Tutoring Policy

Below you will find my tutoring policy. By scheduling or otherwise participating in a tutoring session with me you are agreeing to abide by this policy. If you choose not to abide by this policy I reserve the right to terminate your session and possibly prevent you from scheduling new sessions with me:


Payment:

You are not required to pay me anything monetarily for your tutoring session. However, since many of my students prefer to pay me, I make that potion available to them within 7 days of their tutoring session. My payment system accepts PayPal and debit/cred cards. If you feel you would like a refund, please email me promptly and I will issue you a refund.


Student Code of Conduct:

Unless you are under the age of 18, I generally expect you to conduct yourself in an adult/professional manner. Thus, I reserve the right to terminate your session and/or prevent you from scheduling new sessions with me if any of the following circumstances arise while you are in a tutoring session with me:

  • You ask me to help you while you take an exam/test/quiz or any other type of assessment.

  • You ask me to take an action that would violate academic integrity standards or your institution's code of conduct.

  • You display sexually explicit content or expose normally covered parts of your body.

  • You ask me to send you sexually explicit images or expose any part of my body that is normally covered.

  • You attempt to perform or ask me to preform any kind of sexual act.

  • You continually express profound dislike for the subject in which I am tutoring you and/or consistently refuse to take advice from me.

  • You direct abusive, fowl, derogatory, racist, defamatory, or otherwise harsh language towards me or your instructor.

  • You consistently expect me to do the problem for you rather than leading you through the problem using the Socratic method.

  • You direct threats or otherwise harsh language towards any other person, entity, organization, government, political party, or group of people.

  • You appear to be under the influence of a mind-altering substance.

  • You join the session from within a moving vehicle or while using any other mode of transportation.

  • You break any law that applies to you at any point during the session.

  • You join the session while doing another task.

  • You join the session from an excessively noisy environment.

  • You deliberately yell or shout into your microphone unnecessarily.

  • You ask me for assistance in conducting an illegal, unethical, and/or covert activity.

  • You ask me to become your business partner.

  • You attempt to use high-pressure sales tactics to sell me something.

  • You attempt to gain access to any of my internet-based systems or websites without my permission.

  • You attempt to assert authority over me, my tutoring business, or any of my online systems.

  • You conduct yourself in a manner that makes me feel threatened, uncomfortable, or frustrated.

  • You refuse to sufficiently remedy any circumstance that interferes with my ability to tutor you.

  • You expect me to know the applicable subject at a depth that is beyond what is humanly possible.

  • You expect me to ensure that you receive a particular grade in your course.

If you are under the age of 18, I will still expect reasonable behavior for your age. If behavioral issues should arise, I will ask to discuss the mater with your parent or legal guardian. If you refuse to allow me to speak with them, I reserve the right to terminate your session and/or prevent you from scheduling new sessions with me.

Also please be aware that I generally work with students who are at least 14 years old. Thus, I may not be well suited for tutoring younger students. If you need tutoring and are under 18 please discuss this with your parent or legal guardian before scheduling an appointment with me.

Furthermore, by agreeing to be bound by this agreement you are agreeing that you remain fully responsible for satisfactorily completing the applicable coursework, taking the required exams & quizzes, submitting all the applicable assignments by their due dates, attending class, and satisfactorily completing all other required activities necessary to complete your course as outlined by your instructor. You further agree not to hold me responsible for ensuring that you receive a particular grade in your course. You remain fully responsible for earning the grade that you desire.

Please also be aware that I may report your actions to the applicable government agency or school if I feel that you may be a threat to yourself or others.


Emergencies During Your Session:

If an emergency situation should arise during your session, regardless of whether that emergency is on my end or on your end, it will immediately take precedence over the tutoring session. If/when it is possible and safe for both parties to make contact again, that should be done. If you wish to be refunded for the session I am usually willing to do so in such cases. If you become incapacitated during your tutoring session I will always attempt to contact the applicable authorities if possible. However, since I am unlikely to know where you live, this is likely to be impossible. Thus, it remains your responsibility to call the applicable emergency number if you are having a medical emergency. Furthermore, if you are prone to medical emergencies, please consider giving me your home address and perhaps any applicable phone number for your local emergency personnel. That way, I will have it in case I need it.

Attendance & Scheduling:

Once you have scheduled a session with me and received an email with the link to your session, I expect you to connect with me within 10 minutes. If you are unable to do this, and do not alert me that you are having trouble, I will assume that I am free to do other things with that time.

If you find that you need more time than what you have scheduled, or you entered the session late, I will generally allow you to have more time with me unless I have another session, or other responsibility, scheduled right after your session. In such cases I must be punctual and head out at the scheduled end time of your session.

If I am unable to attend a session that you scheduled with me, I will do everything in my power to alert you to this within a reasonable time frame. If I am unable to alert you beforehand, please assume that I am unable to do so because of extenuating circumstances such as a hospital visit, death, jury duty, etc...


Tutoring Style:

My tutoring style is best described as loosely based around the Socratic method. This means that I generally ask leading questions and use these leading questions to guide students through problems. I am also generally willing to answer any questions that my students simply can't answer, but I aim to lead them to the answers themselves through the use of leading questions. I find that most students generally get more out of my sessions by using this methodology. However, not every student finds this methodology satisfactory. I generally aim to accommodate all students and learning styles. However, I am bounded by the academic integrity requirement to avoid giving you the answer or doing the work for you. Thus, if we are unable to find a tutoring style that meets your needs, you may need to find a different tutor. In this case, I will issue you a refund for your most recent tutoring session.


Disabilities:

I have worked hard to make my online tutoring systems as accessible as possible and welcome all students regardless of their physical abilities. However, there are some inherent requirements that cannot be avoided in order for me to be able to tutor you. At a bare minimum you will need the following abilities in order to be able to interact with me. If any of these requirements present a problem for you, I am generally very open to you having a translator and/or assistant with you in your tutoring session to help you as needed:

  • The ability to see, read, and interpret handwritten numbers and math symbols from a live video feed of my screen.

  • The ability to hear questions that I ask.

  • The ability to respond to those questions audibly.

  • The ability to interact with a computer, type, and email questions/images/text/code to me.

Unfortunately, I am unable to help you solve math problems purely through email or purely through the text/chat functionality of the tutoring session. Understanding math fundamentally requires the ability to interpret mathematical characters and graphs, and these generally do not translate well through a purely text-based communication medium.


Countries Served:

While I generally focus on students who need help with college courses in the United States, I am open to tutoring any student from any country with a similar education system who has a sufficient grasp of the English language. A loose list of the countries that I am willing to serve, (in no particular order), might include:

  • United States

  • Canada

  • Australia

  • United Kingdom

  • New Zealand

  • India

  • Denmark

  • Finland

  • Iceland

  • Norway

  • Sweden

  • Greenland

Keep in mind though that the timezone in which you live may limit your ability to schedule a session with me. If you live quite far east or west of Arizona, I may only be available in the middle of the night for you.


Updates to This Policy, Dispute Resolution & Other Terms:

By scheduling or otherwise participating in a tutoring session with me you are agreeing that I shall not be held responsible for any consequential, incidental, indirect, exemplary, punitive, special or other damages relating to any lithium battery fires that occur during your session with me. It is your responsibility to connect with me on a device that is capable of handling the applicable computing requirements and monitoring the device during your session for any signs of battery failure.

I reserve the right to update this tutoring policy at any time without notice.

All claims and disputes arising under or relating to this tutoring policy are to be settled by binding arbitration in the state of Arizona or another location mutually agreeable to the parties. An award of arbitration may be confirmed in a court of competent jurisdiction.

If any part of this tutoring policy is deemed unenforceable, the remainder of this policy shall remain in force to the maximum extent allowable under the applicable law.