The ideas expressed in this blog are certainly not new or original to me. I would like to give credit to Chris Brady, CEO of Life Leadership for these ideas.
I am an electrical engineer by training and practice. I know a lot about circuit design, digital signal processing and software design. One thing I was never taught in school, or as an engineer, however, is what Chris Brady calls the “checkpoint race”.
A checkpoint race requires participants to pass certain checkpoints in order to proceed in the race. There are no short cuts: every checkpoint has to be passed.
At MaThCliX®, we must meet certain checkpoints if we are to be successful tutors. Those three checkpoints are 1) Make a friend, 2) Find a need, 3) Meet that need.
To be effective as a tutor, I have to convey to the student that I truly care for them as a person. This cannot be faked. If you do not have a sincere concern for the well-being and success of your students, you either need to find a way to develop it or quit tutoring, because you will not have much success as a teacher and may, in fact, do more harm than good. There is saying that applies here: “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
One way of approaching this is to view a problem a student may have as a common problem, one in which you are working together to solve. At MaThCliX®, we first demonstrate how to solve the problem, then solve the problem with student, then let them solve one by independently. We are not there to show the student how much we know, but rather listen with humility to discern what problems they are having.
Listening is somewhat of a lost art. You will be amazed at how much more effectively you will become at helping students when you master this skill. When you listen carefully you can pick up on seemingly unrelated things that will greatly impact a students comprehension.
An extension of the quote above goes like this, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, but then you had better know something! ” At this point the student is ready to hear.
Finding the need is important because we don’t won’t to help the student with a problem they don’t have. This is an area I struggle with because there are areas of math that I get really excited about. It is real easy and enjoyable for me to spend time talking about those things, but I have to work hard to find their problems or concerns and not my own.
Once the needs are identified, we use multiple techniques geared to a student’s learning style to help the student understand solutions that they can embrace. Of course, you know their learning style because you have been actively listening and picking up on their visual and auditory cues (part of making a friend).
These three steps or checkpoints are applicable to a host of other endeavors and are the basis for successful sales and leadership. You may not realize it, but anytime you are trying to get your point across, you are selling and influencing. So, every time you interact with a student you should make a friend, find a need, and help them solve a problem.