Category: Announcements

Learning Standards Soft Rollout – Update

Hi tutors! Hope you’re staying safe! 

Just a quick reminder to complete your Learning Standards prework by 12pm (noon) PT the day before the training (Sunday at noon, Tuesday at noon, Thursday at noon). Here are the links if you need them again: Monday training, Wednesday training, and Friday training.

If you have still not filled out the survey in our previous newsfeed post and Sharon’s email, please Slack Sharon to let her know which training day works best for you.

Sharon created a new Slack channel called Learning Standards that will serve as a place for you to ask questions about the learning standards. She will also be creating Slack groups for each training group to ensure ease of communication. 

As always, email tutor.support@yup.com with any questions and happy tutoring!

Learning Standards Soft Rollout

Hi tutors! We hope you’re well. Thanks for helping with another iteration of the TGP refresh!

Learning Standards Soft Rollout

Our mission at Yup is to empower every student to learn. As a result of tutor feedback and input from math learning experts, we are excited to announce that we’re revamping our pedagogy! 

What does this mean?

We’re updating our teaching standards and developed a series of trainings to explain how this impacts tutors. Our TQMs are already using this new framework and students are learning more than ever! 

When can I join the training?

We are offering trainings 3 times a week. All tutors are welcome. We ask for attendance for only 1 of these sessions per week.

  • Mondays 10 – 11 PM PDT (starting 4/20)
  • Wednesdays 8 – 9 AM PDT (starting 4/22)
  • Fridays 1 – 2 PM PDT (starting 4/24)

Are the trainings paid?

You will be paid for these trainings at your hourly rate + multi-subject bonus. 

Are trainings mandatory / what if I can’t make it?

Trainings are highly recommended to help you understand the new standards and train to implement them. This is effectively preparing you to succeed on our future evaluative rubric! If you cannot attend, you may watch the recordings afterwards and try the exercises on your own. Unfortunately, this unofficial training time would be unpaid.

What are my next steps?

Please fill out this survey  to let us know which training sessions you will attend so that we can send you more information! If you have any other questions, there will be time for Q&A in the trainings. 

As always, reach out to tutor.support@yup.com with any questions (except please hold pedagogy questions until the trainings). Happy tutoring!

Policy Updates and March Outstanding Student Feedback Winner

Hi tutors! We hope you’re well. A few quick reminders of new policy and procedures.

Break Policy

Official break time will now be unpaid. Taking official breaks will not hurt your attendance metric unless breaktime exceeds policy. Taking a quick bathroom break or similar during sessions as needed is OK! Please give students a warning if you’ll be unable to respond for a few minutes.

Inactive Student Policy

Based on tutor input in the #student-feedback Slack channel, we’ve implemented an official policy for ending sessions with inactive or disengaged students. Please see here for details. 

Scheduling

We’ve seen demand rebound from the initial drop due to COVID-19. However, we will continue to monitor need to remove scheduled hours based on decreased demand due to school breaks or otherwise. A quick reminder to join the #emergency_response_alerts Slack channel if you’re pursuing additional paid session time.

Student Feedback Award!

Congratulations to Patrick Chung for earning the Outstanding Student Feedback Award! This award is given to tutors who receive consistent, outstanding written feedback from students over several weeks along with demonstrating excellent overall performance.

Some of Patrick’s exceptional student feedback comments include:

  • “You did a very good job helping me. Thank you for teaching me that trick, it will come in handy in the future!”
  • “Thank you so much! Your questions helped me understand the question rather than memorize a certain procedure”
  • “Thank you so much that was very helpful and I now understand the lateral area and the surface area of a prism. Hope to work with you again soon.”
  • “Dear Mr. Chung, you are the best and I hope i have you again thanks and you make it so clear and understanding i wish you were my math teacher”

Way to go Patrick! 

As always, please reach out to tutor.support@yup.com with any questions and happy tutoring!

COVID Updates, Policy Updates, TGP Refresh

Hi Yup Tutors. We hope you’re all doing well in these tumultuous times.

COVID-19 Update

There are still fewer sessions than normal. While Monday-Friday volume remains high for most hours, Saturday and Sunday volume has dropped considerably. 

In light of the new circumstances, we will unfortunately need to remove some scheduled hours. The overall impact should be minimal. Henry will reach out to tutors directly with any schedule changes. We will work to ensure tutors are not disproportionately impacted by changes. 

Policy Updates

The impact of COVID-19 sparked a need to review our financial situation. Accordingly, we’ve determined two major policy changes that will take effect starting with April 2020 payroll and continuing indefinitely. 

OT and ERT reduced to 1.25x hourly rate: We will maintain our current policy that tutors must be available for 30 minutes after shift end. If you are able to continue the OT session, you should still ask the student if they have more questions. 

Breaks will now be unpaid: Taking a break remains at the tutor’s discretion. As a reminder, the post-session page is not intended as a break. We will continue to enforce our policy of taking <2 minutes on this page.

We want to assure you that considerable thought has been given to these policy changes and decisions were not made lightly. In order for Yup to succeed, we understand that our tutors need to be motivated and compensated. We also need to ensure our product is positioned competitively in the marketplace.

We anticipate you may have questions about these policy changes. Kreg and Henry will host a thread in the #announcements Tutor Slack channel. 

TGP Refresh Update

Key dates for Q1 TGP cycle refresh:

  • April 2: session disputes due by end of day
  • April 6: final metrics and cycle levels confirmed via email 
    • Tutors moving down levels must remove hours as needed
    • March payroll goes out per standard policy
  • April 7: new level 2 tutors and all level 4 tutors may add hours
  • April 8: returning level 2 tutors and level 3 tutors may add hours
  • April 9: new schedules confirmed for upcoming shift releases

COVID-19 Update – 3/19/20

Hi Yup Tutors!

First, we want to say that your mental health and wellbeing are of the utmost importance to us.

It’s completely understandable to feel anxious, frustrated, or out of sorts. It’s common right now to desire clarity and control. This is OK – all of this is normal and human. We’re here to answer any questions and support you in these times. We’ll provide updates as frequently and openly as possible. Also, a quick reassurance that payroll for March is not in question.

In regards to session volume: We’re currently seeing ~75% of our peak 2020 volume. This is roughly equivalent to our volume in Fall 2019. The good news is that we’re continuing to see new plan purchases. We’re hopeful that a move to e-learning means our service will be increasingly valuable. We’ll continue to monitor for any changes.

In regards to scheduling: We’ll be continuously shifting scheduling ideals to account for new levels of session volume. What does this mean for you?

  • For now, scheduled hours will not be cut. Henry will reach out to ask about switching hours, as some hours will be more overstaffed than others.
  • There will be fewer available shifts – we are sorry about this.
  • Our previous policy of increasing TGP hours will end. Henry will be reducing increased hours back to normal level.
  • The current plan is to continue with the upcoming TGP cycle refresh on March 31. To be confirmed.

As always, please reach out to tutor.support@yup.com with any questions. We’re here for you.