Ask Micki: How to handle problem billing

© Rob Owen-Wahl

Question: Hiya, Micki, I was hoping that you could help me with a problem I've been having on the billing end of things.  

Here's some background: I've been tutoring for about 5 years now, and have been loving every minute of it.  The problem is, when I got started, I took on a few unpaid tutoring jobs to get my feet wet, and gain some experience.

I talked things over with the 3 families, and we all agreed that I would provide 6 months of free tutoring.  No problem, I was happy to do it, excited about gaining the experience, and glad that I could help out some friends.

I think you see where this is going.  Now it is years later, and while 2 of the families began paying me for tutoring (and have kept me on as their tutor), the other family is still not paying me a cent.

At first I thought maybe they forgot about the agreement, so I brought it up, and they just kind of laughed it off, and moved on to scheduling our next appointment.  I brought up the topic a dozen more times since then, and they completely ignore the conversation every single time.

I love helping out friends, but I can't help but feel that I am being taken advantage of by tutoring every week, free of charge.  Also, it's not like they aren't able to afford tutoring.  I know this because they pay for 2 different sports tutors every week.

Is there a nice way to approach this subject without damaging a friendship or making things awkward? 

Thanks, Micki!
Ali, CA

Answer: Hey, Ali.  First of all, I'm happy to hear that after half a decade of tutoring, you still love the work - that's great!

Second of all, and please take no offense at this - you are definitely being taken advantage of right now, and real friends don't take advantage of one another.  It is definitely time to sit down and have a talk with the parents about billing, etc.

The most important thing for keeping the mood pleasant, and keeping the awkwardness out of the room is to remain friendly and upbeat as you talk with them.

I know you may understandably be a bit frustrated, but try not to get defensive or angry - talk to them with a smile on your face, and present the whole situation as nicely as you can.

Let them know that as much as you love helping them out, and as much as you enjoy the work, you have expenses/bills, and paid work is important for keeping up with those expenses/bills.

Also, you may want to mention that, as your tutoring appointments increased, you don't have quite as much free time in your day, so every tutoring appointment really needs to count financially so that you can continue to make ends meet.

Let them know up front that it is nothing personal, and that you truly enjoy working with them, it's just that you need to be able to make a living with your tutoring.  

If they are reluctant, and you really enjoy working with the family, perhaps you could offer them a deal on your tutoring services.  Offer a package deal of a set number of sessions for a set dollar amount, or offer to give them a discount on tutoring.

Whatever you decide, please stop back by and let us know how things went!

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Photo credit: © sxc.hu/lockstockb
http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lockstockb

Field Notes: Ecology Tutor Walks the Walk...

On my trip to a tutoring appointment yesterday, I started thinking about how tutoring a subject often can involve more than just a stack of books and a 45 minute time block. 

I tutor environmental science and ecology, and am a pretty active environmentalist.  It seems like a lot of the students I tutor are also concerned with the environment, and it suddenly became clear that even though I was "talking the talk" during session, I wasn't "walking the walk."

I mean, I would talk to them about ecology, the effects of ozone layer depletion, ocean pollution, etc., and yet I was driving my SUV to tutoring sessions, and wasting paper like crazy during tutoring.

It dawned on me that if I were talking so much about ecology and the environment, I should really be trying to live as an example.

So, I started walking to the closer sessions, and carpooling to the sessions that were further away from my home.  I also began taking my laptop to tutoring sessions so that I could show a screen printout for concepts rather than printing out reams of paper.  I also made it a point to email graphs and visual concepts to my students so that they would have a study sheet without me having to print it out. 

When I did require printouts, I made sure to use an eco-friendly font that required less ink to print, I made sure to print on both sides of the paper, and I always made a point to recycle the used paper.

I know it may be some small steps in the grand scheme of things, but just being able to be true to my tutoring word was important to me, and I'm glad that I made the changes.

Just some food for thought from a new tutor who loves the planet!
Jacob, SC

Ask Micki: Irritated with my new tutee

© catalin82

Question: Hi, Micki. I have a question, and I'm hoping you can help me.  First, a little background on me and my tutee.

I am a math and science tutor, and work mostly with high school and college students.  One of my current clients is a college freshman, and I am tutoring him in beginning chemistry.  We just started working together, once a week, about a month ago, but I can already tell that this is going to be a looooooonnng semester with him.

The problem is my tutee is really irritating. He takes personal phone calls from his buddies during tutoring, turns on loud music (complete with "pencil drumming"  the table) during our sessions, and never seems to be paying attention to the material.

Last week it was so bad that we barely covered any material at all.  Between him calling his girlfriend, making plans for Friday night with his friends, and changing the music every five minutes, we got nothing done. 

It's really starting to get to me, so any help would make me a happy guy. Thanks!

J.A., an irritated tutor in San Francisco

Answer: Hey, there, J.A..  You're right - that is annoying!  Sorry to hear about your difficult tutoring sessions - this tutee doesn't sound like too much fun to work with on a weekly basis.

Crazy as it may sound, your tutee may not even know that he's being annoying.  The next time you two meet, try sitting down and having a quick talk with him about the expectations for your tutoring sessions.  Lay out the ground rules, using an upbeat, friendly tone.

Let your tutee know that by focusing all of his attention on the tutoring session (instead of phone calls, music, etc.), he will be getting the most tutoring for his money.  Also let him know that you want to help him do his best in his chemistry class, and the most effective way to do this is to make sure that you are both putting in 100% effort during tutoring.

Also, take a few seconds to get his input on how he thinks the tutoring is going.  Learn a little about him and his tutoring expectations.

Set goals together so that you both have something to look forward to during tutoring.  Give your tutee something to shoot for - a good grade on his next exam, memorizing a particular segment of the periodic table, learning a new chemistry concept, getting a good grade on his homework assignment, etc. 

I believe that by talking to your tutee, the problem will practically fix itself.  That said, if you find that this tutee continues to disrespect your time, and isn't contributing to the tutoring sessions, it may be necessary to drop him as a tutee.  

However, like I said, I am confident that a quick conversation will straighten everything out in no time!
Good luck, and happy tutoring!

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Photo credit: © sxc.hu/catalin82

Ask Micki: New Ideas?

© ilco

Question: Hi, there, Micki.  It's a brand new year, and I'd like to start it off with a brand new set of ideas for my math tutoring sessions!

Any ideas on how to make math fun?

Just to give some background: my name is Lizzie and I tutor math for 3rd to 6th grade kids.

Thanks, and happy new year to you!
Lizzie, AZ

Answer: Happy new year to you, too, Lizzie, and thanks for the great question!

I'm always excited to get emails from people who love what they tutor, and want to add some pep and fun to their tutoring sessions. 

So how do you make those math problems jump off the page and capture the interest of your tutees?

First thing - find out what your tutee likes. If your tutee likes music, incorporate that into your tutoring. A lot of music relies on math, right down to the sixteenth notes used to compose songs. Grab some reading material on the subject, too, and help your tutee make the math-music connection. 

Is your tutee a young foodie?  Use the always popular pizza, pie, or cake learning technique to help explain fractions.  Have your young tutees color in a pizza (aka: a round piece of paper), and let them decorate it with their favorite toppings.  Then, slice up the pizza into small segments, and let your tutee practice adding and subtracting fractions using the pizza.  

Does your tutee like art?  It can also be a great math learning tool.  Trust me on this one - it is how I learned a lot of my ratios, percentages, and fractions!  Try coming up with word problems using paint colors (we need to use twice as much red as blue, the color purple is made up of 40% red and ?% blue, etc.), and watch budding artists take a sudden interest in math.

Maybe your tutee likes animals, dinosaurs, or sports.  You can incorporate practically any interest into math by using key elements in word problems or worksheets. 

One of my friends, for example, tutors a baseball fanatic.  So he uses baseballs, bats, and other baseball elements in all of the math worksheets that he provides to his tutee.  It works wonderfully.

And don't forget about those short breaks. Even the brightest mind can reach burnout status pretty quickly after staring at the same material for hours. Try to take a few short breaks, and let your tutee know that he's doing a great job.  Talk about school, or hobbies, and get away from the math work for a minute or two.

Have fun, and happy tutoring!

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Photo Credit: © ilco
http://www.sxc.hu/profile/ilco