For your first lesson:
- Get to know the student, as everyone else has said - hit it off, get the ball rolling, move past the awkwardness factor (if present) and be as friendly and personable as possible!
- Run through an overview of the subject and most importantly, set out your expectations of them - eg. homework, work ethic, etc
- Discuss your teaching strategy or approach and stress that you will tailor your teaching to their needs. Stress that you act as both a friend (don't get TOO friendly with them as it's harder to say everything you want to say to a parent) and as a mentor for the year.
- Encourage students to ask questions along the way, try not to bombard them with continual talking and create a balance between teaching and doing - BUT don't make them do too much work on-the-spot because they'll just think 'I could've done this at home for free'.
- Give them your contact details (email, phone, fb if you want, etc) and definitely set homework from the get go, as this gives them the impression that you are serious about their learning.
- When talking to parents, be approachable and honest. Don't say extra stuff to make it seem like you are worth the parents' money, and also remember to not focus on too many on the negatives - your role is to help facilitate students' learning and broaden their understanding etc, so offer parents ways to assist their children. If there is a good triangle of communication between student/parent/tutor great things can happen.
First time tutoring can be quite daunting, but once you get into the hang of it, I think you'll enjoy it!
Good luck, let us know how you go!
Completely agree with most of this - first impressions count for a lot, and you want your first lesson to go extremely smoothly, so that you establish solid groundwork between you and your student.
I would say though also aim to teach something in the first lesson. Make it something easy and basic though, and give them a problem or two to work with to make them feel like you are a tutor who is willing to get them involved. Perhaps ask them to list five areas that they are weakest with and work from there, or set some problems that are intentionally tricky (but also relatively simple) and show them ways to solve them (after they mess up, of course :p) that will help to prove a point. Also, maybe aim to make it a 40-60 split between "introduction" and "teaching" for the first day - you want to spend enough time laying down the rules, but also enough time making sure it's an actual "lesson" and not just an introduction.
After that (the first session), just have a ridiculously solid grasp on the material, and fill in the gaps where necessary. I personally find most of my sessions are 75% improvised - you want to be responsive and to teach to the student personally, rather than to just go by a set curriculum. After all, that's the whole thing that differentiates a private tutor from a teacher - you can personal advice and don't have to cater to a whole class. Act as a personal mentor, rather than as somebody who has to teach them the whole course.
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