ComeTogether

My name is Michael, or you may call me Mike, and I genuinely enjoy sharing, and teaching is sharing! Here is some background experience relative to my personal education and to what made me begin tutoring students.

My academic education consists of-- B.S. Biological Science (Rowan University), A.S. Chemistry (Rowan College Gloucester County), Minor Accounting (Keystone College).

I have tutoring experience for instructing my 14-year old niece in a variety of academic subjects, ranging from arithmetic to algebra & geometry as well as various non-mathematics subjects.

__________________________________________________

The student & the tutor(myself) will begin with a light introduction. I encourage the student to freely and directly draw to my attention the specific needs of the student, and to inform me of the student's troubling/concerning topic(s) for which my assistance is requested. The student is encouraged to raise their questions pertaining to the subject to be tutored, no matter how broad or how specific.

*I wish to introduce students to Vedic Mathematics, as well.

__________________________________________________

I like to instruct using the 'Flipping the Classroom' method, as I was introduced to this method and was instructed by my Organic Chemistry 2 professor during my undergraduate studies.

I will tutor the student using my revised version of this teaching method, whereby I dissect the teaching method into 3 distinct phases, as follows--

INDEPENDENT LEARNING

1) Student is given a set of homework problems related to a new topic, not yet learned by the student. The student will be given powerpoint slides and additional learning material(s) containing the information & resources necessary to solve the homework problems.

EVALUATION & CRITICAL THINKING

2) At the beginning of the next tutor session, the tutor will present a couple of problems/questions (3-5 problems/questions) for the student to attempt to solve, and these problems/questions are similar to the homework problems. While the student is solving the problems/questions, the tutor will evaluate the homework and check answers/solutions as well as check the steps taken by the student to arrive at the answers/solutions.

COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

3) The student and the teacher will work through the problems/questions that we're presented at the start of the class. The tutor will go through them step by step, and the student will compare his/her results as the tutor works through each individual problem/question. The student and the tutor will go over the homework problems/questions for the bulk of the tutor session. This portion of the tutor session will consist of the student asking the tutor his/her concerns/issues that he/she encountered for specific, individual homework problems/questions, and the student and tutor will dissect these problems/questions step-by-step until the student has the confidence, knowledge, and the ability to successfully solve these specific problems/questions in the event that they show up on an exam in the student's formal classroom, at school.

__________________________________________________

Learning is intended to be fun, and it is essential for there to be transparency for the tutor & the student in having a comfortable and effective communication dynamic. I do not believe in such a thing as a "silly question." Questions are necessary in order to arrive at answers:)

I provide an open-minded, judge-free learning environment for students to feel confident in asking anything related to mathematics, small and large, basic and advanced.

I feel joyful when I am able to connect with a student, and the student can apply their newly learned mathematics concepts to real-life situations as well as apply the concepts in the classroom.