"Hi, I’m Andrew! I received a Bachelor's degree and graduated with distinction from the University of Colorado Boulder. I was a double major in Biochemistry and Integrative Physiology and completed a certificate in public health. For me, the most rewarding feeling in school was finally understanding a difficult topic. Once a subject ‘clicked,’ everything before then made sense, and everything after more...
"Hi, I’m Andrew! I received a Bachelor's degree and graduated with distinction from the University of Colorado Boulder. I was a double major in Biochemistry and Integrative Physiology and completed a certificate in public health. For me, the most rewarding feeling in school was finally understanding a difficult topic. Once a subject ‘clicked,’ everything before then made sense, and everything after came much easier. Sometimes these ‘clicking moments’ came naturally and early in a course, but other times they didn’t come so easy and required long nights of study and practice. I found that my passion for the subject matter didn’t make a huge difference in which classes came easy to me, but rather the quality of instruction by the professor. A good teacher can explain complex ideas in a simple way. One of the best professors I had challenged us to explain all the difficult topics we learned at a fifth grade level. One must understand the basics before learning more complex ideas. When I tutor, I try to teach by this dogma. Start with the basics. The ‘clicking moment’ occurs only after the basics are truly understood. To help the student learn these basics, I give them several creative analogies and examples to break up the mundane of the dry subject matter. Nothing helps the learning process more than hands-on practice, so after the basics are understood, I supply the student with several practice problems. I start off helping a lot, but my goal is to ease off until the student feels comfortable doing it on their own. After all, they won’t have me to help them on their exams.
I began tutoring when I was a senior in high school. My math teacher selected me and a handful of other students to stay after school and hold an open tutoring session for math help twice a week. During this same period of time, I began instructing at my martial arts school. To perform both these jobs to the best of my ability, I decided to learn as much as I could about teaching. I found that one of the best ways to learn something is to tea" less...
