tutor

My female owner had a time-out weekend where she did absolutely no schoolwork. The closest she came to was to dedicate 2 hours to preparing for her tutorials this afternoon. She spent the rest of her time sleeping, watching DVDs and going out. Somehow she feels guilty for being paid 9 hours for just 2.hours of work. The pay is pretty good too. For just 9 hours of work/ week (or 36 hours a month), she earns the equivalent of a low-wage worker in Singapore.

This financial provision is something which she thanks God for. Previously she prayed to get a tutor job this semester and despite her lack of experience, she was allocated a position. Her pay covers her daily expenses (and a litte more). As mentioned, she works only 2.5hours a week. Most tutors have 3 one-hour class, but she has only 2 one-hour classes. Tutors usually have a full class load of 25 students. She has a total number of 40-5 students (down from the usual 50). This is important, coz apparently tutors have to make student assignments. So the less students they have, the less they have to mark. Some courses require their tutors to attend lectures. She is not required to. Tutors often meet for an hour/ week for a tutors' meeting. Hers last only 30mins, because there are only 2 tutors and 1 course coordinator. In short, she probably has to put in less hours than the average tutor.

Okay, so back to the guilt part. Because she felt guitly being overpaid, she spent some time reading through some background materials in order to prepare for tutorials today.
My female owner wanted to be a tutor for two reasons. One, because she wants to teach at a polytechnic/ higher institute of learning in future, she hopes that the tutoring experience will beef up her cv. Second, she is tired of not having money to call her own. While she is unlikely to be able to save up any money from her tutoring pay (ie cannot go for any holidays even), at least she is supporting herself throughout this semester. I think I mentioned before that her supervisor also offered her RA work. My female owner was considering it for a while… until a second year senior (also a Singaporean) cautioned her about "spreading yourself thinly".

Familiar words of advice.