Tutor Portal

Useful Links and Information for Homework Helpers

🎓 New tutor? Start here

Everything you need before your first session, in order. About an hour, at your own pace, ending with a one-page card you can print and keep next to you.

Start Here

Or jump straight to the onboarding guide

One-time paperwork: Denton ISD background check · volunteer availability form

Working a Session

📹 Join the Zoom 📝 Session Google Form 🤖 Open HH 🔒 Session Rules 💡 Strategies

Hours: Monday–Thursday, 4 PM – 8 PM

Schedule: Homework Hotline opens September 14

Training Sessions: September 10, 10 AM and 4 PM

AI Homework Helper

HH Chatbot Robot

Hello and welcome to the Homework Hotline! My name is HH, and I'm specially designed to assist you — the incredible group of bilingual and ESL pre-service teachers — in this impactful project.

I understand that you're interacting with students via Zoom to provide assistance across multiple content areas like Math, Social Studies, and Science, as well as English language acquisition. I'm equipped to help you with resources, tips, and techniques for all the subjects and situations you'll encounter.

The AI-Powered Chatbot offers:

  • Upload the student's work: Attach a photo, screenshot, or PDF of the worksheet and HH will read it. Paste a screenshot straight from Zoom, drag a file in, or use the paperclip.
  • Academic Assistance: Math, Science, Social Studies, and English, with step-by-step strategies you can teach from
  • Home-language support: Ask for a word or phrase in your student's home language and HH gives you the script, a Latin-letter spelling, and how to say it out loud
  • Cultural & Emotional Support: Culturally relevant examples and engagement strategies
  • Image Generation: Ask for a visual ("make me an image explaining fractions in Spanish") and HH will draw it
  • Technology Assistance: Help with Zoom, platform navigation, and digital tools

This chatbot is designed to support you as you assist emergent bilingual students with their homework. Instead of just giving answers, the chatbot helps you break down concepts, provide step-by-step problem-solving strategies, and adapt explanations to different language levels.

Open Chatbot on Full Page

Working with Emergent Bilingual Students

A tutoring-focused reference: where your student is in their English development, which scaffold to reach for, and what to do in the situations you will actually run into. HH knows all of it too, so you can read it or just ask.

Open the Strategies Reference

Getting Good Answers from HH

HH is a tool for you, the Homework Helper. It is not for the Denton ISD student to use directly.

📷 Show it the actual work

  • Paste a screenshot, attach a photo, or drop in the PDF
  • Faster and more accurate than describing the problem in words
  • You can send a file with no question and just ask "what is this asking?"

🎯 Ask for the teaching move

  • "How do I explain this?" beats "What is the answer?"
  • Say the grade level: "she's in 4th grade"
  • Ask "where will she get stuck?" before you start

💬 Tell it what you need

  • Answers are short on purpose, because you are live with a student
  • Say "shorter" or "explain it to me first" and it will adjust
  • Ask "give me the exact words to say"

🌐 Use the student's language

  • Ask for a term in Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hindi, or Urdu
  • You get the script, the spelling, and how to pronounce it out loud
  • Write to HH in Spanish and it answers in Spanish

🎨 Ask for a visual

  • "Draw the parts of a plant, labeled in English and Spanish"
  • Takes about twenty seconds, then share your screen
  • Read the labels before you show it. Simple diagrams come out clean; busy ones can garble the Spanish

✅ Always check it

  • Read the answer before you say it to the student
  • If it looks wrong, it can be wrong. You are the teacher
  • Modeling "let me look this up" is good teaching, not a weakness

Things to Try

Real prompts you can copy. HH answers in about three seconds; a picture takes about twenty.

👤 Before the session

  • What should I know about teaching fractions to a 4th grader who is still learning English?
  • Give me five sentence starters a beginning English learner can use to explain their thinking in math.
  • What are the most common cognates in science between English and Spanish?

📷 With the work in front of you

  • Attach a photo, screenshot, or PDF, then ask:
  • What is this assignment asking, and where will she get stuck?
  • Walk me through number 3 the way I should teach it, not the answer.
  • Rewrite these directions in simpler English.

🎨 Ask it to draw

  • Draw the parts of a plant, labeled in English and Spanish.
  • Draw the three states of matter, labeled in English and Spanish.
  • Draw a simple diagram of the digestive system with labels in English and Vietnamese.

Keep the request simple. Busy diagrams are where the spelling and accents go wrong.

🌐 In the student's language

  • How do I say "denominator" in Vietnamese, and how do I pronounce it?
  • Give me a short encouraging sentence in Arabic I can say out loud.
  • My student explains better in Spanish. How do I use that instead of fighting it?

🤕 When the session stalls

  • She says "I don't know" to everything. What do I try next?
  • He can do the computation but misses every word problem. Why?
  • My student has not said a word in ten minutes. What should I do?

💬 Shape the answer

  • Shorter.
  • Explain it to me first, I don't know this topic.
  • Give me the exact words to say.
  • Say that in Spanish.

One habit worth building: read what HH gives you before you say it to the student. It is very good and it is not always right. Checking it in front of the student is good teaching, not a weakness.

Helpful Resources

Training Sessions & Support

New helpers: watch these before your first session.

Meet HH

What HH is, why it exists, and how it helps you teach rather than handing over answers. New Helpers: start here.

Training Session 1

Full recording of the first orientation and training session.

Training Session 2

Full recording of the second orientation and training session.

Support Documents

Recommendations for Tutors

💻 Technical Aspects

  • Ensure you have a stable internet connection
  • Be comfortable navigating Zoom, especially Breakout Rooms
  • Use screen sharing and annotation tools

💬 Communication

  • Speak clearly and at a moderate pace
  • Use visual aids (slides, virtual whiteboard)
  • Pay attention to non-verbal cues for confusion or understanding

🌍 Cultural Sensitivity

  • Be mindful of cultural differences
  • Use inclusive language that respects diverse backgrounds
  • Validate students' home languages as strengths

📖 Academic Support

  • Break down complex tasks into smaller steps (scaffolding)
  • Adapt teaching style for different proficiency levels
  • Have resources ready to refer to quickly

❤️ Emotional Support

  • Use praise and encouragement to boost confidence
  • Be patient — some students need more time
  • Create a positive, safe learning environment

🔒 Confidentiality and Ethics

  • The student's camera stays OFF for the whole session. This is a district security requirement, and you must never ask a student to turn it on
  • The only time a student's camera can be on is when a parent or guardian is with the student and asks that it be turned on
  • Never share your personal contact information, and never arrange help outside the Hotline
  • Maintain a professional demeanor. You represent yourself and your institution
  • If a student becomes disruptive, end the call politely and tell your leader

📝 Record Keeping

  • Complete the session Google Form for every session, even as an observer
  • Keep notes on what was covered and challenges faced
  • Reflect after each session on what went well
  • Respect student privacy — never share personal information