Become a Volunteer

In 2022/23, the majority of tutoring is taking place in-person at elementary schools across Charlotte, North Carolina, while tutoring at select school sites is virtual. You can select your setting for 2023/24 by choosing an in-person or virtual option below. For in-person tutoring, masks will be optional and COVID-19 vaccinations are encouraged but not required for in-person tutors. We will continue to ask in-person tutors to stay home if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. HMT policy may change throughout the year depending on community health metrics and CMS and CDC guidelines. For virtual tutoring, volunteers and students meet on Zoom and use fun and impactful curriculum modifications on Google Jamboard.

HMT is committed to ensuring the highest standard of safety to protect students, tutors, and staff in the virtual environment. This includes using a secure technology platform, screening tutors, and providing ample tutor training. In 2022/23, virtual tutoring will continue to take place with in-person Heart Program Coordinators on-site with students helping students log into sessions from schools. The Heart Program Coordinator also oversees sessions and troubleshoots any issues experienced by remote volunteer tutors.

Anyone who wants to help children increase their confidence and knowledge in math is encouraged to become a tutor – no math or teaching experience required! HMT tutors come from a variety of backgrounds, from college students, to professionals working full-time, to retirees. The requirements to volunteer are: must be a U.S. resident, 18 years or older, cannot be a current high school student (in accordance with school district policies), pass a background check, and must be able to commit to tutoring for at least thirty minutes or one hour per week.

Generally speaking, tutoring sessions are held Monday – Thursday during the school day from the end of September to the end of April. You can select your school and day of the week in the sign-up form below. 

Yes, we appreciate volunteer sign-ups throughout most of the school year! Ideally, volunteers begin tutoring in late September and continue through late April in order to provide students with as much time in the program as possible. However, when a volunteer signs up later in the school year, we are normally able to add students to the program. Many students need extra help in math, and every time a volunteer signs up, an additional student can be tutored.

Yes! Heart Math Tutoring enrolls students on a rolling basis. You can get started anytime between September and February. You do not need to wait until the beginning of the next semester.

Yes! No math, teaching, or tutoring experience is required. You will be following an easy, fun curriculum that features hands-on activities and math games. The lessons involve cubes, playing cards, number shapes, and other manipulatives that allow students to internalize patterns and have fun with the numbers. HMT is designed to strengthen foundational number sense at the elementary level, which ranges from counting, to addition/subtraction of whole numbers, to single-digit multiplication. That 98% of students to date have demonstrated significant growth in math in our in-person program is evidence that the curriculum is easy to follow and anyone can be an effective tutor.

No, a significant focus of HMT has been making tutoring easy and accessible for community volunteers. HMT provides all the activities, materials, and training for its tutors, laying down most of the groundwork so tutors can focus their energy on tutoring.

Volunteers commit to weekly tutoring sessions from the end of September to the end of April. The first one or two of those weekly sessions are hour-long orientations. Training sessions will vary based on your HMT tutoring experience.

First year tutors will attend two one-hour tutor trainings, one virtual, and one school-specific session. For in-person tutors, this second session will be in person at your selected school site. Virtual tutors will be on Zoom with your Program Coordinator. Second and Third year tutors will NOT be required to attend the virtual Part 1 orientation but will attend the school-specific one-hour training session. During this training, Heart introduces volunteers to the curriculum and session logistics, equips volunteers with a beginning knowledge of the broader context of student and school need, and for virtual tutors, a walk-through of the technology used during tutoring sessions. This year our Four+ year tutors will attend a new orientation that covers a more in-depth look at our curriculum and student engagement.

Thereafter, volunteers receive email communication between sessions, support during tutoring sessions, and optional training workshops. Additional resources will be provided for virtual tutors to familiarize themselves with the technology used during virtual tutoring sessions.  

As in past years, Heart Math Tutoring will make every effort to arrange consistent tutoring times with schools so that when you commit to a tutoring time, you can count on your ability to participate in tutoring at that time/day throughout the school year.

Yes! The relationship you will build by supporting the same student(s) each week has a tremendous positive impact, and you and your student(s) will enjoy working together to accomplish math goals throughout the year. Each tutoring session is 30 minutes, so most volunteers tutor two students back-to-back for 30 minutes each.

CMS requires all volunteers to complete a background check at cmsvolunteers.com before working with students, so thank you in advance for your part in keeping students safe! Please see the attached document with support for the most common issues volunteers have when completing this process. If you have further questions please reach out to daisha.delano@heartmathtutoring.org.

Teachers at Heart Math Tutoring partner schools nominate students to participate in the program who are 1-3 years behind in elementary math and would not otherwise have access to resources for private tutoring. HMT staff members individually assess nominated students to determine whether they would benefit from the program and which math concepts need focus. HMT students are in grades 1-5.

As of July 2022, masks will be optional and COVID-19 vaccinations are encouraged but not required to tutor in-person during the 2022/23 school year. We will continue to ask in-person tutors to stay home if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. HMT policy may change throughout the year depending on community health metrics and CMS and CDC guidelines.