Escape the Tutoring Trap: Be An Agent of Change -- A Revolutionary Math Coaching System to Create Student Transformations, Build a Business You Love, and Live a Life of Your Own Design

By Kohila Sivas

If you're a teacher or a tutor, this book will make you re-think and re-imagine your current paradigm.

You'll discover how to re-invent your approach to teaching or tutoring and the steps you can take to escape the status quo.

Our mission is to make a lasting impact in the lives of thousands of students and educator

• Language: English
• Publisher: Women Action Takers Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781734875973

Kohila Sivas

Kohila Sivas began tutoring math at the age of 17, just out of high school. With a degree in teaching, she entered the classroom, but found herself limited by a system that did not support the students or her goals as an educator. Kohila left the classroom over 10 years ago, supporting herself and her son, first as a math tutor and then as a coach. Since Kohila launched the Certification for Learning Success Coaches, she has been featured on numerous podcasts, written a bestselling book, Escape the Tutoring Trap, is preparing for her first TED Talk, and is the host of From Fear to Fearless.When she is not supporting her coaches and students, Kohila enjoys traveling and cooking with her husband and partner Rod, and of course doing math! Above all, Kohila believes family comes first and that business should be a tool for improving the lives of those you love most. That includes running a business that provides time flexibility, financial freedom, and joy. All inquiries for podcast appearances, video shows, and speaking can be sent to [e-mail].

Book preview

Introduction

We are never trapped unless we choose to be.

–Anais Nin

R you available to tutor my son Michael? He has an exam next week and we just found out he’s sitting at 46% but needs 86% to pass. I heard many good things about you from our friends. You tutor Chole and they said you can help Michael. Pls let me know if you can see him a few times before his exam next week. Thank you, Mandy ☺.

Desperate text from a desperate mom.

Maybe you’ve received a similar cry for help. This is how it can be when you are a tutor. You’re called to put out a raging house fire, but you’re given a bucket when what you need is a firehose.

There’s never enough time.

And it’s never enough.

It’s exhausting.

Parents think you have a magic pill, but they’re not aware of the extent of the problem. Instead of getting to the root of the problem, you end up only scratching the surface.

You’re forced to apply a BAND-AID® when surgery is required.

They’re looking for a quick fix.

They want cheap, fast, good.

It’s unrealistic.

For years, that was my life. I was exhausted, overworked and underpaid.

As a tutor, this could be the trap you’re in, too.

It’s what happened to me. I wanted to help all my students in a more meaningful, deeper way, but in the early years of my career, it just wasn’t possible.

Instead of creating and developing true understanding, I was too often trapped by lack of time, lack of money, lack of systems, lack of experience, lack of respect, lack of authority, and by unrealistic expectations. I wanted something better for all of my students.

To compensate, I worked harder. I stayed longer without charging and I gave free sessions. I got some good results, even some exceptional results, but not with ALL of my students. And that didn’t sit right with me.

As you know, students who struggle with math have different challenges. Each student is unique. It takes time to unravel and differentiate exactly what’s going on with a student and to discover what they need. Some are missing years of knowledge that was never learned, while others have limiting beliefs about math and their abilities. Only a few students who come for help are truly succeeding and just need help with a new concept.

For a student to succeed in math, only true understanding will take them to the next level. They need to master independence and self-directed learning, and to achieve that, you need to build confidence and motivation.

But the status quo works against the tutor. There are many forces at play. You’re trapped by the education system, the teachers, the parents, the students, and even by yourself.

I managed to break free from the trap and achieve my goals, and build a rewarding professional career.

Today, I want to share that journey with you and empower you with the tools necessary in order to achieve the same.

That’s what this book is about. How to create student transformations, build a business you love, and live a life of your own design.

Chapter One

The Paradigm Shift

We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.

–Albert Einstein

Iwas inspired to become a math teacher at an early age. In fact, I owe my life to math.

When I was six years old my family escaped the civil war in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Canada.

It was very sudden.

On the afternoon I said goodbye to my dear grandparents, I didn’t know why they cried. But they knew something I did not.

It would be our very last embrace.

My dad was determined to get us to safety. And he succeeded. I didn’t know the meaning of cold, but in Toronto I found out. It was like another planet. And we were the aliens. But this was more true than it sounds, because at that time in our neighborhood, people of colour were treated like invaders.

Shortly after our arrival in Canada my father began his drinking. Before we left Sri Lanka, his successful business had been burned to the ground, and he lost everything. It just broke him. He did