Today I Crunched Some Numbers...

Like the math nerd that I am, today I made a spreadsheet of all the students I have worked with since I started tutoring in 2010. Here are the numbers (it's way more than I thought!)

I have worked in 3 provinces.

I've worked in 2 schools, for a total of 7 years.

I worked with 7 students through 2 homeschool organizations.

I have worked with 30 homeschool kids from 16 families.

I've tutored kids from age 3 (Pre-School) to 19 (trade school).

I briefly tried tutoring 3 kids over 2 summers, unsurprisingly it did not go well.

I have tutored 7 students for more than 4 years.

The most tutoring students I have worked with in a school year is 27!

Moving and then Covid restrictions gave me a break for 2 years!

I've worked with 37 siblings from 14 families.

And I have tutored 92 different kids from 64 families!

Teaching

You probably have noticed that my blog has become quite quiet these days.  This is in part due to the kids both being in school, & not having as much time spent together means not having those fun/odd conversations as often.

 

Also, I have been crazy busy!  I’m not really sure what has added to the craziness, but it seems the days are flying by!

 

I have increased the number of days that I help with math at the local school to 2 mornings a week.  I have really enjoyed being able to to delve into the world of Algebra once again!

 

I tutor a variety of grade levels/abilities.  One group is just learning the F.O.I.L. method for problems like this:

(2x-4) (5x+2)

it’s one of my favourite lessons!  Some students are just getting into multiplying & dividing fractions (so fun!).

 

One thing I discovered when I was in college & thinking about becoming a teacher is that I would much rather reinforce concepts that has been taught in class rather than stand up in front of a classroom full of kids & teach it myself.  This time at the school has really solidified that for me.

 

I have also discovered that if a student has the basic math concepts down & just needs a little extra guidance I can often reword the problem or explain it in a way that helps them to understand it a bit more.  But the problem I have been faced with a few times is the student who knows their times tables, fractions, decimals, but has issues with adding & subtracting 2 digit numbers.  No matter how many ways I have tried wording it, I can’t get a correct answer for 10-9.  So, I need some help!  Please offer any tips/suggestions, I’m stumped on this one!