ALL MATH, not just Algebra, should be taught with practical, real world applications going hand in hand with the course work. This is my approach to tutoring young people in all aspects of mathematics. The diagram I elected to use for this tutor offering explains using ray diagrams where in the daytime sky to find a rainbow when both raindrops and sunshine and an observer have allowed by mathematics conditions for a rainbow to exist. Young people should be able to make predictions. Young people should be able to purchase the correct amount of paint needed to cover interior walls based on computations of square feet of walls. And on and on. Come give this approach a try. 

Specific examples include. Determination of how many helium balloons of what diameter would be needed lift the learner off the ground. This uses data collection and variety of ways to use that data to predict the answer accurately without going through endless tanks of helium. y =  mx + b. OMG so much more than straight lines! Come see why!

Air travel times when accounting for winds. Navigation and time travel. 

PV = nRT or the ideal gas law.  Monentum and kinetic energy of collisions. Nascar, billiards, bowling it is happening everywhere.