How will the tutoring benefit children?
How do you intend to do this?
For what grade levels are the tutoring available?
How many hours of tutoring are recommended per month?
What is a shared electronic whiteboard?
What are the gadgets/tools that I should have?
What is expected from parents?
How is the progress of a child measured?
What is a parent website?

How will the tutoring benefit children?
The tutoring service is intended to supplement (not substitute) classroom learning. It will considerably improve the knowledge level (in math/reading) of any participating student. An average learner will be elevated to an excellent level, a below average learner will be brought up to an average level, and an excellent learner will be challenged to higher levels of excellence and outstanding performance.

How do you intend to do this?
A child’s areas of strengths and weaknesses will be assessed by conducting an initial test and subsequent periodic tests. Based on the evaluation results, the student’s academic director will put together a personalized curriculum that is tailor-made to strengthen the areas that need improvement. The expectations of a grade level will be set based on the recommended standards in various states (like the California Standards Syllabus for the State of California).

What grade levels are the tutoring available for?
Growing Stars Inc. currently caters to children from grades 3 to 12.

How many hours of tutoring are recommended per month?
In general, two hours of one-on-one tutoring is recommended per week. In addition, two hours of computer aided learning and test taking (without teacher interaction) per month is recommended. However, if a child’s academic director finds that extra hours are needed, the child will be advised accordingly to take additional lessons.

What is a shared electronic whiteboard?
An electronic whiteboard is a white rectangular area on a computer screen, on which we can write or draw using a digital pencil. A digital writing pad – a tablet with the size of a mouse pad, and a digital pencil – a mouse which looks like a pen, are used to simulate the experience of writing with a pencil.

What are the gadgets/tools that I should have?
All you need is:
· A PC (Pentium II or more recent), with Windows 2000/XP/Vista OR an Apple MAC with
·A soundcard
·One USB port
·An Internet Service Provider (ISP)
·A 56K (or faster) modem. For best performance a high-speed connection like DSL or Cable or any         other broadband connection is recommended.
·A headset/microphone combo
·A digital writing pad and a digital pencil.

What is expected from parents?
Parents are expected to provide a distraction-free environment for their children. They will receive email reminders for their children’s schedule one day in advance, in addition to the schedule information given at the time of enrollment. Parents must know their children’s schedule, and ensure that they log on to the Growing Stars web site 5 to 10 minutes in advance, and wait for the teacher to join the session. The teacher also will log on at the scheduled time, and will automatically be connected to the child at the start time.

How is the progress of a child measured?
Based on the results of the initial assessment test, an initial status report of the child will be prepared. His/her knowledge in various skills for the enrolled subject, say Math, for the grade level will be assessed and represented in a graphical form. The graph is generated based on the number of correct/wrong answers in the initial test. Progress will be measured based on the performance in subsequent tests for the respective skills.

What is a parent website?
A website for parents of enrolled students. Each parent will be given a username and password, for logging onto this website. Information relevant to the parents such as student progress reports and general guidelines will be posted on this website.