TEFL / TESOL Blog

How To Use Social Media To Enhance Your Tutoring Effectiveness

One of the best things you can do as a tutor is continuously working on your pedagogy. An Esl Teaching Certificate will give you a solid foundation upon which to instruct second language English. But to truly thrive in the web-driven world we live in, it's all about taking up social media and technology.

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are some of the platforms that provide good opportunities for teachers to establish an engaging, interactive, and well-organized learning environment for their students. Being a teacher, while teaching, providing support, or establishing relationships, social media can be part of your success as a teacher.
 

Boost Your Tutoring Skills with Social Media

If you are wondering how to use social media as a learning tool, here are a few ways to enhance your tutoring skills, connect with students, and create engaging, impactful learning experiences:
 

1. Start By Creating Your Profile

Social media allows you to communicate with your students on a personal level, hence they become more motivated and engaged. Below is how you can use these sites for your advantage:

• Create a Professional Online Presence: Create a profile through which your students can access your tutor services, news, and study materials. Share materials supplementing your lessons every now and then to engage with your students outside of class.
• Stay Connected: Use tools like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger to offer comments and answer questions in real time. This keeps the students engaged in between classes.
• Share Learning Materials: Provide learning tips, videos, and useful materials on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
• Promote Collaboration: Social networking facilitates students to share, ask, and discuss amongst themselves, developing a spirit of community and a collaborative learning atmosphere.

2. Utilize Private Profiles to Plan and Organize Your Lessons

One of the greatest challenges of tutoring is keeping lessons in order. Social media can be used to plan your lessons and make your resources readily available.

• Create Private Groups: You can use Facebook Groups or Google Classroom and post lesson plans, homework, and helpful resources to your students. That way, everything is in one place, and students can look up old lessons without a problem.
• Organize Your Resources: You can organize folders for specific subjects, assignments, and resources. This way, students will know where to look, what they are searching for and will not get lost.
• Post Regular Updates: Post regular updates to students regarding upcoming classes, exams, and assignments. Facebook and Twitter pages are excellent means of sending timely reminders.

3. Discuss with Students Beyond Classrooms

Social media can be used to extend learning outside of the classroom and to access your students throughout the day.

• Host Interactive Challenges: Invite students to engage in weekly challenges, i.e., vocabulary quizzes or short story writing prompts. It keeps students hooked and craving for more.
• Share Fun Learning Activities: Share on your Facebook page, or Instagram stories, language games, puzzles, and quizzes. Fun activities can reinforce what you taught your students in an unorthodox way.
• Answer Questions Promptly: Utilize social media to respond to questions from students in between lessons. This makes the learning experience interactive and makes the students feel motivated and guided.
• Make Student-Centered Content: Ask your students to let you know what subject or material they want to study. By getting them involved in the content creation process, they are more engaged with the learning process.

The more familiar you are with an Esl Certification, the better you will be at applying these methods for inspiring your students to succeed in and out of the classroom.
 

4. Host Live Sessions and Study Groups

Sometimes, a few extra minutes with each other can be a life-changer. Having online study sessions via Zoom, Instagram Live, or Facebook Live is an excellent method to offer your students extra help.

• Schedule Q&A Sessions: Provide students with a chance to ask questions in real-time. Live sessions offer students with a chance to get their doubts cleared, get extra explanations, and get a clear view of complicated topic areas.
• Study Groups: Organize study groups by which students can sit together, discuss, and work in groups. Social media has made it easy for students to interact and share information with one another.
• Host Virtual Office Hours: Encourage students to ‘drop by’ virtual office hours for individual assistance. Individual assistance of this sort can increase student satisfaction and improve learning performance.

By adding live sessions, you will give students rich opportunities to interact with you and with one another. Live sessions are an appropriate vehicle for delivering real-time feedback and for facilitating richer learning.
 

 

Best Practices for Using Social Media as a Tutor

Being a good online tutor involves having to be intentional and reflective in how you interact with your students. These are some best practices to follow:

• Establish Boundaries

Make sure to establish boundaries for communication with your students. For example, decide when you are available to respond to messages or posts and when you have to log off.

• Be Regular

Update your blog regularly to maintain the interest of your readers. Regularity is the secret to a loyal readership of students who know they can rely on you for guidance and support.

• Create Valuable Content

Provide value to your students by offering resources, tips, and advice that will enrich their English.

• Be Professional

Be professional in every instance when you are online. Your online image must reflect your qualifications and high standards as a tutor.

Bottom Line

Social media is not only for photo sharing and updates; it is also a very strong tool that can be employed to enhance your tutoring activities. For those teachers who are interested in learning more about their craft, earning an ESL Teaching Certificate is an excellent means of mastering the use of technology in the classroom. With proper guidance and strategies, tutors can use social media to make learning more engaging and helpful.