More and more high school students are taking college courses online, and my Santa Barbara chemistry tutors are happy to help. Of course, my Santa Barbara math and physics tutors are also on hand for online classes. Many kids need a tutor to help with pacing and organization – as well as content – when they head to cyberspace for learning. Self-paced online classes can be a blessing or a curse. If a student procrastinates (never!) it can be quite a marathon to complete a course in order to meet a deadline for their school. Those five-hour tutoring sessions are a serious brain twister!
Archive for the ‘Math Tutors’ Category
Chemistry Tutoring for Online Classes
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010Math Tutoring and Confidence
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010I’ve posted before on math tutoring and confidence. My Santa Barbara and Goleta math tutors work with students in elementary grades through college. And no age is immune from the clutches of flagging mathematical confidence. What’s great, though, is how quickly kids’ confidence can be turned around with the help of a caring math tutor. One teacher saw noticably more confidence in a timid young mathematician – after just two hours of tutoring! When kids aren’t stumbling over the hurdles of anxiety, avoidance, and self-doubt then learning really accelerates.
Identity and Effort in Math and Science
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009One of my dazzling Santa Barbara calculus and chemistry tutors – a biochem major at UCSB - told me she always thought of herself as a future scientist. I have math tutors in San Luis Obispo who say the same thing. As girls they envisioned careers in labs. Research has found that when kids self-identify as violinists (or future scientists) or whatever, they perform astoundingly better than less-committed peers – even when both groups practice the same amount of time. That internal idea – “I am a future scientist” leads to deeper practicing and superior outcomes. Great teachers and tutors can inspire kids to imagine careers in their field of study. This may be the single most important factor in improving kids’ performance!
Motivated Learning
Friday, November 20th, 2009Learning demands motivation! Some kids are motivated by As and teacher praise, but the best students are kids who view learning as a joy in itself. My math tutors and science tutors from UC Santa Barbara agree: kids who want to learn do better! My physics tutor had a Carpinteria student who went from an F to a B just because he got excited about physics. He began completing all his assignments, studying hard for tests, taking time to quiz himself and then seek out answers where he had knowledge gaps. Clearly, he had the ability to learn physics all along. What he lacked was motivation. Cheers to the best tutors: they are always great motivators!
5 Minds for the Future
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Over coffee with one of my San Luis Obispo math and physics tutors, got talking about Howard Gardner’s 5 Minds for the Future. The ever-wise Mr. Gardner says we’ll want Disciplined Minds, Synthesizing Minds, Creating Minds, Respectful Minds and Ethical Minds in the future. When a global talent-pool is click away, it pays to be an expert. Leaders will provide value arising from deep training in their field (math, science, history, literature) or profession (law, medicine, education). Schools can cultivate these minds deliberately in today’s kids. A worthy idea!
Math Motivation
Thursday, November 12th, 2009A brilliant SLO math tutor figures out that while his student loathes math, he loves shop. Great snakes! Shop is loaded with math, underneath all that sweet-smelling sawdust. So my SLO math tutor has his student bring home shop projects and they talk about each one. Sometimes they talk about the math involved. Then they do his math homework. When a math tutor can make algebra and geometry relevant to a non-school-loving teenager, that’s genius. Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care.
Do you have a future in math?
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Yes, Santa Barbara, the results are in. The best job in 2009: Mathematician. That’s according to Careercast.com, which ranked 200 jobs by stress, physical demands, hiring outlook, compensation and work environment. Mathematicians blissfully crunch numbers in cushy home offices while dairy farmers… well… don’t. So dig into that geometry and have another helping of calculus. It’ll boost your thinking skills and your career prospects too. (For the curious, best jobs 2-5 were actuary, statistician, biologist, and software engineer). Which Spark Tutors’ helpful Santa Barbara calculus tutors can tell you, all require advanced math smarts.
Confidence, baby!
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009Parents often tell me their child has shaky math confidence. Math can mess with the mind. One of my superstar geometry tutors in Santa Barbara put it this way, “Math seems impossible until you understand it. And then it seems simple.” So you look at new math and you think, “Oh man. I have no clue. I’m an idiot. I knew it.” And who can learn with that uplifting soundtrack echoing in their brain? You can’t. So you struggle to learn and more deeply convince yourself: you and math will never be friends. When, lo and behold, you do get the new math. But do you give yourself credit and a pat on the back? No! You say, “Hey, that stuff’s easy. How could something so easy have seemed so hard? See, I really am allergic to math.” And that’s how math messes with the mind. Kids identify themselves as failures at every stage of the learning process: introduction, struggle toward mastery, achievement. A wise math tutor tackles concepts and confidence in equal measure. Luckily we’ve got ‘em here in Santa Barbara.
Geometry on the Brain
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009Have I told you lately how great my Santa Barbara geometry tutors are? They rock. Case in point: think of a brain. Not just any brain. The brain of a 9th grader learning geometry. Geometry is one big curve-ball for a 9th grade brain. Algebra, no problem. Geometry, B. I. G. problems. Theomems? Postulates? Have we been abducted to Mars? So my wonderful math tutors zip around Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria unlocking the mysteries of Geometry. Bringing unsettled 9th graders back down to Earth, where suddenly their understanding of proofs bursts through like green grass after rain. The eyes squint in concentration, and then – “Oh, that’s what you do!? I get it!” Magical.