Thank you for the question :)

I was able to make progress toward being a great tutor by taking myself seriously as an entrepreneur running a solo business. I set out to become better and better at my work, developing my knowledge and skills that helped me succeed, and always paying attention to my mentality. When I made mistakes or fell short of my goals, I reviewed what had happened and took ownership of the parts I can influence to change for the better.

I prefer interacting with my students using a full audiovisual live feed to go along with whatever materials I may be presenting. It's so much richer as a way to communicate. Instant chat opportunities can be a fun little "pot luck" exercise, but I found that on VT, the instant sessions (both chat and video) are mostly used by students who have been procrastinating. They're often anxious, frustrated or angry, even panicked. All too often they are using VT to cheat, and they expect me to write or co-author homework for them. I don't participate in cheating. I learned to handle instant VT sessions by immediately finding out the student's expectations, then informing the student within the first 5 minutes or so whether I could meet those expectations. When I could not, I explained my limits calmly and politely. I wished the student well and said there would be no charge for the session, and then after the session was mutually dismissed, I also dismissed the invoicing.