PI Journal #2

Ever since I learned to multiply, divide, and evaluate, math has been a passion of mine.   For this project, I decided to take my passion a step further and share it with others.  I understand that not everyone clicks with math.  And for some people, an equation is just a jumble of random letters and numbers.  And, while I’d love if everyone had the same passion for math that I do, that is not my goal.  My goal is help others understand math, and what it can do.

Through my research, I’ve realized that teaching math is completely different concept from doing math.  It’s like having to show and explain your work on a test, rather than just choosing A, B, or C, for a multiple-choice problem.  By consulting with Mr. Mukina, a trigonometry, pre-calculus, and Algebra 3 teacher, I learned a few techniques that will help transform my knowledge into understandable lessons. 

The structure of the lesson is one of the important things to consider when tutoring.  After listening to Mr. Mukina’s advice, I’ve decided that I will be teaching concepts by going through an example myself, then having the student do a similar example, then going through a “stretch” (or more difficult) example together.  This way, I’ll be sure that the students understand the concept.

Also, by researching online, I’ve come to the conclusion that repetition of lessons and concepts is vital to the success of the student. Because of that, I’ve decided that I’m going to teach a lesson on factoring, and during that lesson I will go over different ways to factor, so that they can understand different techniques.