Greetings! My name is Ben S., and there is nothing I love more than helping people with math. I currently work with the Mathnasium of Skokie as an instructor, teaching children ranging in age from first grade to twelfth. I am a graduate of Grinnell College with a double major in Mathematics and Russian, both with honors. While at Grinnell, I worked in the college's Math Lab tutoring students in calculus and linear algebra. I loved staying fresh on the material and being able to quickly and competently answer questions, but my favorite part was watching each student's skills improve as the semester went on. I had a similar experience working as a private tutor for middle-school students, though the subjects and the students were both different.
When tutoring, the most important thing to me is to make sure the student is comfortable with what they don't know. I try to encourage them to ask questions and to be open when they don't understand something, because a simple lecture is useless when the teacher doesn't know where the students are. By keeping my sessions a conversation between myself and my student, both brains stay moving and real learning can happen.
If, over multiple sessions, it seems that a student loses concepts they initially understood, I may assign homework between sessions. Repetition is very important to making sure a concept sticks, because early concepts must be used efficiently to get through later problems. Practice makes perfect!
I live in Rogers Park, Chicago. I don't have a car, but I am willing to travel up to an hour away by public transit. This includes Chicago, to the Loop in the south, Oak Park in the west, and Evanston and Skokie in the north.
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