I tutor because I enjoy seeing the many lights of recognition and success in the eyes of my students. I am good at making things clearer because I remember how I needed to talk to myself about chemistry and basic math for it to make sense to me. I began tutoring as a junior high student-tutoring basic math. In college, I graduated to my favorite subject at the time-organic chemistry. In graduate school, I was a TA for general chemistry and organic chemistry repeatedly and tutored and gave workshops in organic. I taught general chemistry and organic chemistry at the college level. I also taught introduction to chemistry at community colleges for those with no or no recent background in chemistry. I worked as a tutor at a local community college for these chemistry courses, intro to chemistry, chemistry for life sciences, developmental math and college algebra. I thoroughly enjoyed all these experiences and even much more important than that I have been thanked by so many of my students for my help in their successes and for making our interactions positive ones.
I made a deeper commitment to teaching chemistry, to helping make it make sense and to see its importance by students when obtaining my high school chemistry certification in the state of NJ. I have been privileged to work with a diverse student population for college prep, honors and AP chemistry. Moreover, I have taught a summer AP chemistry enrichment course which in six intensive weeks covers the most significant parts of AP chemistry rarely tackled in CP or honors. These students have had the date of May 7th 2012 circled on their calendars to be truly ready for the test since June 2011.
I enjoy working with young people as I also enjoy working with older people who have found their vocation later and need to get back to school as adults after awhile out. I can empathize with both kinds of situations.
My methodology is not unique. I try to give my students the rationale behind what they are learning by breaking down concepts or methods into smaller steps for better comprehension. I don't use mnemonics when there's a reason to know something but they are useful when you just need to know some facts. I work as a coach and I work with students so they will figure out things sooner rather than later.
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