Hi! My name is Andrew; I've been teaching or TAing for five years by now, including as an undergraduate at Hobart College in New York, a couple times over the summer at the prestigious Ross summer camp, and as a graduate student at the University of Iowa. I'm passionate about mathematics, and hope to share that passion with all of my students!
I believe that as a tutor (or TA or lead instructor on a course - I've done all three at different points in time), it is my job to help you go from...
Hi! My name is Andrew; I've been teaching or TAing for five years by now, including as an undergraduate at Hobart College in New York, a couple times over the summer at the prestigious Ross summer camp, and as a graduate student at the University of Iowa. I'm passionate about mathematics, and hope to share that passion with all of my students!
I believe that as a tutor (or TA or lead instructor on a course - I've done all three at different points in time), it is my job to help you go from not knowing or understanding the material, to knowing and understanding the material. I know that this sounds like a silly thing to say, but I've often found that instructors will simply regurgitate facts to go through the material at their own pace, rather than at their students' pace. I will meet you where you are, try to focus on the parts of the subject that you find interesting and exciting, and try to bring you to a place of genuine understanding.
My philosophy is that math is a deeply interrelated subject; people try to portion it out into different discrete courses like "algebra" and "calculus". However, you need to know one to learn the other; if gaps exist in your foundational knowledge, I shouldn't skip over them just because they're in the course you were meant to have taken. So as a result, I believe there is no such thing as a "stupid question"; anything you don't know, you should ask. (I have even run review sessions for university students on how to add fractions - I *will* meet you where you're at). Even if it's something I've just gone over, you can ask it again.
I also believe that math is a very active subject. If I tutor you, a large part of that will be me seeing how you work on the problem and trying to identify mistakes, to work through them together. While I absolutely will help you with whatever homework problems you have, I also want to be able to help set you up for independent success later in life. i.e., I want not only to help you pass this course, but all future courses you're in.
