Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Homework troubles, GPL to the rescue

It's 8 pm on Wednesday and your 4th grader says, "Dad, can you help me with my science homework?", or your 10th grader says, "Mom, can you proof read my essay for English class?", or a parents' worst fear, the dreaded, "I can't do this math problem." 

What's a parent to do? The Greenburgh Public Library can help you with our new service, Tutor.com. Tutor.com is live, on-demand, one-on-one, online tutoring for grades K to 1st year of college.  Tutor.com has tutors available for a wide range of topics in the subjects of math, science, social studies, English, writing and test preparation. Spanish language tutors are available for math, science and social studies.

Live tutors are available from 3 pm to 10 pm daily.

Best of all Tutor.com is FREE with your library card. To read all about Tutor.com and log into a session go to, greenburghlibrary.org/eLibrary/tutorcom.

What do kids say about Tutor.com?

Ivy, who is headed for 6th grade in September, says, Using Tutor.com was very helpful because I could just get on Tutor.com for help if a teacher, my mom, dad or older sister weren't available.

As a Gen Z child, Ivy had no problem managing the Tutor.com interface. She easily moved between the chat window and the whiteboard to write out her math equation, 3÷⅓. Ivy changed her pen color from the default black to a highly visible red and noticed the option to upload a file to the whiteboard. Ivy's advice is to use a mouse for the whiteboard instead of a touchpad.

Despite being completely comfortable with the Tutor.com chat and voice technology, Ivy would always seek out face to face, in person assistance before turning to Tutor.com. As a very early Gen Xer, I am relieved to hear that in person, face to face communication has not been forsaken; however I personally would have welcomed a Tutor.com service when I was in 5th grade. Does anyone else remember being taught "new math" in the 1970's? I certainly do and with parents from the Silent Generation, who learned math by rote, I was very much on my own with math homework and Tutor.com could have eased the pain.

What do teachers think of Tutor.com?

Alexa Aparicio is an English language arts teacher for grades 6, 7 and 8.  She posed as one of her students asking for help understanding characterization in To Kill a Mockingbird.  I noticed right away that the tutor asked, "How are you?", which is nice for a child struggling with homework. It puts the child at ease. In an anonymous environment establishing a rapport is important.

The tutor did a good job of asking me for the wording of my specific question, rather than making assumptions about the assignment.

As a teacher it is very important to me that students learn by completing their homework questions instead of simply receiving an answer. I found the tutor did an excellent job helping me [posing as a student] understand the difference between direct and indirect characterization, instead of just giving me the textbook definitions of each concept. Once she was confident I grasped the concepts, the tutor asked me to provide examples of direct and indirect characterization from my assigned book. I provided accurate examples and her responses were very positive and encouraging.

I will most certainly recommend Tutor.com to my students and my colleagues, says Alexa Aparicio, 2nd generation school teacher.

What should you do?

Get started, the first day of school is right around the corner and the first ACT and SAT tests of the school year are coming up. There's no time to waste.

Contact Information

Call the Youth Services Department at 914-721-8227 for help with Tutor.com or contact me for a one-on-one appointment about Tutor.com or any of the library's electronic resources.

Eugenie Contrata

Digital Experience Librarian

914-721-8232