I am a graduate of Truman State University, where I received both my Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and my Masters of Arts in Education. I am a Missouri-certified mathematics teacher for grades 6-12. I have three years of experience in my own classroom at both the middle and high school levels. In my years as a teacher I taught a wide range of mathematics subjects, but I especially enjoyed my classes and tutoring geared toward struggling students- I enjoy finding new ways to present the material and I passionately believe that everyone can be successful in math if given the chance and the right help. Math does not have to be scary! I have tutored students at all ages from elementary to adults in college, and I know how much fear, anxiety, and frustration math can cause. I believe that math does not have to be the enormous obstacle we have made it out to be; all people can learn the math necessary to feel confident in real-world situations involving logic, computation, or problem solving with numbers. When I work with a student, I always start by getting to know that person, finding out what they enjoy and what goals they have for themselves. Then I relate the material to those interests, connecting it to things students already enjoy and understand. Learning is so much more fun if it is relevant to things we already love. I also try to create hands-on experiences that we can hold, move, and arrange as we talk about math: we have to get up off the worksheet. Making Kool-aid is a much more understandable (and delicious) way to learn about ratios than just doing practice problems out of a book. If I am relating math to my own interests, I often turn to baking, crafting, the outdoors, and Kansas City sports.