The best resources for online tutors
No matter the subject a tutor specializes in, there are many resources available to utilize during their live sessions. This blog explores resources for tutors to capitalize on during 1:1 sessions to improve overall session engagement and comprehension.
No tutor should feel the need to reinvent the wheel—no matter which subject you specialize in, there are resources available to help you teach it.
Being the best mentor to your students doesn’t mean you have to know everything. It means you care enough to learn more about them and what they need to know to succeed.
Below, you’ll find a tutor resource round-up categorized by subject to help you provide the best guidance to your students.
Math resources
Some students may find math concepts hard to grasp or incomprehensible. As a math tutor, your responsibility is to make the math concepts easier to understand by putting them into relatable and interesting situations.
Math is a subject that gets easier and easier the more it's practiced, so take advantage of free worksheets and online games found at these online tutoring resources:
- For oodles of free math worksheets, games, and puzzles, check out Math Goodies. Math Goodies helps out students (and their tutors) in K-12. It covers everything from basic math to precalculus.
- You can find more engaging math worksheets for grades K-12 at abcteach. You can even create custom worksheets to suit your exact needs.
- Fun Brain's Math Zone offers entertaining math games for the K-5 crowd. Games such as Bumble Numbers and MathCar Racing engage your younger students, so they can practice math while doing something they enjoy.
Science resources
Explore the world with your students using exciting science resources for tutors, such as videos about black holes in the universe, printable coloring activities, and quick and easy STEM projects:
- The National Science Foundation offers diverse classroom resources arranged by subject area. Find the topic you’re studying, and use the videos, worksheets, lesson plans, and other helpful resources to get your students immersed and excited.
- Educational Technology and Mobile Learning put together a list of excellent science websites primarily aimed at the younger student. These websites are a treasure trove of learning, including videos, articles, experiments, projects, and more.
- For middle school and high school students, check out the science resources at We Are Teachers. Chemistry, biology, earth science, and many more topics are covered, giving you plenty of ideas and inspiration for your tutoring sessions.
History resources
Dive into the past with students of all ages using some of these exciting online history resources:
- Smithsonian's History Explorer includes lessons and activities for grades K-12. Their resources are neatly organized and easy to search, so you can find just what you’re looking for.
- Teaching History has many lesson plans available for grades K-12. Discover different history teaching methods and strategies as well as resources for English Language Learners.
- Find lesson plans, digitized primary sources, and other materials for middle school and high school students at American Historical Association.
English resources
Whether you’re tutoring an English Second Language (ESL) student or encouraging a student who needs extra writing practice, the following English tutoring resources will make your job easier:
- Find fun, interactive games for K-6 grade students at Cambridge English kahoots. A kahoot is a game to help students practice their English language skills.
- Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has tons of excellent resources available for English tutors. You can learn a lot of valuable information, such as grammar and pronunciation rules, how to write a letter of recommendation, subject-specific writing tips, and research guides.
- Need writing, reading, speaking, and listening resources for ESL students? Check out American English and everything they have to offer.
Foreign language resources
Teaching a foreign language can be fun when you have different types of activities to complement your lessons. Explore these resources loaded with online tutoring tools like quizzes, flashcards, ideas, and more for world language tutors:
- Edutopia provides tutors with lesson plans, games, and other options for tutoring K-12 students in various world languages.
- Quizlet is a great source of quizzes and flashcards for teaching Spanish, French, German, and Latin.
- Explore a huge database of world language resources at Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Economics resources
Tutoring economics can be daunting, but these online tutoring resources give you an edge thanks to free lesson plans and webinars:
- American Economic Association offers lesson plans, teaching tools, classroom experiments, and more ideas for tutoring economics to high school students.
- Find lesson plans, webinars, and activities on the Foundation for Teaching Economics Teacher Resources page. These resources are perfect for teachers and tutors of middle school and high school students.
- EconEdLink provides free economics and personal finance resources for K-12 students, including lesson plans, activities, and webinars.
Engineering resources
Amp up your engineering lessons for all ages using these online tutor resources full of activities, lesson plans, and other fantastic engineering ideas:
- Find something for every student using the National Science Foundation's excellent database of engineering resources.
- Try Engineering has a lot of creative ideas, plans, and activities on their website, including a Light Sculpture activity and Spring Scale Engineering.
- Peruse Common Sense Education's resource database to find engineering projects and topics to fit your K-12 tutoring session.
Computer science resources
Computer science is an increasingly popular subject for tutors and students alike. Impress your students with fun and engaging games and activities that make computer science come alive:
- Blockly Games is a great place to find computer programming games for K-8 students.
- Gather inspiration from the impressive assortment of resources found at the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). You might find a helpful article about virtual learning or a themed poster that you can share with your student.
- Hour of Code is your top source for awesome computer science activities and games. Millions of students of all ages throughout the world benefit from this website.
We hope this resource list comes in handy during your tutoring sessions. There are several other invaluable online tutoring resources available, so we encourage you to do a little digging and see what you can find!
If you’re a tutor and you’re looking for a place to share your expertise with students nationwide, then you’ve come to the right place. Join the best network of verified online tutors today!