About Me

I am competing for other attention while I am teaching. There are other friends, phones, iPods, many other distractions that can take a student’s mind off of focusing and learning new information. Because of this, I like to be different and captivate my audiences using different methods. Let’s face it; math isn’t a subject that many people love. Because of that, I like to do different things such as stand on desks or other quirky things so the students would want to be engaged in what’s next. If I can get them to focus willingly, I can get them to focus on the task at hand. Next, after I get their attention, I like to reference pop culture items that keep them motivated and focused. If a student can see how math can be related to items they see every day, then it helps in getting them motivated to learn new things. For example, by referencing unit rates to comparing prices for iPods, students will want to engage more so they can take that information into their daily lives. I also will remake songs using music they know to deliver instruction and other life lessons. Once I have them engaged and motivated, the last part of my teaching philosophy is to break down the material so that it is easier to retain. I reference learning and word problems (which most students highly dislike) to training for a marathon. No runner who runs a marathon just wakes up and decides to run 26.2 miles, because it is physically impossible to tackle such a huge task. Instead, they train, running for maybe half a mile, then a mile, and so on. Learning is the same way; I’ve found that most students struggle because they try to solve the entire word problem instead of breaking it down into simpler steps. By doing it this way, they experience less frustration and find the problem easier. I am very confident in my philosophy because it has been research-based not only through years of schooling but also through years of teaching and interviews with students. My main goal of any classroom I teach in is to make sure the students can be “Be better today than they were yesterday.” By keeping the student goals first, it allows me to focus all of my efforts on making sure they succeed.

Tutoring Subjects