The Seattle Tutoring Coalition sponsors and organizes several tutor training events each year

Refresh your skills to make a greater impact on your students!

All of our trainings are FREE and open to the public. These training events are an opportunity for anyone (tutors, parents, and youth workers alike) who is tutoring a child or youth to learn new skills and acquire new tools and resources.

Our training year kicks off with the All City Tutor Training in October, with a variety of workshops offered at the event. Subjects typically covered include: reading, math, orientation, creative behavior management, learning styles, cultural competency, and student motivation.

Throughout the year, we host STC Presents trainings on weeknights to encourage deeper learning and continuous professional development in the areas our tutors tell us they most need support.

2019-2020 STC professional development calendar:

All City Tutor Training - Saturday, October 19th 2019, 9:00AM-1:30PM at the Downtown Branch of the Seattle Public Library (Registration coming soon)

9:00-10:00 Keynote: Be Water, My Friend - Presented by Jondou Chen
Educational justice asks us to consider our individual potential in recognizing and resisting the systems of oppression that impact each and all of us. And while many of us agree with this charge, we can often feel overwhelmed, underprepared, or unsure of ourselves in day-to-day and person-to-person interactions. This session will provide two visualizing practices - water and nests/cages - to move us through these emotions to a place of self-understanding and systems analysis at the interpersonal level. How would you use water to describe how talking about race and racism make you feel? How would you describe what parts of your identities are a nest for you that makes you feel whole and well? How would you describe what parts of your identities are a cage for you that makes you feel trapped or excluded? What agency do you feel in each of these questions to shift your answer across time? What does it mean to have similar or different answers from other people? It is in building our metacognitive and relational capacities for educational justice that we then grow the capacity to support necessary broader structural and social change.

10:15am-11:45am and 12:00-1:30 Breakout Sessions:
The Power of a Good Question - Presented by Roberto Ascalon (offered during both sessions)
According to Juanita Brown of the World Cafe dialogue method, a good question "generates energy, opens up possibilities, it invites deeper exploration... it has some personal connection, it invites a variety of voices, it creates a certain tension, a certain dissonance between one’s current understanding and something bigger". In that spirit, this workshop will integrate art and interactive arts facilitation to explore how tutors might use questions as not only an educational framework but a tool to foster healthy communication & develop supportive personal relationships with youth while simultaneously making space for critical moments of self-reflection around equity.

Mindset Matters - Presented by Faith Eakin (offered during both sessions)
Mindset is the lens through which we navigate life. Our mindset, constantly swinging between growth and fixed, directly influences many of the big and small decisions that we make daily. How has your mindset shaped who you are today? How does your mindset affect your own learning and how you share learning with your students? Join us as we explore how a steady routine of mindset, movement, and mindfulness can foster a community of happy and healthy young learners AND the adults in their lives.

Tutoring 101: Making Connections to Support Students Effectively - Presented by Liz Ryan (offered during both sessions)
In this session, we’ll talk about the basics of what typically makes a great tutor for anyone who has just begun working with students or would like a refresher! We will review some important rules to follow, discuss strategies for relationship building, and work through some scenarios together. There will also be plenty of time for Q&A and you’ll leave with a clear plan to start the year off strong.

Helping Elementary School Students Make Sense of Math - Presented by Jim Meyer (offered during session A, 10:15-11:45 am)
In this workshop tutors will learn directly from the Seattle Public School's Math Department Curriculum Specialist about the instructional routines in elementary school, how elementary school students are learning math (including decomposing numbers and alternative algorithms), and about the development of a mathematical identity at a young age.

Helping Middle School Students Make Sense of Math - Presented by Jim Meyer (offered during session B, 12:00-1:30 pm)
In this workshop tutors will learn directly from the Seattle Public School's Math Department Curriculum Specialist about the how middle school students are experiencing math instruction, representations for how to model and make sense of problems, and how to support students’ sense-making and growth mindset through questioning.

STC Presents trainings to be announced in the Winter!

Free professional development opportunities are also offered by Seattle Public Schools and School’s Out Washington.

Have a suggestion for a future workshop or training?