Math is Not the Devil
I have been tutoring math for about 20 years now. When I am meeting students for the first time, I am often told “I Hate Math” or “I am horrible at math”. It is amazing how people label themselves and give themselves an out. Often times one bad experience or teacher dictates the rest of our schooling regarding math. I am here to tell you that anyone can learn math. My goal as a tutor is to retrain the brain to realize that learning math is possible.
Okay, you take longer to understand math…that’s okay. In a traditional school setting, the problem is, you don’t have time to ask questions or practice enough to feel confident doing the steps on your own. When you are just struggling to keep up, you get lost and confused. You just give up because you don’t know how to catch up. I have learned that sometimes I have to teach foundational concepts again. Math is a subject that builds on itself. If you don’t have a strong foundation of the basics, then the rest of your math experience will be built on an unstable surface. It may seem like a waste of time to go back and review previous concepts, but in reality it will strengthen your base and set you up for future successes.
The biggest problem I have found with tutoring math, is that students just haven’t been taught in a way that they understand. Sometimes it takes me explaining the same problem five different ways until a student understands. Those extra explanations are worth it when you see the light come on in someone’s eyes after finally understanding.
Once you rebuild their math foundation, the students start to catch on to more complicated math concepts because it is just adding on to what they already know. Their confidence begins to grow and they realize that math isn’t that bad. They just needed someone to take the time to explain things in a way that their brain understood. Here at Coral Sands Academy, we understand that students are very different and we strive to help students embrace that uniqueness. We find studying strategies that will utilize each student’s strengths and help them succeed in school.