Teacher and pupil speak to one another, type messages and use digital “pencils” to work on problems, highlight graphs and erase mistakes. Princeton scrawls on something that looks like a hyped-up mouse pad and it shows up on Namitha’s screen. He can also use a scanner to send copies of assignments or textbook pages that he needs help understanding.
“The student’s mother is pleased with the results, saying her children have been getting all A’s and B’s since they started online tutoring about two years ago”.
“I was skeptical at first, ” said the student’s mother, a developmental educator. ”But I decided to give it a shot, and it works beautifully.”
“GrowingStars recruits, mostly with recent postgraduate and teaching degrees, already have deep subject knowledge. They must go through two weeks of technical, accent and cultural training that includes familiarization with the differences between British English, widely used in India, and American English.”
“Growing Stars sets high standards for its tutors—each one must have a master’s in the subject he or she teaches and a teaching degree … Tutors are also given periodic classes to help them polish their accents so that American students can better understand them. Each day, tutors take time to prepare themselves in their students’ curricula, and academic directors closely supervise all the tutors.”
“Although her mother was worried at first that [her daughter] might not be able to understand the tutor’s accent, she urged her to try the service, which was much cheaper than the $80-an-hour private tutors her older son once used. “I didn’t want to do it at first because I thought it would be weird,” said [the student], a freshman. “But it really doesn’t make a difference. I just can’t see her face.”
“No one in the family argues with the results. ‘It’s really amazing. Amazing that it works,’ Michael says. ‘For sure, his grades have improved.”
