Champion Tutoring is blessed with a vibrant, talented group of teachers who are united in their passion for teaching, as well as in their commitment to Champion’s standards of educational excellence. Moreover, they all value the one-on-one model as an effective, fun & accessible way to enhance classroom learning. In the coming months we will have the good fortune of hearing from many of them on this blog. _____________________________________________________
As a math tutor, I am fortunate to work for a company that shares my values and concerns when it comes to students and their education – and this is something that can be surprisingly difficult to find. The focus for me, and at Champion, is to help a student find success and confidence, while having fun in the process.
‘Fun’ is not usually a word that my students relate to math, a subject that brings stress and anxiety to not only students, but often to parents as well. As a math major in college, and also as someone who’s been teaching the subject for many years now, I know first-hand how challenging it can be. But math is also a subject that is incredibly valuable and rewarding, and it can open a new world of understanding and abilities for a student. It is important for me that the students I work with, no matter their test scores, understand that they can in fact be a “math person”, capable of understanding complex topics that previously felt out of their reach.
This is not an easy process. I share the frustrations of my students who push themselves, and who have yet to reap any rewards for their hard work. When I tell them that the reward will come, I am asking them to trust me – but this process doesn’t happen overnight. Old habits are hard to break, and new skills take time and lots of practice.
Even though my sessions with students are geared to their unique personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, there are certain learning processes that I use with all of my math students. One is to show them that their math homework is not busy work, but rather integral to both their understanding and their grades. Math homework is repetitive on purpose and in our sessions we practice a set of similar problems until students can comfortably walk me through the steps on their own. Another important part of tutoring is allowing the student to lead the way – to tell me what they observe and think about a given problem, instead of my telling them what to do. It is important that students learn to trust their own logic, and see that they are capable of finding their way to the correct answer. My experience working with students over the years has shown me that with determination, and some help, there is always a breakthrough waiting.
And after the sweat and tears, I see the bright, but anxious, young student who I began working with months prior transform into a student with a new level of strength and confidence. At that point, they can see in themselves what I have seen since the beginning – their ability to learn new concepts and take on challenging tasks with success. This is where the fun comes in – a student’s smile when they finish a complex problem completely on their own, their pride in a high test score, the feeling of accomplishing something they never believed could be possible.
Beth Mitchell has over ten years of tutoring experience both here in Virginia and in California. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Math and Architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle. Currently, Beth is a graduate student at The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture.
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