Math tutoring tips?

[Syringer]

So I saw an ad for a tutor for intro calculus at my college..and decided to take up on it. I've never done individual tutoring before, and want to try to make the most of their money. Anyone have tips on how I should handle each session?

 

[fs5]

be as impatient as possible <- that's my down fall, I'll never be a teacher 🙁

 

[Alphathree33]

You could try to teach them the ideas and fundamental beauties that drive calculus, but you would confuse them more.

You could try to teach them heuristic methods for solving problems, but that's what their professor does, and you would confuse them more.

Just offer to write their exams for them and tell them to find a new major.

 

[esun]

Know your stuff. It looks bad to have to look up some equation while tutoring (ummm, I forgot, let me check...). Be sure you just understand the stuff completely and can explain it well, otherwise you're just going to be wasting the other person's time and money.

 

[ajpa123]

There should be some training that your college put all tutors through. It usually involves reading chapters from some book and going over it with a counselor at your college. You need to know how to handle all aspects of a student's situation including helping them to focus and concentrate better. Sometimes you may have to counsel them about any problems they might be having outside of school work. Depends on the college though i guess. It's very challenging and rewarding. You need tons of patience, and you need to be creative sometimes and need to give the struggling student some confidence.

Most important, don't assume they know even the basics.
Start with the problem, ask them to re-word the problem on a blank sheet of paper, this sometimes helps.
Make sure they use lots of paper. If they screw up.. start with a new sheet.. Then if they took 6 attempts to solve it.. you can make them understand how they went wrong by cycling through their attempts. They can use the 6 sheets to solve a similar problem. If they still don't get it.. start from square one.

Good luck!
Don't forget to call you college's work study department for any steps you can be taking to become a tutor.

 

[ajpa123]

Originally posted by: esun
Know your stuff. It looks bad to have to look up some equation while tutoring (ummm, I forgot, let me check...). Be sure you just understand the stuff completely and can explain it well, otherwise you're just going to be wasting the other person's time and money.

Actually, tutors can be something like a peer that just helps them along. The struggling student can identify better with someone who also isn't Mr-know-it-all. It's ok to say that you don't know it all. I have experience in the area, and this is not a problem. Just my opinion.

However, i do agree with you that looking up a lot of stuff can look bad.

 

[Gibson486]

I've done personal tutoring before. The key is to be patient and never assume they know something. One thing you need to do is kind of push them, but not so hard that your turn them off the subject. Also, look like you enjoy what you are doing. DOnt just sit there and tell him to do a porblem and eye them, be active and helpful.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: ajpa123

Originally posted by: esun
Know your stuff. It looks bad to have to look up some equation while tutoring (ummm, I forgot, let me check...). Be sure you just understand the stuff completely and can explain it well, otherwise you're just going to be wasting the other person's time and money.

Actually, tutors can be something like a peer that just helps them along. The struggling student can identify better with someone who also isn't Mr-know-it-all. It's ok to say that you don't know it all. I have experience in the area, and this is not a problem. Just my opinion.

However, i do agree with you that looking up a lot of stuff can look bad.

Actually, when i tutored, I would sometimes act like i had no idea what was going on when i got to those hard application problems. You are right that it helps the struggling student identfy better with the tutor. I pretended to think about and then arrived at the answer. This way, it shows them that all you need to know is teh basics to solve any problem and it teaches them to be patient and problem solve.

 

[Alphathree33]

I never did my homework, instead I worked through it with the people I was tutoring. Basically I let them do my homework for me (not that I couldn't do it myself) with me guiding them when they got stuck.

It was great because they learned a lot from my tips and explanations, and I got to see all of the homework problems that I normally didn't bother with. 🙂

I didn't "know everything" before we started a problem, and I think in that way my own problem solving skills rubbed off on some of my students. I thought it was x, but it turned out to be y... I would make misjudgements in front of them all the time.

People kept coming back, so I must've been doing something right.

 

[Syringer]

Thanks for all the help guys..my tutor sesssion starts today. Anything else?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Good luck! :beer:

 

[ngvepforever2]

I tutor all the way to vector calc. be prepared when the finals came, loads of people are going to come because they think they can cram three chapters and learn integration in one night. Be patient, very patient. If they don't ask you , don't assume they know. Help them step by step. You don't have to fully know your stuff ( nobody knows all the integration formulas) but it'd be good if you are a little bit prepared.
just my two cents...good luck!

 

[Triumph]

I tutored all manner of engineering courses for 3 semesters in college, and it was a very rewarding experience. I think you'll enjoy it. With that being said, my advice is that you'll have to teach yourself how to tutor! It is a skill to be mastered just like the subjects themselves. I would come home some nights thinking, "Man, I did really well tonight!" and I would feel really good about myself. Other nights I would come home and think, "That didn't go so well. I barely managed to get through to one person." That's just how it is. As for advice, I guess I would make two key points:

1. Every student learns differently. Learn to adapt to their style.
2. DO NOT do the work for them!

Please, follow number 2. Helping them along is one thing, flat out showing them how to do it is always the wrong approach, in my opinion. If you must show them how to do it, pick a similar problem and work out an example. My favorite thing to do was to ask them questions about the basics of a problem. This gives you an idea of their skill level, and it forces them to think in small steps. If the problem was to find the volume of an object rotated around the Y axis, I would ask, "Show me how you would do this problem if it were 2 dimensional." Something along those lines.

Good luck! I should start tutoring around here one of these days.