I am someone who can make science vivid and explain "quantitative" concepts in plain English. I am an alchemist who turns confusion into ‘teachable moments.’
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Can you ever learn to ride a bike if someone just keeps towing you on your training wheels, because you never get a chance to pedal, to feel the resistance of your pedals and balance for yourself. Learning math or science or reading or writing or social studies is just like that: good teachers don’t just drag you—they give you firm guidance when necessary, and then run alongside you, spotting you so you don’t keel over on the pavement.
Learning is inevitably teaching yourself—and yet sitting silently with a textbook or webpage can almost *never make things ‘click’ the way a good, human teacher can. The role of ‘teacher’ is to get a student where s/he needs to be by going wherever the student already is: it’s about seeing the material, for just a moment, the way the novice or student does—an art which no book or CD-Rom or robot will ever master, no matter how many ‘assessments’ or “customized” programs they waste your time with.
In practice, then, my teaching style is very student-centered and Socratic. I demonstrate things. But above all I help the student build a path for her own journey through the messy wilderness of ideas, to whatever the requisite skills are. I’m someone consumed with ideas almost to a fault, and yet I’m a natural improviser (a jazz musician in fact), who knows how to adjust the character and content of my teaching for individual learners, individual moments.
Besides science and math, I am also an astute editor and teacher of writing skills, LOVE literature, and would be happy to alleviate SAT stress. Above all, I love working with varied kinds of learners- LD’s welcome!- and thrive in a one-on-one setting where my approach can totally revolve around the student’s needs.
Just like riding a bike, though, learning to DO math or DO science or DO writing takes doing: practice. Practice, practice, practice, and if necessary, more practice. A lot of this has to be done on the student’s own time. I’m well aware that ‘understanding’ can still sometimes mean sitting down to take the test (or start the research or write the paper, or just practice by yourself) and PANICKING, not knowing toe from elbow about what to write or how to do the darn problem! Thus, in most sessions it is best to focus on or work in some time together for rote practice: repeating math problems, finding sources, STARTING the rough draft… whatever the task may be—just in case something gets caught in the gears again or the wheels come unhitched altogether (as they do from time to time). It’s learning by doing.
EDUCATIONAL and TUTORING BACKGROUND
My tutoring experience started naturally and informally many years ago with my own peers in high school, and continued in college. Particularly in science classes (and orgo in particular), I was always the natural leader, the one who everyone else turned to in study groups, and who many relied on to help them pass, or just up their grade when they were anxious about it. I’ve also had many other experiences with youth, and even volunteered to tutor and teacher-assist in two high school math/science classrooms (high-stakes test-prep), a couple years ago; it was there I learned a LOT about teaching, and had the most exciting time of my life. Now, I'm ready to get paid for what I do best.
Since then, I graduated from the anthropology program at Bard College with an honors thesis and a concentration in Science, Technology, and Society, an MIT-derived curriculum which included about 70 credits of science or science-related coursework (mostly bio and chemistry) in addition to LOTS of humanities.
I believe this program is part of what makes me an able tutor and teacher. It has taught me how to articulate ideas, and, in a sense, to “know” knowledge, and love it. I thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck for your child’s studies, or your own!