Hi, I'm Mike! I graduated with distinction from both the United States Military Academy at West Point (BS Civil Engineering) and the Naval Postgraduate School (MS Physics). I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be selected to go back to West Point as a rotating faculty member in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. there, I taught calculus-based physics for 8 semesters, was the lead instructor for 2 semesters, and was the lead of the department's tutoring program for 2...
Hi, I'm Mike! I graduated with distinction from both the United States Military Academy at West Point (BS Civil Engineering) and the Naval Postgraduate School (MS Physics). I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be selected to go back to West Point as a rotating faculty member in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. there, I taught calculus-based physics for 8 semesters, was the lead instructor for 2 semesters, and was the lead of the department's tutoring program for 2 semesters. Additionally, I have tutored classmates and by word of mouth for over 5 years (as of 2020).
I am passionate about education. I find it incredibly rewarding to see the light bulb turn on in my students eyes. Teaching and tutoring is more about helping the student achieve a greater level of subject mastery and less so on class performance. I vow to invest the time to adequately and precisely address the barriers to understanding and proactively work to assist the student achieve mastery. Though I consider class performance less important, since it is the most commonly used method to measure mastery, I have tutored specifically for SAT and exam taking strategies as well.
Your time is valuable! I employ a student centered approach, wherein the student is in control of the session. I expect students to do their fair share of the effort. Sessions are much more productive when the student is able to ask specific questions about the subject. This allows me to efficiently provide specific instruction or strategy. I am willing to re-teach a section, if required. I consider the most important part of my effort is not accepting a student's response of 'I just don't get it.' Open ended assessment questions such as "What do you understand of this topic?" or "How methods have you tried to apply to solve the problem?" enables me to refocus the session on ability rather than challenge. I excel in helping the student create mind maps or structured, annotated notes.
High School math up to including pre-calculus; h
