Cathleen T.

12 years teaching, 13+ years in Math Assessment

12 years teaching, 13+ years in Math Assessment

I taught elementary school for 12 years, 10 of which were in a Chapter 1 school with at least 75% of the students on free or reduced lunch. The experience of teaching students that were economically disadvantaged and seeing them succeed was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. During those 10 years, I was responsible for developing lesson plans for and teaching math to fifth and sixth graders, in both self-contained and departmentalized classrooms. I found there were advantages to both situations, but I prefer departmentalization because it allowed me to concentrate on teaching math. I was also responsible for the math lessons for the after-school tutoring program for students who struggling with the math concepts presented in the daily math lessons. The after-school tutoring became my favorite part of the day because I was able to interact and spend more time with my students than during the regular teaching day.

I enjoy tutoring because the one-to-one setting allows me to get to know the students better and find a way to strengthen their skills in the areas where they're having difficulties. One of the most rewarding aspects of tutoring is seeing a student's whole attitude change when they succeed in an area where they've previously been unsuccessful.

I prefer to begin tutoring with an informal assessment to gauge the student's success on current assignments from school, and then conference with the parents to learn what results they would like to see from tutoring. Once goals have been established, we can work as a team- parent, student, and tutor- to make tutoring enjoyable and successful for the student.