Atkinson Math Tutoring

It depends on how the student learns. After I figure out how they learn, I make sure to use that information to help out with their learning. When it comes to needing help on worksheets, I tend to first make sure that they know exactly what the question is asking of them guiding them through the first problem by asking them questions to engage their own thinking.  This helps with building their confidence in doing math. If the student doesn't understand the question and what it is asking, they won't be able to successful answer it. It would be like trying to find an answer to a question that is never given to them. If they are really struggling with finding the answer, I'll ask other questions to try and help them along to the answer. If they still can't figure it out, I will give them a part of it that might jog some of their memories on how to do it. On the next problems, I will ask them to try and complete it without my help until they get stuck in which I will repeat the same steps. If visual aids are needed to help, I will give them as well as any other aids they might need to I believe won't give them an unneeded crutch.

I have taken classes where I spend the entire period tutoring fellow students at my school who are struggling with topics since math is a cumulative subject. If they don't understand the older material, they will have a harder time understanding the newer material. I have spent time after school with my math teacher helping him with students who come in for tutoring on Pre-Calculus topics so that all the students could get help; quite a few students would be there after class and my teacher can only help so many at once. 

I haven't ever been paid for my tutoring help before, but I have seen quite a few tutors at my experience level on this website ask for about ten to twelve dollars an hour for their tutoring. 

I went in after school to get tutoring on a concept I didn't understand as well, for AP Calculus 1. My teacher taught Pre-Calculus and AP Calculus One so he helping out both classes. Pre-Calculus has a lot of information and there was about fifteen to twenty students from the Pre-Calculus class there for tutoring. Since I had taken the class the year before, my teacher asked me to assist a few of the students on a topic they were all struggling with.

I had then heard a few months later about the tutoring class and decided to take it up since I was excelling at math as well as having helped a few kids after school. I was then able to help tutor fellow students in Algebra I and II as well as Geometry.

I have worked with students ranging from middle to high school. The few students in the middle school range have been family members who were in middle school needing help with their math. Because math is cumulative, I am capable of doing any type of tutoring for math under the level of AP Calculus 2. The cumulative way of Math allows for me to explain concepts depending on any level of understanding from the most basic level to a deeper understanding.

I recently helped a student with quadratics which is close to the start of math with variables. He was needing help with this concept as it was completely new to him. He didn't understand exactly what the letters meant and why they were in math. I spent about an hour and a half helping him learn a few different concepts before I could get to the concept he had come to tutoring about. He continued to thank me profusely and even hug me for how much I had helped him. He was struggling for so long and now that he was able to understand the concepts he was supposed to understand in the class at the time, he was so excited and confident in his ability to learn the next classes concept. This was the moment I knew I wanted to help more students with math outside of my school. I loved being able to help him be so confident in his abilities.

I would suggest finding a teacher who is capable of explaining it in a multitude of ways. Sometimes students can understand it if a different explanation or perspective on the question is used as well as examples. It shows that the teacher understands it on a deeper level as they are able to find multiple ways to either explain or examples to show. This could also help with their learning if they learn in a more abstract way.

Where is your level of understanding on the concept? What do you find confusing about the concept? If there is homework, what on the homework do you understand? What do you not understand about it? What are any initial questions you have?