On Struggles Faced and Overcoming (Rui Zhe, volunteer tutor)

Image provided by Rui Zhe.

Today Rui Zhe shares with us some of the struggles he’s faced in the last seven months of volunteer tutoring with Impart.

"I’ve always enjoyed teaching because I like explaining and seeing the process of my students gasping the concepts that I teach. However, when I first started tutoring my current tutee, he almost never completed his homework. He would either say he had forgotten about it or do only one or two questions out of ten. It was hard not to feel a little annoyed as we would have to waste tuition time for for him to do his homework.

I used several strategies to counter this, but I think the one that worked the best was reminding my tutee about his life goals and showing him how his academics in the short term fit with his life goals. That gave my tutee motivation to do well in his academics.

The tuition side of sessions are going a lot better now, but what I'm still struggling with is having conversations with my tutee about things outside of academics too. I try connecting with him about stuff like his life in school or his new dog to build more trust and a better relationship between us!

The time I’ve spent as a tutor has shown me that teaching really is hard work that requires a lot of patience, so I’ve come to admire my own teachers that much more.

Tutoring has also been an incredible opportunity for me to bond with and learn from someone from a different walk of life. But more importantly, it’s been extremely fulfilling to see my tutee start being much more conscientious is his homework and more motivated to do well in school despite the ups and downs."