

There might already be a saved reply which answers their question!

6. Check the stream / grade of the student

Make sure you check the stream and grade of the student, and tailor your reply accordingly! How we respond to a grade 5 student in Newbies might be very different to the same question from a grade 10 student in Advanced. 

7. Reply to the student!

Write the student a message to help! You can use backticks ``` for code snippets.

Remember, focus on quality of tutoring, not speed or quantity! Take your time - the student isn't expecting an instant reply.

Answer the students' questions referring to the notes - students often don't read the notes, but they really should. They help a lot! Link to the notes in your answers!

That's it!

If you're out of questions to answer, consider helping some of the struggling students!