For My School Stuff: Tutoring

What’s this site all about?
Today, despite +90% of teens having regular access to the internet, only 38% of teens use it for completing their homework – even though over 65% of teens complete their homework on a regular basis and could benefit from extra on-line help. During exam and mid-term periods, these figures increase substantially.

The regular usage figure is low because many teens find it too hard to get the kind of information they need on the net for it to be of real help. ForMySchoolStuff.com offers a solution:

	It will provide teens with the only site where they can get free help that is tied to the very classes they are taking, that can answer the questions they have, in a timely fashion.

	This site is intended to help teens do better in school – with the hopes that if students have an easy way to get extra help at home, they may be more likely to complete their homework, get a few successes and perhaps stay in school longer. Research with kids at risk suggests that they don’t like to ask their teachers for help (“Don’t want my friends to know”, “Can’t – the teacher hates me” and other reasons – real or not – were given.)

However, it’s not just for the kids at risk. The intent is to give students an easy, efficient way to get the information they need to complete assignments when they are at home, without access to their teachers.

To see what the researched revealed, please click here

If you’re like most teachers we’ve heard from, you’re probably saying, “Finally!” Now we just need to make this a reality for our learners – and their parents. We need help creating the content and could really use your help.

How can you help?

If you’d like to donate your time now to help make this happen, we’ll include you in our income-sharing group down the road. Although a good portion of the site is being run as a Not-for-Profit corporation, there is a revenue stream. Your share will be a refection of your contribution. No guarantees that you will make a lot of money – but then, no one knew just how successful Trivial Pursuit would be when it was in its infancy.

We need teachers of all subjects, at all levels. To take a look at the type of content you would be helping to create, please check out the two working links on our demo site.

• For a Grade 10 Math example, please click here

• For a Grade 9 English example, please click here

Once the site it ready, we’ll also need on-line tutors in all subject areas – and yes, you would be paid an hourly rate of $35 - $40/hr (Canadian) for this. The sooner we have teachers to provide the tutoring, the sooner we’ll be able to launch this part of the site.

Yes, I would like to learn more about contributing content to the website

Yes, I would like to be considered for inclusion on the Teen Tutoring Team

Please complete this form
First name		Last name
Phone #		City
Province/State		School Association
E-mail

Grades taught (Select that apply)	7 8 9 10 11 12 Post Secondary
Subject(s) taught

P.S. Please feel free to tell your students about the site – and how they can use it to complete their volunteer hours on-line.

Problems teens have with homework – and for which they want an on-line solution
1)	Easy way of researching appropriate info quickly to complete their homework assignments
	On average, teens lose 45 minutes each and every time they conduct research on-line. Why?
		Inexperience and inability to choose the right key words for their searches,
		The sites that appear on the first two pages of search results are often not grade-appropriate – or do not provide the information in a way that makes it easy for students to use.
		Often the information they need simply does not appear in the first 3 – 5 pages of search results – and most teens never even make it to page 3 of search results.
		Getting sidetracked by “interesting” pop-ups they see on “non helpful” sites they reach and then hop skip and jumping from site to site.

2)	Help completing homework
		As teens move up through the grades, and as parents have increasing demands made on their time, it becomes harder and harder for parents to help with homework – even when they want to. As one mother put it, “I can’t help with a lot of the homework. My kids are doing things in high school that I don’t even remember taking!”
		Even with sites that require a membership fee or work on a pay-as-you-play basis, we have yet to locate any that provide step-by-step solutions for problems and at all grade levels, in all subject areas.
		Teens frequently don’t understand the explanation in their textbooks and can’t remember the teacher’s explanation – no other site exists to help in this area.
		Teens often don’t understand how to write essays, draw comparisons, etc. Having a tool to help when completing an assignment would be welcomed by many.

3)	Studying for tests and exams
		Students want tips on how to study. Study notes and sample questions will be available for all subjects. ForMySchoolStuff.com will be the only on-line site that provides such information in a way that is customized for their school.

4)	Other homework tools include:
		On-line help from teachers
		On-line tutoring (a paid service)
		Access to information on high school credit courses for travel and other “fun” activities
		Access to information on scholarships

5)	Teacher input to date:
		Many teachers are concerned about plagiarism – and about how much students are actually learning, or completing on their own. It’s not possible for instructors to check out every website to determine what is original work, and what is not. If many students use the same starting point, it makes it easier to monitor – and easier to offer help.
		Nearly 20% of teachers surveyed indicated that they have set up some means of communicating electronically with their students; nearly 50% wished there were an easy way to get messages to students and parents. One teacher explained, “When test time draws near, if I find that a lot of the kids coming in for extra help have the same question, I’ll post an explanation on the bulletin board. Even if I explain it again in class, the bulletin board seems to reach everyone. That way they can also look it up when they go to study.”
		Nearly 90% of teachers surveyed indicated they would like to have the tool – would use it for the occasional message provided that it was easy, did not increase their prep time, and was not mandated.
		80% feel it is a good tool to help students catch up or keep up after an absence. Many were especially pleased there would be an alternative to after school help for students who had missed lessons because of family holidays taken during the school year.
		Depending on the school board, anywhere from 50 – 80% of Guidance Counsellor time is spent with discipline problems, and with students who are at risk, especially those at risk of promotion. There are often too few resources to help teachers and counsellors keep up with workplace trends, changing university information, scholarships, extra-curricular for credit programs and other such matters. This site gives them a tool that will make keeping up a little easier – and will make it easier for all students to get the information they need

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