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Erika Meriño is the director of Class Home , a business that provides online and in-home tutoring (a service currently on hold). This Concepción-based company caters to parents' needs and has maintained its rates since 2019.
Meriño is a mathematics teacher with a Master's degree in Educational Informatics and Knowledge Management . A graduate of the Catholic University of Chile, she has years of teaching experience. She recounts that she has had a gift for teaching since she was very young: “It all started long before the 90s. Two classmates contacted me through social media. One of them brought me a gift and said, ‘You helped me a lot in high school; you used to teach me math at your house.’ I didn't remember. I ran into another classmate at the supermarket, and she said, ‘If it weren't for her, I'd still be in my senior year of high school, and I wouldn't have graduated, because she helped me with math.’ That's when I realized that I'd had a vocation for teaching since the 80s.”
The didactic strategy of Class Home
After years of looking for the right path and many family and work stumbles, he began to inquire about the knowledge gaps that the current student has "if students do not know something today, it is because they have a vacuum from the past, when they inquired backwards one defines the starting point to start the work with the student. I present a proposal to parents, which is personalized and individualized, which is not the same; The second is that my plans are not rigid, they become more flexible depending on the case, because not everyone is the same. If it were a group with which I must work, I must make an individual diagnosis for each student to work with everyone.
Meriño is always honest with the representatives and students of the online classes “the work is always strong at the beginning, I often explain two things to the parents, if the student is going to participate in a race with his teacher he will always start further back , and the teacher goes further, however if we start with a faster pace we will reach the teacher and when we reach it we slow down, that is, if I have a student with many weaknesses, we have to start with three sessions per week and in one month we decreased the number of sessions ”.
On the other hand, she comments that she points to comprehensive learning, since when the student understands everything it is easier, she does not seek mechanical knowledge, because this type of knowledge is forgotten, according to her experience she knows that there are students who are resistant to learning; They need instructions without understanding the why of things, and despite the fact that with the latter the work is twofold, in the long run they are able to embrace understanding.
The distinction
There are several differences between Class Home and other people who give home classes and online classes, the first of which is the permanent communication, from a pedagogical point of view, with the parents or representatives of the student; this is directly with the teacher Meriño, who meets with them in the time prior to the first class session, generating confidence in the work.
"We give the student a notebook, but we also leave the parents a folder so that they can see the record of the classes, the activities carried out with the student and that the father knows how many hours he has been in class, if he paid 40 hours of class , know how many hours you have left to see, the work is organized ”says Meriño.
Another feature that makes Class Home stand out is the trust in its teachers. Meriño assures that its teachers are selected through a process of interviews and follow-up, to ensure their responsibility, in addition to one of its requirements is that there must always be a guardian or representative (parents, grandmother, nanny, etc.) in the house or meeting place.
“Our entire team is so well-rounded that it’s difficult for me to add more teachers. To work with us, you need to be proactive and committed to following Class Home ’s guidelines . You can contribute your ideas as we go, and with lots of communication, we’ll work together. I’m the most senior teacher, and my entire team is younger than me. Because I have a lot of experience in teacher training, they’re very receptive to our methods, unlike older teachers who sometimes find it harder to move away from traditional education systems.”
First Class Class Home
Online classes services can be reinforcement private classes, traditional private classes that seek to improve your qualifications; Also students who take free exams, which are the options that parents have to educate outside the traditional educational system, that is, at home. Today organizations similar to the school have been created, but not recognized by the Ministry of Education, so parents have several options, send them to these schools but without the pressure of formal but formative grades and the other option is to educate them at home .
Meriño commented that "this modality is also suitable for high-performance athletes who must train 6 and 7 hours a day, and also travel, so this trend of free exams is increasing, the Ministry of Education provided statistics for 2017 and in At that time there was an increase of 40%, today they are being highly demanded in the schools for the students I work with. ”
Another of their services is PSU (PRE UNIVERSITY PREPARATION) they stop at the contents in which the student has weakness and in the others they advance and reinforce the practical part, to optimize time, this was the most demanded service in 2019 ; They also give subject reinforcement to the point that they are giving up French.
Tips for entrepreneurs
Meriño's main advice for entrepreneurs is to look for allies who believe in your project, because being alone you go around "it is super important to lean on someone, for me it has been super important the support I have received from the SERCOTEC Business Center and everything It has happened from here, I have been in several communities of entrepreneurs, but it is from this Center that more initiatives have emerged for my company ”.
Impact by Covid-19
The online class plan has always been among Class Home 's objectives , but there was resistance from parents and guardians, who preferred in-person classes. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they have had to adhere to virtual classes. Even entire schools are requesting training services for teachers and management teams, as this situation took everyone by surprise.
Many teachers were not prepared to work in virtual mode, but since March 15 of this year all the teachers of Class Home began their training and subsequently their online work for the induction of their students, they have even worked with students who do not have a camera at home.
The subjects with which they are working in the online classes are history, mathematics, language, English, biology, physics, chemistry and soon philosophy, all applied in free exams, private tutoring and PSU, in all these services the classes are applied. live depending on the requirement of the student, and then that class is recorded in the virtual classroom, with guides, more videos and tasks that complement the knowledge imparted to the student, seeking interaction that is what is most wanted these days to clarify You hesitate with homework.
Due to the contingency, they have frozen their 2019 rates and are reviewing individual cases to apply some discounts, even soon on their social networks they will launch a special promotion, so be careful, because now more than ever the proposal of this company has been valued and its services.
You can contact them by:
Instagram @ classhome.cl
Facebook ClassHome
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