Math Study/Focus Group for Struggling Students in Algebra and Beyond
ID: 4818
Date: 2006-11-22 23:39:19
Free Classified. Mid-peninsula.
Text:
I'm a math tutor, and am thinking of starting a small class for students taking Algebra through Calculus to cover the important concepts (mostly from the Algebra level plus some basic geometry) that are generally missed and tend to haunt and ruin your Math life thereafter. The kind of things that make someone feel lost when they are taking a pre-calc or calculus class and the teacher/proffeser says, "and of course you all remember how to handle ..."
Most students who do badly in Math consistently, do badly because they missed something really important at some lower level and never understood anything that was based on that concept. I don't need to expound on how frustrating it feels when two pages of weird symbols are supposed to make sense to us, and we say, "It might make sense, but not to me." This is usually a lot easier to solve than people expect, and the results start immediately and grow exponentially - especially as confidence builds up.
To give an idea of some of these that might sound familiar: functions, graphing, using variables in word problems, rules used on variables (like factoring), logarithms, sine and cosine functions and when to use them, and understanding basic geometry (angles, triangles, circles) etc..
Anyways, this is a rough idea of how I envision the class. I am basically testing the waters to see if there is enough interest to start one. The motivation for this idea comes from the fact that paying for private tutoring can be very expensive and there are a lot of people who need help that cannot afford that much. The other thing is, I have a very tight schedule and I have to reject most people who ask me to tutor them because I don't have enough time to have more than 3-4 pupils on my schedule (tutoring is like a hobby for me, I do have a real job and I can only put so much time into a hobby).
The concepts that people usually miss are typically all the same things (as outlined above) and from my experience it doesn't hurt to have more than one student listening at once, especially as they tend to get excited about finally understanding something they thought they would never understand and encourage each other.
As I said, I am testing the waters and am open to suggestions from students, parents, and even people who just have some helpful input. I am creating a database of the concepts that people most commonly miss. And if anyone has any helpful ideas - maybe something they learned from experience - let me know. If you are interested in joining the class write to me and tell me some specific areas you definitely need help with, and I will let you know when there are enough students to cover the same areas.
I haven't figured out a pricing system yet, but the whole point was that it would be more affordable to begin with. I'm anticipating it will cost between 10 to 20 percent of what a private tutor would cost, and maybe even less. I will have to rent a class room (unless one of you works at a school and generously supplies an empty room during after hours) and that will be the main expense. I will still keep the classes between 5 and 10 students. I'm sure we can do a you-get-your-money-back-if-it-doesn't-help deal and it can be free to just sit through a session to see what it's like. If I didn't think it would help I wouldn't start it in the first place, so I don't expect this to bankrupt us. I know how well I teach.
Location: Mid-peninsula
Phone:
Name: N/A
Section: Free Classified
URL:
sellbuyandsell.org - Free Classifieds
Contact with owner:
|
