"As an undergraduate math major at Emporia State University, I spent nearly 4 years as an on-call tutor in the math lab. My colleagues and I primarily worked with struggling Algebra students, but whenever students needed help with more advanced topics such as Proofs, Trigonometry, or Calculus, my colleagues would usually send the students to me for help.
My teaching philosophy is that mastery of more...
"As an undergraduate math major at Emporia State University, I spent nearly 4 years as an on-call tutor in the math lab. My colleagues and I primarily worked with struggling Algebra students, but whenever students needed help with more advanced topics such as Proofs, Trigonometry, or Calculus, my colleagues would usually send the students to me for help.
My teaching philosophy is that mastery of content is not the only thing needed in a good tutor. A good teacher understands every connection that is necessary to get from idea A to Idea B and understands the content so well that they can read the student who's confused and identify exactly what connection the student is missing in order to mend this lapse in understanding. A good teacher can relate new, foreign concepts to ideas the student is already very familiar with. Of course, this changes from one student to the next, depending on their background, their understanding, and the way they think about the world. Through my years of experience, I believe - and I'm sure my colleagues would agree - that this ability is what has made me an exceptionally effective tutor.
After taking math classes every semester for 5 years, I've not only mastered a whole lot of content, but I've become quite familiar with the process of learning new mathematics. Learning a new mathematical idea seldom comes without some kind of struggle, even for the brightest of students. I know that learning a new mathematical topic always comes with some amount of confusion, and this isn't a bad thing! In fact, if it wasn't confusing, that moment at the end when you finally get it would never be nearly so fun! Confusion doesn't need to be extremely frustrating, when you expect it and approach it with patience. It's all part of the learning process!
I believe that not only can I explain the material, but I can help you to identify exactly what's tripping you up and /why/ you're struggling with that particular bit of the learning process. I can offer new perspectives that work for /you/ spec" less...
