January Tutor/Mentor Tip

From Compliment to Confidence

I can live for two months on a good compliment.  - Mark Twain

Look for the opportunity to find a strength of your student and share it with them! Not just once, make this a campaign. Your student will feel good if you accurately point out one of their strengths, but Mark Twain is right.  A couple of months is nice, but what if you picked a strength and re-enforced it with your student? You move your student from getting a compliment to developing a stronger sense of self.  Think of how far your student will go when you turn this, “You stuck with it until you understood that math problem,” to this, “You always hang in there and stick with the problem until you figure it out.  You are a diligent person.” Compliments can turn into internal confidence if you deliver them with consistency!  Have fun, find your student’s strength and deliver it to them until it becomes a part of their identity!

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Maria Murphy writes a monthly Tutor/Mentor Coaching Tip for this site and has been a presenter for Cabrini Connection’s Tutor/Mentor Conference. She is a speaker, consultant and writer. The full article can be found on her blog column at http://simplyputtogether.blogspot.com/