About
The most important lesson I've learned during my 8+ years working as a full-time tutor is that the process of learning is unique for everyone. As someone who struggled in school as a child, I am acutely aware of this fact; what works for one student may not always work for another. As an instructor, it's my job to work within the context of the diversity of our individual thoughts and experiences to be able to present the material in a format that not only makes the content understandable, but also easily reproduceable and applicable to the real-world. One of the reasons I love teaching math is because I understand what it feels like to struggle in a class where it seems everyone understands the topic but you. I've been there, and because of that I understand the frustration and anxiety that comes with learning new ideas while also trying to make sense of the world around you. I pride myself on making learning easy for my students while also helping them build a strong conceptual foundation that ensures they will not forget the concepts at hand. In my experiences, any student can solve any problem if given the proper instruction, encouragement, and a safe-space to ask questions and be curious.
During my time working as a tutor, I’ve had the great privilege of being able to interact with hundreds of different students from all walks of life. This has allowed me to experiment with different teaching styles to learn exactly what works for me and works with students of different personalities. Additionally, a powerful feature of mathematics is the fact that many identical concepts can be explained in different ways. In these cases, I make a point to explore the different perspectives relating to a particular topic to highlight to my students that there is no single way to understand and learn mathematics; the way to learn and remember topics is to work within the context of your own unique perspective.
When most of my students first reach me, a lot of damage has already been done. This is because math is analogous to a story; if you miss the beginning, it will be nearly impossible to understand the middle and the end. For this reason, while teaching what's need to keep up with the class, I’ve almost always found it necessary invoke lessons and concepts from previous semesters to make sure that my students achieve a deep understanding of the ideas at play. Perhaps if more math teachers did this regularly, the amount of children requiring extra help would dramatically decrease.
I'm currently a 3rd-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley double majoring in mathematics and computer science with a minor in science and math education. I’m also concurrently working towards a California single subject teaching credential in mathematics. Before coming to Cal, I attended Irvine Valley College in Irvine, CA and graduated magna cum laude with an associates degree in mathematics, with an emphasis in science.