This is a guest blog post written by Anna Kellner, a Biology and Science tutor on MyTutor who has spent the last 3 years on the site gaining experience with managing her anxiety and social anxiety.
Heart racing in anticipation of the lesson ‘ding’? Worrying your lessons won’t be good enough, or you’ll embarrass yourself? These are all thoughts I’ve had while tutoring with anxiety, and I’m here to share some tips that have helped me deal with them. Anxiety-related conditions are really common, and it’s also totally normal to be anxious about tutoring, whether it is your first lesson or you’re a seasoned pro.
Scheduling
Anticipatory anxiety is real, and sometimes a lesson at 5pm has meant I spend hours worrying about or over-preparing for it. Scheduling lessons in the morning is one way to avoid this, but this isn’t always possible. Proper scheduling can also be good for our anxious minds, as we can compartmentalise tutoring to reduce stress around surprises.
Here are some tips on how to schedule:
• Prepare lessons the night before and not on the day to avoid unnecessary over-preparation.
• Dedicate one or two evenings a week to tutoring rather than having lessons spread out over the week (time-blocking can help give your mind a break).
• Have several lessons in a row; a block of lessons can mean you’re kept in ‘tutoring mode’, and then you can move on with the rest of your life without waiting anxiety.
• Leave five to fifteen minutes in between lessons to breathe, grab a drink and prepare.
• Keep weekends free; chances are your weeks are pretty packed if you’re a student. Having time off during the weekend is a great way to reset and recharge – a necessity with anxiety.
Preparation
So you’ve scheduled your sessions, and now you need to prepare for them!
Here’s how you can manage your prep-anxiety:
• New tutors – preparing for your first lesson can be stressful! I wondered if my materials were enough to last the hour, or if I was good enough to answer questions students had. Remember, this is totally normal! It may help to reread the material you’re going to cover and try a couple of bitesize questions. You can also pre-prepare worked examples of past paper questions, so you’re not put on the spot during a lesson.
• Preparing enough is a great way to ease anxiety and I find that having a structure (like a presentation on PowerPoint) is really useful, as you can fall back on it if you freeze in the moment.
• Plan each lesson, and take notes in lessons to stop the anxiety of being underprepared for the next one.
• Don’t overdo it! I myself am guilty of really going overboard with lesson preparation, which can be an epic time sap. Try avoiding it by time-blocking and setting yourself limits for when you prepare for lessons.
Lessons
And now it’s showtime – as your lesson approaches, it’s normal for your feeling of anxiety to rise.
Here’s how you can keep on top of it during your session:
• If small talk is hard for you, have a few key questions to ease you and your students into the lesson. To break the ice try: “How’s your day been so far?”, “What was your favourite subject today?” or “What are your plans for the weekend?”
• Slow down when you talk. If you’re struggling to catch your breath, it probably means you’re speaking too fast. Remember – moments of silence don’t always need to be filled.
• Reframe the situation; remember, your students are likely to be quite anxious too. Your job is to make the lesson comfortable for both of you (plus, they won’t notice your nerves because they’ll be too busy trying to answer your quiz questions!).
• If you make a mistake in a lesson or can’t remember the answer to a student’s questions, there is absolutely no shame in admitting that to them or looking it up. You can’t know everything and it will help your students to relate to you and remind them you’re only human.
Take care
Self-care might sound a little cliché, but it’s vital to look after your mental health.
• Make sure you are fuelling yourself properly, giving yourself enough time to rest and get some time outside. Find out what helps you calm down whether that is journaling, exercise or screaming into the wind…
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques are a great way to deal with anxiety. You can find great resources online or see a counsellor or therapist to help you with this.
Remember – the more you expose yourself to a situation, the less scary it becomes. The first few lessons are the hardest but practice makes perfect and you’ll soon learn what works best for you. Tutoring has helped me massively with my confidence, public speaking and social anxiety, so hopefully my tips have helped give you some ways of managing anxiety while tutoring. Just remember you are doing the best you can, and your students are so lucky to have someone like you sharing your knowledge and helping them!
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach us on tutors@mytutor.co.uk or 0203 773 6024.