After graduating high school, I spent 4 years in the United States Marine Corps. Initially I thought that I would make a career out of the service, however as time passed, I realized that I had the ability and the desire to further my education. In 1979 I matriculated at Wake Forest University on the GI Bill. During that first year, it was a summer I took a physics course and quickly realized that I did not have the math background. After that I spent a year catching up my math skills and...
After graduating high school, I spent 4 years in the United States Marine Corps. Initially I thought that I would make a career out of the service, however as time passed, I realized that I had the ability and the desire to further my education. In 1979 I matriculated at Wake Forest University on the GI Bill. During that first year, it was a summer I took a physics course and quickly realized that I did not have the math background. After that I spent a year catching up my math skills and started physics again, this time taking a calculus-based physics course intended for physics and science majors. I was very fortunate to have a self-paced math course and an instructor who was more of a tutor than a lecturer. I went on to major in physics.
I have taught physics and math part time and full time for the last 30 years and one thing I have found out is that all learning is self-learning; the responsibility falls on the student for no teacher or tutor can make a student learn or want to learn. However, a teacher or tutor can guide, encourage, explain, and inspire a student to take an interest and put forth the effort to master a particular topic. The student must be able to ask questions, to identify together where the misunderstanding or lack of understanding in a particular subject occur and help the student understand and move forward. The whole point is for the student to gain confidence in their own ability to learn the material, i.e. teach it to themselves.
While I have stated $35.00/hour this may be renegotiated based on the attitude and willingness of the student to want to learn.
I currently substitute for St. Tammany Parrish public high schools and have been through an extensive background check (I am sure far more extensive than the one here). I will be glad to send a confirmation of my status as a substitute on request.
