The Intentional Parent - Choosing a Tutor with Educational Consultant Jonathan McCowan

EPISODE SYNOPSIS
With the winter holidays over the kids are back at school and TIP is here to discuss how we, as parents, can help them achieve their educational goals. In order to do this, Greg and Tina have invited expert tutor and educational consultant Jonathan McCowan on to show us how best to enable our children and foster an environment of learning and achieving. Together they discuss a myriad of issues parents and students alike are facing and how best toovercome the obstacles to achieving success in todays schooling environment.

GUEST BIO
Jonathan McCowan is a father, career educator and the owner of 310 Tutors based in Santa Monica. Growing up in a family of teachers, it should be no surprise that he found himself being called to help kids learn. After graduating from UC Davis he decided to forego Law School and pursue tutoring full time. After nearly a decade and over a 1000 kids later, he has a wealth of knowledge and personal experience on what types of things parents can do to help their kids thrive and unlock the learning potential.

ADDITIONAL LINK, ETC.
www.310tutors.com
www.Kumon.com
http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/
http://www.kaplankids.com/
http://www.tutor.com/
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Finding a tutor
http://parentingteens.about.com/od/education/ht/findatutor.htm

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00 Intro: Back from theholidays.
06:55 Intro: Jonathan McCowan.
08:33 What is 310 Tutors and how did you get into this line of work?
10:17 What service are you providing that is different to the other types of support out there?
11:52 Your teaching more than just the material, right?
13:40 What makes a good tutor?
15:40 How often should students get tutored?
16:57 How do parents know when or if their kids need tutoring?
18:25 How do you overcome resistance when kids don't want to be there?
20:00 How many of your students go to private vs public schools?
23:05 What do you think of using media for learning (eg: sesamestreet, leap frog, etc.)? And does this medium only apply to certain age groups?
28:00 What age groups do you see in most need of assistance?
26:40 What should parents not do, or do, in order to help kids learn and have success in school?
28:00 Standardized testing, cramming, and staying up to parwith grade standards.
30:20 Do you work with children who are gifted and aren't getting enough stimulation in school?
31:00 Kids are under a lot of pressure to do well. What are your thoughts on the culture of hyper-achievement?
34:30 What do you think about resources for parents who are proactivein educating their kids?
39:15 Some different resources for parents to help educate their kids.
42:00 Teaching our kids tips on how to improve their concentration, studying and learning.
47:00 What kind of obstacles do you see in education that need to change?
48:15 Wrap Up.