I am a retired electrical engineer, having spent 30+ years with a major semiconductor manufacturer, so I've actually used a lot of the stuff that you are now learning. I was in honors classes throughout high school, and in college I was elected to Tau Beta Pi – Engineering Honor Society and Eta Kappa Nu – Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society.
During my career, I have extensive experience with teaching and coaching new engineers and technicians, both individually and in groups. I have developed training programs to teach people the underlying basic principles of the subject matter from an intuitive point of view that is rarely, if ever, found in textbooks. My first experience with tutoring was when I was in high school. One of my close friends was having real trouble with Algebra. He wouldn’t tell me that, but his mom asked me to help. Charlie passed with a solid B in the course.
I most like to work one on one with individuals. First, I ensure that the student understands the basic principles of the topic at hand, then I coach them to think their own way through how to apply those principles to a specific problem. This includes asking questions that will start the thought processes that will let you solve the problem, providing increasingly detailed hints, as needed, about what to consider along the way. I find that this is a superior method of learning. When you find the answer to something that you have spent some personal effort on, the answer “sticks” much better than if someone had simply shown you how to do it. It’s that “aha moment” that makes you remember it! More than that, you learn what works and, just as importantly, what doesn’t work when trying to decide exactly how to solve problems.
When I finished college and no longer had to spend all of my time studying and working, I finally had a little time to reflect on what I had been doing for the last few years. I realized then that easily half of what I had learned was not just the subject matter itself, but the methods for applying it and how to think my way through problem solving. I had learned how to think... and I can coach you so you too can learn analytic skills and build your confidence. You can’t learn that from a textbook – you have to learn the “how” by doing it yourself, which can be slow and tedious. But a little coaching can speed it up and make learning a lot easier than having to figure out everything on your own.
My goal is to help a student learn both the subject matter and how to work with it. As you get practice doing your normal school work, you get better and better at it. After a while, even those dreaded “word problems” are not so scary. (Yeah, I used to hate them, too!)
To minimize your cost, I've found some good online learning resources that I can direct you to so you can do a lot of the learning on your own and only get help for those tough spots. You can decide how much or how little help you need.
I want to help you get to the point where you can confidently take on new problems without the need for any outside help. You may be surprised at what you can do!
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