I wish I’d had a math tutor when I was young…
Many adults have uncomfortable memories of their math journey. Let’s just agree that some students don’t thrive in the math classroom. The teachers are doing heroic work, but they just don’t have the time to give every student more than a few minutes of one-to-one time. That’s where the tutor comes in.
The teacher goes so fast…
There’s a lot of material to cover in an academic year, and some teachers will pace the class so that most of the students will get it. We’ve seen some teachers who will ignore raised hands in order to squeeze in the planned lesson before the bell rings.
The tutor, working one-to-one with the student, can take as much time as necessary to be sure that the student understands the material before moving forward. The tutor can also circle back to previous lessons to be sure the student has the prior knowledge to make sense of today’s lesson.
The teacher goes so slow…
Sometimes, a student will find a lesson easy to grasp, or has already mastered the lesson in another class. The student might be frustrated or bored.
The tutor (while supporting the teacher’s planned lessons!) can show the student some different ways of looking at the classwork or some fun outside-the-curriculum math activities. These activities tend to keep the faster students interested and excited, while building a deeper, more flexible understanding.
The homework takes so long…
When the student gets stuck on a homework problem, a twenty-minute assignment can chew up the entire evening.
The tutor can help the student get over the hump and provide correction and insight on the spot. The homework experience becomes a series of little victories, rather than one long defeat, and the student has more time to do other fun things.
I forgot a lot of stuff from last year…
Any skill gets dull if it’s not practiced. Summer is a long time. Even winter break is a long time to leave the books on the shelf. Those math skills that were nice and sharp before break will be rusty after not being used for a while.
Even an occasional meeting with a tutor will keep the student in practice, so the return to school won’t be such a jolt.
For the more motivated student, break time is an opportunity to look ahead to the new material
I moved to a new school…
To a youngster, moving to a new school (or town, or state) lies somewhere between an adventure and a trauma. New people, new rules, maybe a new math course. Maybe the new class has already learned some things that the old class hadn’t gotten to yet.
The tutor can help fill in the gaps. The tutor can also provide a little continuity. If the student and tutor have been meeting by videoconference before the move, they might continue after the move. One less thing to have to change, in the midst of so much change.
I’m homeschooled…
Every parent wants the very best for their kids, and that can take many forms. Homeschooling is the right choice for some, but not every parent is a math educator. The day may come when the student is ready to learn topics that the parent isn’t ready to teach.
The tutor can move the student forward in math while the parents continue to teach the things that parents teach best.