FAQs
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
I usually start by asking the student to show me their homework and talk me through a problem: read it out loud, say what they think it means, what is happening in the story (if it's a word problem), and what they're being asked to find. If they get stuck trying to do that, I backtrack until we find something they do understand. I look for the last point the student felt confident in math class and build from there. That can mean going back a couple of days or a couple of years! But usually students learn these missed skills much more quickly once I get them on solid footing and they see that it really is possible for math to make sense. Half the battle is getting students to believe that it is worth trying. I usually present information in a few ways (a table, a drawing, a sentence, a way of moving their body) and see which one make sense to them. I'm lucky enough to understand math and also understand people. I watch and listen until I understand how the student is thinking about math and how I can nudge them toward a more useful way of thinking about it.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have a bachelor's degree in math, and I studied algebraic topology in grad school at the U of M for four years, though I never finished my PhD.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
The first person I tutored formally was a sixth grader at my school when I was in eighth grade. I loved helping her understand math and I've never stopped loving this work.