Our Tutor Handbook is also available as a PDF Download .

2008-2009 Tutor Handbook

Welcome to Cornerstone Tutorial, Inc. Cornerstone is a Christian, non-denominational, tutorial service, providing assistance to families homeschooling through high school by providing tutors for academic needs. Tutors are working for the parents of the students; Cornerstone provides the framework for this relationship. In operation since September of 1996, Cornerstone is providing tutors for approximately 110 students.

Cornerstone students are high school students ranging in age from 14 to 18. In some cases, 13 year olds may be allowed to register for a class.

Cornerstone meets weekly on Mondays between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM at Severna Park Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 110 Ritchie Highway, Severna Park, MD.

The purpose of this booklet is to provide answers for tutors and prospective tutors.

Information for Prospective Tutors

I’m interested in teaching at Cornerstone. What do I do?

If you are interested in teaching a class at Cornerstone, the place to start is the Tutor Liaison. This person is responsible not only for communication between the Board and the tutors, but also for locating tutors to teach classes. The Cornerstone Board put together the class schedule starting in February for the following academic year, so it is never too early to contact the Tutor Liaison.

In addition to the tutor liaison, the Cornerstone website contains plenty of information. (www.cornerstonetutorial.org)

What are your requirements for tutors?

Tutors must exhibit expertise in their subject area, be able to express evidence of an active Christian faith, and have a willingness to work with homeschooling families, both parents and students.

Prospective tutors are required to interview with Board members before being accepted as a tutor for Cornerstone.

How will I get paid?

Each year the board determines the fee students must pay for each class they attend. For the 2006-2007 school year, students were charged $290 for each full year class (1 ½ hours in length) at Cornerstone. Students were charged $325 for science classes that are 2 hours in length. This fee is collected at Registration. On the first day of each semester, tutors are paid half the fee amount from each student. For example, in September 2006 and January of 2007 a tutor would receive $145 ( ½ of $290) for each student in her class. In the case of one-semester classes, the payment is only paid once and consists of the full fee.

Taxes

Cornerstone does not take taxes out of each tutor’s payment. You will be issued a form 1099-MISC in the beginning of the calendar year that you can use to report your income.

Who is in charge?

Tutors are in charge of the classroom. Students are required to be respectful of the tutors’ authority at all times.

The Board of Directors exists to oversee the operation of Cornerstone. If a problem or conflict between a student or a parent and a tutor cannot be resolved, the board may be called in to help settle the problem.

The tutor may set the recommended age range for each class. The tutor may also request sample work to determine if the student is indeed ready for a particular class.

Tutors determine which textbooks and materials are necessary for the students to purchase. Tutors purchase their own textbooks/manuals for their personal use. You might want to consult a tax professional to determine if any expenses are deductible business expenses.

I’ve been hired. Now what?

After confirmation from the Board that you have been hired, please complete the following:

• Sign a tutor agreement form and return it to the tutor liaison.
• Compose a personal biography to post on the Cornerstone website. You should include information regarding your education, experience, and any interests/facts that students or parents might find interesting.
• Develop a course description for your class to post on the Cornerstone website. The course description should include a list of any textbooks or other materials that you will require your students to purchase. If the books are older editions, please be sure to make that clear, and be sure that they are still available for purchase. You may require materials such as solutions keys, test booklets, or answer keys. If you plan to purchase the materials for the class and have the students reimburse you, please make that clear. Remember that you are the tutor and the parent is the teacher. You can ask them to correct daily work if you wish.
• Develop a class syllabus. It will be helpful to parents if you have a class syllabus available at “Back to Cornerstone” night in the fall. Include a tentative schedule of assignments, as well as information on how you prefer to be contacted.

Information for Current Tutors

Expectations

Tutors are expected to

• Attend “Back to Cornerstone Night” in the fall. At this meeting, parents will walk through their child’s schedule. You may decide to distribute assignments at this meeting that will be due at the first class meeting.
• Keep parents informed of student progress. Return Graded assignments promptly. You must provide two written evaluations each year, one at the end of each semester. If you wish, you may provide evaluations more frequently.
• Arrive on time and provide enough material to fill the 90-minute class period. Please do not excuse the students early.
• Attend “Meet the Tutor” in the spring. At this meeting, each tutor presents a short summary of his course for the following year. Parents and students visit with the tutors and ask questions about the courses.

In addition to the above, the Board invites all tutors to a brunch. This is not mandatory, but it is our way of thanking you. It is a wonderful opportunity for the Board and the tutors to meet and discuss important issues.

The tutors also have a “Post Mortem” at the end of the year to brainstorm ways to improve things. Once again, this is not mandatory, but it is useful to all who attend.

Communication with Students

Cornerstone strongly encourages you to use email to communicate with your students and their parents. Weekly assignments can be sent out via email.

Cornerstone provides an email address for parents and students to contact each tutor in the form of “tutor@ cornerstonetutorial.org”. This email address is set up so that all email sent to this address is forwarded to your regular email address. If you would rather have your email address set up as a POP account, please contact the Gordons. With a POP account, your email program would download the email directly from the Cornerstone server. This allows you to set up a separate email address to handle Cornerstone business in your email program. If you would like help in doing this, please contact the Gordons.

As described below, you may use the Cornerstone website to post assignments, tests, or other communication.

Cornerstone also maintains “Mail Folders”. In the Study Hall area, you will find a file box filled with file folders. There is one folder for each Cornerstone family as well as a folder for each tutor. You will need to check your folder each week. You may place any correspondence with students or parents in this folder. Encourage students to check their folder and see that the correspondence gets home.

Cornerstone Website

Cornerstone maintains a website. This is the first point of contact for many prospective students. Each tutor is introduced on the website. Please be sure that this information is accurate each year.

Class descriptions are also listed on the website. As a tutor, you need to be sure that the class description is accurate and contains all the pertinent textbook information. If you desire any changes, please send them to webmaster@cornerstonetutorial.org before March 15 th for the following academic year.

To post class assignments or other materials to the website, email the assignments as attachments to webmaster@cornerstonetutorial.org. Please try to send your assignments by Tuesday morning at 9 A.M. so they will be available to the students early in the week.

You may send attachments to the Webmaster as either Word Documents (.doc) or as Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf).

The disadvantage of Word Documents is that some students may not have Word available to them. The advantage to this format is that most students can download the document and modify it. For example, students could use their computer to answer questions on a test making them easy to read.

The PDF format cannot be changed by the person who downloads it. They can print it out easily. Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free program available from Adobe that allows people with different operating systems (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) to all read the same file. Documents from Excel may also be converted to PDF format.

Because PDF documents are so easy to read and print with Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), all posts to the website are converted to this format unless you request that they be kept as Word documents (.doc).

It is also possible to create a class reference page where you can post links that might be helpful to students. Send a list of the links you would like on your class page webmaster@cornerstonetutorial.org to have such a page constructed.

Copies

Cornerstone does not have a copy machine. We encourage you to post any assignments that need to be handed out on the Cornerstone website so that students may print them out. Since many tutors find the need to make copies for different reasons, the board will give each tutor you $1.50 per student/per semester for copies and other miscellaneous expenses.

If you know that you will need to make an unusual number of copies, inform the parents that you will need to collect a copy fee to cover the costs.

Lab fees

Some classes require a lab. Lab fees are collected from the students at registration. The tutor purchases necessary lab materials and submits receipts to the treasurer for reimbursement. If this creates a financial hardship, please contact the treasurer who can arrange to give you the money before you place the order.

If you find that you need to purchase materials that exceed the lab fee, please contact the board before spending the money. They will vote on the expenditure.

Field Trips

You may arrange Field trips for your class. Because Cornerstone meets only one day per week, you must schedule field trips for another day of the week so that students will not miss other classes. Tutors are welcome to enlist the aid of parents in planning and contacting students for fieldtrips.

Substitutes

If you must miss a tutoring session, attempt to find a qualified substitute. If you cannot, you may schedule a make-up session to compensate for the missed session. Lunchtime or any other mutually acceptable alternate period may be used.

Extra Tutoring

As a tutor, you establish times when students may call for help with problem areas. If a student needs additional instructional time beyond what Cornerstone provides, the parent and the tutor may arrange for private tutoring at additional cost.

Discipline

Tutors are in charge of the classroom. In the case of unacceptable behavior, the Board supports the following process:

• First the tutor attempts to correct the individual privately regarding the inappropriate behavior.
• If the behavior continues, the tutor calls upon the parents or guardians to correct the individual regarding the inappropriate behavior.
• The Board intervenes if the first two steps fail to correct the inappropriate behavior. If the situation warrants, the Board may expel the student from the tutorial session, or from Cornerstone.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is unacceptable. You should notify the board of any instances of plagiarism or other illegal activity.

Dress Code

Tutors should dress in a manner that will encourage appropriate respect from students.

We appreciate your assistance in enforcing the student dress code. If you believe a student is in violation of the Cornerstone dress code, please feel free to address the student or alert a board member about the infraction.

The dress code for students states: “From shoulders to mid-thigh, neither students’ bodies nor their underwear shall be visible. Girls – no tube tops, halter tops, spaghetti strap tops, bare midriffs, and no cleavage showing. Boys – no falling-down pants. No hats indoors. Clothing with a message inconsistent with the Cornerstone statement of faith is inappropriate and is not permitted.”

Classroom Supplies

Cornerstone provides basic classroom supplies such as chalk, chalk holders, erasers, and white board markers. If your supply box is missing items, or is running low, please contact the building coordinator or the tutor liaison.

Snow Days

Cornerstone follows Anne Arundel County public school closure policy in the even of inclement weather or other emergency, but Cornerstone opens on time if there is only delayed opening for Anne Arundel County public schools. If public schools close early due to weather, Cornerstone will close at 1:30. Information concerning closures is posted on the web site by 7 AM.

Babysitting

There are tutors with small children. In the past, the tutors have worked together to see that there is someone available to watch the children and shared the cost. If you have a child who needs care while you are teaching, contact the tutor liaison and she will put you in touch with the tutors who are in the same situation. There is a room available for childcare while you are at Cornerstone.

Use of the SPEP Building

If you need to access the building at a time other than the regular Cornerstone time, this must be set up with the building coordinator. The SPEP building is used by the church as well as other Christian groups, and is not always available.

If you wish to use the building for your class, this too needs to be cleared with the building coordinator. Use of the building does not include use of the sound system or use of the kitchen. Special arrangements will need to be made in advance if you require sound or kitchen access.