What's included
12 live meetings
12 in-class hoursClass Experience
PLEASE NOTE: Each section is planned aroung particular student needs. Please contact me before joining a section, as we need to match student levels. We will be using an antique book with little story problems and a paced development. Part of the class is reading the book and deciding which operation, and understanding applications to the real world. Another part is writing number work in a notebook. We may, as we find a need, also use some commercially available workbooks. .We do NOT use fingers, which are slow and inaccurate. Many of my students also study French and we sometimes repeat facts in both English and French for even more practice. At this time only a few levels that can be offered. Please contact me and we will discuss how to get set up. This is an interactive one-to-one or very small group tutoring class for elementary school children who are having difficulty learning math. We want to clear out weaknesses and old bad habits, stop anxiety, and develop skill and confidence so math can be successful and even fun. Please send me a message if you need a discount. We are serious about learning math, but I try to keep class time casual and friendly and upbeat. Experience has shown that steady regular practice over a period of time is necessary for young children to maintain and retain learning especially of math, so short-term help is usually of very little value. I am asking parents to make a commitment for a semester so that we can go deep into the roots of the student's difficulties and work on developing number sense and concepts as well as fluency with facts and processes. For practical convenience I am now splitting into four or six-week modules, but a full semester *three modules minimum* is really needed to make solid progress. Math is cumulative so if the foundations are weak the upper structure keeps collapsing; the only way up is to solidify the foundations. This takes time, but progress should be visible in a month or two. In class, there is a constant dialogue between student and teacher. We are working together to understand and master the skills. In the first week we will try various questions and exercises at various levels and discover what the student knows and does not know. In the following weeks we will work on a selection of math skills as found to be needed including *some* of the following (this list covers four years of elementary school; each student will do the appropriate selection): - Counting and basic numbers, writing figures. -- using math vocabulary such as plus and minus and equals - The base ten system, base ten and number names, tens and ones, place value, zero as a place holder - hundreds and place value and base ten - thousands and place value and base ten - addition of single digit numbers 0 + 0 to 9 + 9; using concrete and pictorial models; avoiding fingers which are inaccurate - subtraction as opposite of addition -- understanding what a question is asking; deciding whether to add or subtract and why - exactitude and fluency with basic facts - addition with two digits; place value - carrying as re-grouping tens; concrete and pictorial models - subtraction with two digits; concrete and pictorial models - borrowing as re-grouping tens, with models - measurement - vocabulary, sum and difference - adding and subtracting with three digits; concrete and pictorial values ,of place value, carrying, borrowing - applied questions with counting and measures and money; writing the decimal in money - meaning of multiplication; difference from addition - multiplication facts 0 x 0 to 9 x 9 - vocabulary, factor and product - applied problems in multiplication - multiplication of two and three digit numbers and place value; models of meaning - carrying in multiplication as place value - meaning of division as inverse of multiplication -- deciding whether to multiply or divide and why - beginning simple division by one digit numbers - vocabulary, divisor and dividend and quotient - applied problems with multiplication and division - meaning of fractions as parts of a whole; fractions as measures - vocabulary, numerator and denominator - equal fractions by concrete and pictorial models; comparing fractions by concrete and pictorial models
Learning Goals
Students will first review and re-develop basic concepts which they missed. This may often go back as far as basic counting and addition facts. Other times there may be misunderstood vocabulary.
Then we will work upwards on the above cumulative list of skills. We work at whatever speed is required to master each skill at least 80 to 90% accurately before leaving it. We may move up to related skills, for example measurement, while still needing to practice addition for example.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
I am not sure where to put this, so this warning location seems as good as any.
We are trying to do something different from, and if possible better than, the average run of North American classroom experiences in math. Since general achievement in math is low and continues to get worse, doing something different seems a good idea!
I use the most modern technology as appropriate -- we are working online -- and I go back to very very old-fashioned where the modern fashions are failing.
Recent studies in mathematics learning have shown that popular habits over the last fifty or sixty years are not succeeding, and the most modern studies and guides recommend techniques that my grandmother used a hundred years ago -- what's old is new again.
We use concrete models, poker chips, base ten blocks when we get them, dot drawings We learn to visualize numbers.. We do NOT use fancy expensive games which are more distraction than learning. We do NOT use fingers -- the last three or four decades of using fingers have been three or four decades of dropping scores so we can say this experiment has failed. Fingers are slow, and with numbers over five you tend to run out of fingers, get mixed up, and make errors. We do NOT use calculators -- we aim to teach number sense and confidence in using numbers, and a calculator short-cuts and skips vital learning. Later in high school calculators are fascinating and useful tools, but not here. We work on learning math facts and knowing them accurately and exactly by memory, We do NOT use flash cards or speed drills. There is absolutely no value in a fast mistake. Accuracy, exactitude, and confidence are what matter; speed comes after a skill is mastered, not while you are still learning it. Again historical results since the 1950's bear out the fact that these speed techniques have failed and are failing; the more popular speed drills and drills divorced from application and discussion, the worse results have fallen. We do write out work on paper and do paper and pencil calculation as well as oral math. We do NOT do silent seat work or large amounts of computer drill without a teacher. At this beginning level, every study has shown zero effectiveness for homework. What matters in learning beginning math is communication and connection. We do oral work all class, and occasionally a very short homework assignment may be given and parents may help (but please follow the guides above.)
One thing I do which is unusual -- but I have decades of experience in making it work very well -- is that we do NOT use pencil and we do NOT erase. As I keep telling students, this is a math class, not an erasing class. If students spend half or more of their time erasing, and believe me they do, then they have just cut their learning time in half or less. Not to mention making everything filthy. Pencils take a lot of force through the hand, and then children complain of fatigue and writer's cramp, and try to write even less. Furthermore, I work hard to convince students to put their brains in gear and think things through before calculating the final answer; you should not be planning on doing it wrong and constantly erasing. If a student does make a mistake, no big deal -- and this is vital, that math errors are not horrible sins to be hushed up and hidden, but normal steps in learning -- they can just cross it out and move on. This way we can go back over the work and learn from our mistakes. I strongly recommend gel pens and/or fine point markers for notebooks, and wipe off markers on a small whiteboard (Dollarama again) for quick class examples.
Along with not treating errors as horrible sins, we try to be positive and NOT punitive. A lot of negative and self-defeating attitudes are tied up in the traditional teaching of math, and we want to get right out of that cycle. A wrong answer is just a wrong answer and we need to learn how to get it right. We aim for what is called a "growth mindset" -- I may not know this yet but I will work on it and learn it in time. Nobody is perfect and nobody knows everything, we just learn a little bit more every day.
Students are not expected to be perfect but they *are* expected to concentrate, to work together, and to try to improve. Short comments and questions are welcome but disruptive and distracting behaviour will be stopped.
If you're willing to try something different and work with me on a positive and developmental approach to math with your child, please contact me and we can talk.
Students have to be matched fairly closely in ability to form a group (sorry, no more individual spaces available at this time.)
Discounts are available according to need. Please send me a private message.
Supply List
Students will need *lots* of clean white paper -- no recycled garbage please -- and some fine point markers (not pencils; I need to see.) **In this group I am suggesting a notebook**, any ordinary plain notebook that you can get at the dollar store or similar. . A small whiteboard and wipe-off markers can be very helpful. We draw and write and show our work on camera. A microphone and a camera are absolutely required in order to have the interaction needed.Stuents need to keep camera and microphone turned on for this interactive class. I have some excellent old out-of-print textbooks for Grade 3 and up, and can send scans. For Grades 1 and 2 work and review we *may* sometimes need to use workbooks. After we determine the student's present level, we can order some inexpensive workbooks; the Spectrum series and the MathSmart series are both useful for multiple practices.
Language of Instruction
English
Teacher expertise and credentials
2 Teaching Certificates
Non-US Teaching Certificate in Secondary Education
Non-US Teaching Certificate in Foreign Language
4 Degrees
Master's Degree in Education from Tufts University
Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Language from Bishop's University, Canada (second copy for double major)
Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from Bishop's University, Canada
Bachelor's Degree in Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I have been tutoring math since 1984, have taught all levels of school from Grade 1 to college, and have been a full-time tutor from 2001 to 2015. I'm now semi-retired but still like to help my students. I have a BSc, BA Honours Math and Languages, and an MA in Education. My tutoring students who stayed with the program have all gone on to a wide variety of successes from a ballerina to a couple of valedictorians to leader of a provincial political party.
Reviews
Live Group Class
$180
for 12 classes2x per week, 6 weeks
60 min
Completed by 5 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 6-10
1-4 learners per class