Daniel Benton OCCC Math Tutoring
About
Professor Daniel Benton has taught at Oklahoma City Community College for over ten years, and would very much like to help students struggling with math who are willing to come work with him at the OCCC campus.
Daniel has a Masters degrees from UT Austin in Mathematics Education and a Masters Degree in Mathmatics from OU in Norman.
I am happy to tutor students at the OCCC campus, but I cannot tutor students currently taking a course that I teach.
Highlights
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
Different students need different kinds of help. Some just need help understandign the tough concepts of math and need a different perspective than the one their professor is offering in class.
Some students need the individual attention that a tutor can offer them so that they con do their best learning the math.
Some students have a great deal of anxiety about math and need to build confidence and learn that they can succeed and understand math if the give their best effort!
For all of these students my preferred method is to have the student first study the problems to figure out which ones are causing them the most difficulty and let me know what they need the most help with so that I can most effectively help the manage the mastery of the course concepts. I work with the students asking questions and getting feedback from them as we go, so that I can hopefulle help them with the really important task of not just getting homework problems done, but also getting really well prepared for the tests, thereby doing well in their college math class.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I earned undergraduate Bachelors degrees in Economics, and in Finance from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I have earned a Masters degree in mathematics Education from the University of Texas in Austin, and finally a Masters degree in Mathematics from the uNiversity of Oklahoma.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
I chared between $30 per hour and $40 per hour to tutor strudents who are willing to work with me at the Okalhoma City Community College campus, the price depends on the course with which I am helping a student. I tutor everything College Preperatory Math, College Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, Introductory Statistics, Business Calculus, the Engineering Calculus Sequence, and Intro to Ordinary Differential Equations. I also will offer group rates for up to three students working with me on a subject.
How did you get started teaching?
I enjoyed school growing up and I loved going to college, so I decided to teach math and help students with this often difficult subject. I first taught high school math in Ardmore Oklahoma for a year and decided that I like teaching but wanted to teach math in College. While earning my Masters Degree from OU, I also taugh nights at OCCC and began improving my teaching skills. I learn something new about teaching and I believe I do a better job of helping my students every semester that I teach at OCCC. I do rather like teaching math and I enjoy watching students learn the idea and get it, and of course I like to hear the wonderfukl compliments of students who have had trouble before but succeed in my classes.
What types of students have you worked with?
I have taught OCCC college students and concurrent high school students on our campus for the past ten years as a full time Math Professor. I have taught the College Prep Classes, the College ALgebra classes and the Engineering and Math Major Classses that we offer at OCCC.
Describe a recent event you are fond of.
One day I cam back from teaching a class to find a green and purple index card from an annonymous student with smiley faces thanking me for being a great teacher. That is awesome! Some students see math as such an obstacle and if I could help, well, that does mean a lot to me. That's what I want to do in my job.
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
The first thing I would tell them, is that they have to put in the up-fron work getting ready for the tutoring session, so that they can let the tutor know what they are having trouble with. If the tutor just does there homework with (or worse for) them, then the student doesn't really get ready for the test. And getting homework problems right is not the proper goal. The student needs to get ready to takethe test by themselves. The tutor is like a coach, but the student needs to put in their practice time and let the coach know what they need help with.
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
The best way for a student to succeed with a tutor involves three steps of preparation.
First the student needs to go to class and pay attentiona and ASK the professor questions (as unsettling as this can be it REALLY CAN HELP)
Second the student should read through the example problems in the text book, and find the ones that they have trouble with.
Third, the students should do the practice problems (homework) on their own BEFORE the tutoring sessiona nd indentify the ones that they want assistance with, so that the tutoring time won't be wated, it will be focussing on making the student a student of mathematics who really undersatnds it and is ready for the test!