Starting tutoring is a wonderful experience; you need to have a few essential teaching materials to become productive and effective.
If you are wondering, “What materials do I need for tutoring?” this article will help you understand the necessity of some teaching materials you must have while tutoring.
No matter, if you are a home tutor or teaching in a school or private classes, all the materials that I will discuss, will help you with your tutoring.
I am not sure whether you are teaching online or offline. Therefore, I will suggest essential materials or equipment required for both scenarios.
What Materials Do I Need For Tutoring?
The first criteria for deciding the teaching materials to buy is the mode of tutoring. If you are teaching students in person, your requirements will be different from online tutoring.
However, some materials will be common for both types of tutoring.
Let us start with offline tutoring.
Materials required for offline tutoring
Offline tutoring means,
- Teaching students from your home (Group tuition or personal tuition)
- Teaching students at their home (Group tuition or individual tuition)
- Teaching in tuition classes or coaching classes
- Teaching in schools (Private or government)
However, tutoring is better defined as private teaching. So I will only consider private teaching or private tutoring here and suggest you the materials required for tutoring.
Getting students to teach is more important than buying teaching material. If you are too struggling to get students, you can use this simple and powerful strategy to get your first 10 students as quickly as possible.
Materials Required For Tutoring From Home
Whiteboard:
Whiteboard is a very basic and essential teaching material for you. You should buy a good whiteboard even if you have only one student.
Different sizes of whiteboards are available online. You can also buy it from a local shop, but you will only get a few choices.
You should go with medium size whiteboard because, if you buy a small one, and when you have more students, you won’t be able to write or explain in that small space.
You will also need different color whiteboard markers and a duster. When I started teaching from home, I used to teach students on a whiteboard, and till today, I love using a whiteboard, but now it is full-size like a school blackboard.
If you don’t have a whiteboard, you will have to write in either your notebook or the student’s notebook, which is a time-consuming task.
It is a very tedious activity to write in every student’s notebook. With the help of a whiteboard, you can save time in repetitive activities and focus on important things.
Here is my favorite whiteboard 2×3 feet size in case you want to buy one for yourself.
Stationery set:
Stationary helps teach students with ease. In fact, stationary materials are very cheap, and you should always have adequate and appropriate stationary ready with you while tutoring.
Some of the stationary materials that you should consider buying are mentioned below:
Pens and pencils:
You will need additional pens and pencils apart from your stock because many students forget to bring them to the tuition, and they will waste your time if you don’t have spare ones.
Sketch pens:
Sketch pens should be part of your teaching to help students understand different things visually. It would be best if you used sketch pens to explain various things with different colors so that students will learn better and faster.
Visual teaching is very important. Sketch pens are cheap, but the advantage is priceless.
A4 size papers and rough notebooks:
A4 size papers are not costly, and I recommend buying one bunch. You will need that in day-to-day teaching.
Also, keeping a couple of rough books will help you to make notes during teaching.
Printer:
Today, many schools send PDFs and Word files for the work to be done. The parents will send you the same PDF and Word files every time!
And, to read from your cell phone will be time-consuming and not convenient at all. So, if you can afford a small printer, trust me, your burden will be less.
However, you should not make a habit of printing everything that students bring to you. Print only what YOU need, NOT students if it is not related to your tuition.
You can also utilize that printer for you and your family. I suggest this awesome and affordable HP color printer in case you want to check out more details.
Textbooks:
Always buy one set of textbooks for all the standards you are teaching. You can buy second-hand books, which is absolutely okay if the syllabus hasn’t changed.
This will help you prepare in advance before any tutoring session. You don’t need to depend on any student’s book.
Study chairs:
If the students are not comfortable sitting on the floor, you can buy a few plastic chairs if you have more than five students.
And, if you are teaching only one student at a time, you should buy a couple of study chairs with writing pads for comfortable teaching and learning experience.
Study table:
You can use your existing study table if you have one or can buy a good quality study table that your family can also use.
The study table is not only for students, but when you prepare something for your students, it will help you stay focused because of your comfort level.
Sufficient lighting:
Always ensure that the illumination(lighting) is up to the mark. Clean the tube lights frequently; if they are old, replace them with LED tube lights for better illumination and power saving.
Low light will distract you and the students as well. Similarly, check the ceiling fan and air conditioner for proper working.
Picture Books:
If you are teaching young students, picture book sets are fundamental. You can easily engage young students with pictures and teach effectively.
The more you have visual things to explain, the better their understanding will be. And your end goal is to teach students effectively. Isn’t it?
Science project kits:
Let us say you are teaching science subjects to the students. A one-time investment in science project kits will help you make your students quickly understand the concepts.
I have been in private tutoring for more than ten years, and I can say that if you add this type of value to your tutoring, you will get more students and become the most trusted and highly reputed private tutor in your location.
These kits are relatively inexpensive, and you can use them again and again.
Miscellaneous items:
Apart from the above material, you should consider the following materials for tutoring.
- File folder
- Sharpeners & erasers
- Tape
- Stapler
- Highlighter
- Paper clip
- Permanent marker
- Punching machine etc.
Note: If you are visiting a student’s home for tutoring, you must carry a professional bag to accommodate your personal and essential items.
Materials Required For Online Tutoring
When you first time think about online teaching, below is the first question that you have.
What materials do I need for tutoring online?
Right?
Don’t worry. I will show you the bare minimum list of materials or equipment that you will need for online tutoring.
Laptop:
Many people suggest choosing between desktop computers and laptops. However, I recommend you go with laptops only.
The reason is, working or teaching from a laptop is flexible, and you can teach your students from almost anywhere. On a desktop computer, you will have less flexibility and stick to one place.
I knew this when during covid, I was used to teaching students at my home. It was too boring to sit in one place with the same posture.
Now you might have a question, which is the best laptop to buy for online teaching?
You might search the similar question on the internet, but I am recommending the best three laptops that my teaching staff and I use, and they are just perfect.
If you don’t have a laptop, here is my handpicked HP laptop for online tutoring available on Amazon. This laptop is well under budget and has all the features you will need.
You can choose according to your budget and choice, but the above HP Laptop I am using and recommend.
Digital writing pad:
A digital writing pad is as important as a laptop because, without a digital writing pad, how will you explain to your students through sketches, diagrams, drawings, etc.?
If you are thinking of teaching students from your smartphone, let me tell you that it won’t help students, and you will lose tuition students every month. Even a tablet is not enough for online teaching.
I am using XP-Pen digital writing pad for online teaching if you would like to look at the specifications on Amazon.
Alternatively, you can read my article on the best digital writing pad for online teaching in India and get more ideas.
Headset with microphone:
Why do you need a headset or earphones with a microphone?
You have to interact with students. As a tutor, you are not going to speak only; you have to listen also. And listening is more important than speaking itself.
If you can’t hear your students properly, you can’t deliver your best to make them understand. At the end of the tutoring session, you and your students will mess up everything.
A good quality headset with a microphone will save you a lot of time and energy. Here is my favorite and most affordable headset with a microphone for online tutors that you can buy from Amazon.
Note: If you want to teach online, a laptop, digital writing pad, and headset with a microphone are a must-have. Without this, you can’t become a good online tutor.
A stable internet connection:
Can you imagine doing anything without the internet as far as online teaching is concerned?
If I want to teach online, I can’t do anything without the Internet. No matter how costly your other equipment is, they are all useless without a stable internet connection.
Always have a secure and stable internet connection for online tutoring. A minimum of 40mbps internet speed is essential.
Teaching software, program, or system:
There are lots of free and paid resources available to teach online. I highly recommend you start with free platforms like Google Classroom, zoom to save money at the beginning.
Once you start making decent money, you can switch to Microsoft, teachable, etc.
Are you ready to get lots of students for tutoring? Click here to learn the complete roadmap.
FAQs:
How do I prepare for tutoring?
You need to work on many areas if you are preparing for the tutoring profession. If you want a detailed guide on starting tutoring services, you should read my in-depth guide on starting tutoring.
Should I invest in buying teaching material for tutors when I am just starting?
No. You should not buy expensive materials when you start tutoring but as soon as you get a few students, you must switch to the required teaching materials. However you can start with basic things, but it purely depends on the mode of your tutoring.
Offline tutoring does not need much investment initially, whereas online tutoring requires an upfront investment.
Once you have more students, the above situation gets reversed. You have to invest to accommodate many students if you are an offline tutor, whereas your initial investment is almost more than sufficient for online tutoring.
Conclusion:
I hope by this article, you have a fair idea of which equipment is required for online tutoring, and there will be no doubt like, what materials do I need for tutoring if you are reading this.
All the recommended materials mentioned in this article are from my experience being an offline and online tutor for many years.
Even before the covid, I used to conduct special classes online, so I am well aware of the online and offline teaching materials.