Figuring Out How To Tutor A Child In Math

Kids all learn at various levels and in different ways. With so many kids using their own learning methods, it can make tutoring that more complex. When someone wants to know how to tutor a child in math, they will first need to assess the person's learning ability and style. When it becomes clear how the student figures out their math, then a program can be designed for them in mind.

When an adult or older child first sits down with a student, they may ask them to do some simple math questions. If a child is in a certain grade level, then asking them to do some work from a previous grade could help to give a great starting point. When a child struggles with the previous year's work then continue going back until it begins to make sense for the them. Finding a base line to start with may assist a teacher with their lesson planning.

If a person struggles with subtracting double digits for example, the teacher may wonder if they can subtract single digits. If the person cannot, then it may be determined how they are going about finding their answers. The methods that are currently being used may not be effective for that particular child.

In some cases what works for one student may not work for another. Everyone sees ideas differently and some people get ideas quickly and others do not. There are many ways that students can learn various math points. A teacher can simple pick one idea first to see if it helps. For subtraction help, the teacher could start with a touch math program. If that idea seems to hard to grasp, the adult could choose another math aid to help.

There are a few teaching aids that are used for adding and subtraction. Finding the one that is the most useful may be helpful in the child's learning. When the student figures out how to use the aid that works for them, it may help them to figure out how to get the homework done.

As a child begins to get one aspect of math, it could be a good idea to phase out the aid over time. Eventually the homework needs to get done without special aids, and knowing when to take them away is essential in their learning achievements.

Most sessions between an adult and student are an hour. Time can either pass by quickly or slowly depending on the student and the amount of homework that needs to get done. Careful planning and time management can be used to help pass the time. A session could contain some easy math games to start using concepts that are already known. Then there may be some one on one time, followed by another concept game. The games may help to break up the time while still teaching important lessons.

When how to tutor a child in math is the center of an idea, there are many concepts to use. Finding ways to fill the time slot are essential. Learning about the child and how they learn the best will also increase the level of their skill learning. All kids learn differently and assessing those issues and needs may be helpful.

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Why Finland's Education System Works

Not too long ago, Finland's education system was comparable to that in the U.S. How they changed their system is interesting, because by having "less" school they are achieving greater results. In the U.S., the system of "doing what you hate longer and harder" seems to be the prevailing logic driving the "scientific test-results" orientation to achievement. Both systems are multi-cultural and multi-lingual and have special populations served in the general education setting.

U.S. Approach To Reform
Children must enroll in school (kindergarten or first grade) at age 5. Many children have had preschool experiences because parents work or they are qualified for Head Start, Early Start, Even Start and other programs. Preschool standards involve readiness skills (standards directed), but not all children receive such instruction. Direct reading (decoding) instruction begins in kindergarten and ends in second grade. State (and federal) standards direct what instruction children receive from kindergarten through high school and in higher education settings (technical/vocational schools and colleges/universities). Children must remain in school until they reach the age of dropping out (varies by state but usually between 16 and 18 years of age) or they graduate by meeting all their state's requirements. Standards, formal testing and statistics drive decision making by central administrators not in contact with students.

Finnish Approach To Reform
Children enroll in school at age 7, but they are given several years of preschool experiences which focus on language and physical development. The schools tend to be small because population centers are few; usually the schools have 300-400 students. Local teachers control their schools and curricula; they spend some of their work day developing and/or preparing materials to be used. Their school day is shorter than in the U.S. and they spend a lot of time outdoors, either in play or in applied "work" in the outdoor setting. Students attend elementary schools for 5-7 years, at which point they attend either a vocational schools or a higher education schools. Student skills and interests drive local decision making by teachers working with students.

What Are The Critical Differences?
The critical differences are:
· Preschool experiences are different: the U.S. focus on readiness (cognitive) skills development for reading and math, the Finnish focus on developmental skills in language and physical development. This translates into developmental readiness for instruction (Finland) or struggle to achieve (U.S.).
· School sizes differ: The U.S. consolidates and usually has 500+/school, the Finnish have few students so everyone receives attention. This translates into emotional security (Finland) or insecurity (U.S.).
· Children start reading instruction at different ages: the U.S. at age 5, the Finnish at age 7. This translates into being neurologically ready for instruction (Finland) or compensating with taxed memory skills (U.S.).
· Vocational schools are options for education in early adolescence. This translates into motivation (Finland) or non-motivational (U.S.).
· Decisions are based on testing/statistics (U.S.) or motivation and interests (Finland).

Conclusions
Focusing on behaviors and achievements for guiding change eliminates the humanness of education: interest, motivation, purpose. No matter how anyone looks at it, the U.S. system is a failure. Perhaps those making the decisions should relinquish the controls and let teachers who work with students and know what they need and want to learn make the decisions. Instead of rushing children to early achievement, maybe those who know about what happens to children developmentally will start driving the reforms.

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Teach Math to Kids Using These Tips

Math has been one of the most important subjects that every child must have a good foundation with. Sadly, many kids nowadays do not show interest in math because they find it boring and hard to understand.

However, math is counted as one of the subjects that you must pass in order to proceed to the next level of your education. So this problem must be solved and conquered. Here are 5 tips to teach math so that kids do not get bored.

1. Age and relevant things to teach.

Keep in mind that "slow and steady wins the race". There is no need to rush into things because kids take in things fast, but it will also confuse them if they take in information too fast and do not understand it. Be sure that what you are teaching is understandable by the kid.
2. Use different teaching methods.

Every individual has a different learning style. There is no one-guarantee way to ensure everyone understands. So it is important for you to have a few teaching methods. Examples: Teach them in a way where they can relate to things around them. Let's say teaching fractions, you can actually get a pizza and cut it into whatever fractions you are teaching. This makes learning much more fun.
3. Games.

Kids love to play games. Use games to cultivate their interest for math, it helps. Through playing games like board games or online math games, kids learn that math can be applied through games and not only in school. It gives them a more meaningful purpose to learn math.
4. Recall.

Math relies a lot on recalling skills and also mental calculations. Therefore, exercising the brain will be very important. Giving your child assessments on mental calculation and timetable will help them improve their memory skill.

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Effective E-Mail Math Tutoring

When people think of additional school help for their child who is struggling in math, they usually think of one-on-one private tutoring. Private tutoring is a great way to get help for your struggling child. As mentioned in my article on effective math tutoring, the knowledge that a tutor brings to the table is not so important as his ability to relate well to your child and to identify with their source of difficulty. Even though private tutoring is the way parents think they need to go, there are alternatives such as email tutoring that can be a welcome help to your child.

With the omnipresence of the computer and with online internet service as ubiquitous as the telephone, email tutoring is something that has come of age. Combine email tutoring with the telephone, and you can now become a virtual tutor capable of working with anyone across the country. Effective email tutoring is the result of clearly defined questions responded to with easy-to-understand answers. Critical to effective email tutoring is a tutor with very strong written communication skills. This is one area which I have worked hard on throughout the years, and I attribute a lot of my success in tutoring students--whether in person, on the telephone, or via email--to my strong written and verbal communication skills. Knowing one's field is one thing; being able to communicate that knowledge to a struggling student is another.

Some might think that math tutoring has to be done one-on-one, teacher sitting beside student ready to respond to his every need. Admittedly, the one-on-one scenario does have advantages; however, a competent tutor with strong communication skills can effectively remediate most problems as though he were sitting next to the student. A student who is struggling with quadratic equations, for example, can get his problem fixed via email, provided the tutor is competent at communicating this topic. With several problems worked out methodically, showing step-by-step procedures, a tutor can get the student back on the road to health in a short time.

Because I have worked on the various modalities of tutoring--in-person, telephone, email, and combinations of these--and have proven successful with each one of them, I wanted to make my tutoring techniques available to the student who might not live in central New Jersey, and thus be geographically "untutorable." Remember good tutoring does not have to be only in-person.

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Math Is Not Hard!

As a math tutor for 15 years, I have tutored hundreds of students from all the grade levels. I found most of the students were not comfortable with mathematics. More than 80% of them said, "the mathematics is very hard." Why do most of the students find mathematics a hard subject and try to avoid it?

The answer for the above question is hidden in a simple example. I always give the example of stairs to my students, and giving the same example in this article. I compare the steps of a staircase to the concepts in mathematics. As this is very hard to reach higher floors of a building without stairs (or elevators these days), same way learn higher concepts in mathematics without learning basic concepts is very hard.

People have to start from the ground, then first step, second, third and so on to reach their destination floor. Exactly the same way students have to start from Kindergarten, then grade one, grade two and three and so on to reach their math destination. Also, if some of the steps are broken in the staircase, it is still hard to reach the desired floor using those steps. Same way, if you are missing some of the basic concepts from elementary grades, math for you is still hard.

Now, the kindergarten, first grade and second grade are like first couple of the steps of the stairs. You can learn this level of math easily, as you can jump enough to take yourself to second or third step of the stairs easily. As it is very hard to reach sixth or seventh step of a stairs by jumping from the ground, exactly the same way to learn grade five or higher grade math is very hard (or impossible) without having the good knowledge of the kindergarten to grade three or grade four math.

Now, consider one person is jumping on the ground to reach the third floor of a building. Can this person make it? Never, if he is not Spiderman. For this person, to reach the third floor by jumping is impossible or very hard and finally he gave up saying that it was very hard to reach third floor.

But another person used the stairs to reach the same floor. This person found it very easy and reach there with little effort. Compare this person to a student who knows all the basic concepts learned in elementary grades. To learn grade six or grade seven math for this student will be easy. But there is another student in grade six and doesn't know the lower grade math concepts such as, times tables, factors or number system. This student is in the same situation as the person, who is jumping to reach third floor from the ground level.

From the example it is very clear that mathematics in each grade have the same importance. So, you need to be focused on math in all the grades on all the basic concepts. Ask your teachers lots of questions. Keep asking until you are not clear about the concepts or topics you are working on.

Each grade act as a step in the whole staircase to the mathematics high-rise building. Performing poor in math in any grade is like breaking some steps in the whole staircase. As broken steps make the whole staircase risky or scary to use in the future, incomplete math competencies in lower grades make math very hard in the high school.

So, what it takes to be smart in mathematics? My answer is; stay focused on math in each and every level of your studies. Participate in your class math practice sessions. Ask your teacher lots of questions until you are not clear about any concept. Mathematics is a subject of solving the problems on paper by hand rather than only to read them. As in case of Social Studies taking more readings make you smart, in math practicing lots of problems and solving them by hand makes you smart.

To practice mathematics, math workbooks are the good source. You learn a concept in a workbook, then in the same booklet there are more problems on the same concept for practice. Another good method to practice mathematical concepts is using math worksheets and you can print math worksheets free of charge from the web.

Finally, choice is yours. You can choose the jumping method to reach your math destination or you can use right and proven path to reach your math destination.

The right and proven path to math destination has the following steps:

* Start learning math as soon as you start your kindergarten

* Focus in your math classes and listen to your teacher

* Ask your teacher lots of question until you are not clear about the concept, you are learning

* Practice, practice and practice. For this you can use math worksheets or math workbooks.

If you take the proven path, one day you might say, "Math is not hard."

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Review of Free Math Apps for the Surface 2 - November Edition

There are so many tablets out on the market now and hundreds upon hundreds of educational apps to go right along with them. Sifting through these apps to choose ones that are actually worthwhile for you and your students can be a daunting task. I am here to make that part of your life a little easier by reviewing some of the free Windows-based math apps for you! This is the first article in a series that aims to find meaningful (and free!) math apps for the classroom.

A total of 6 free Windows- based math apps were reviewed:

1. Math (3 out of 5 stars)

2. Math Operators (2 out of 5 stars)

3. Elementary Math Flashcards (4 out of 5 stars)

4. Math Flash - Subtraction (2 out of 5 stars)

5. Math Flash - Multiplication (2 out of 5 stars)

6. Flash Cards (4 out of 5 stars)

The November Windows Math App winner is a tie!

Flash Cards (4 out of 5 stars)

Pros:

This app has available quizzes for all four math operations and it allows students to focus on one of these operations or a combination of operations. I liked that the app gives the quiz score in a percentage and that you can adjust how many questions are in a quiz (default is 30 questions) along with the digits that are used for the questions. There are user friendly buttons present, such as skip ahead, skip back and view cards. There are also play and home buttons in the hidden section of the Surface tablet menu bar (at the bottom). I also found it helpful that you can save a quiz as a favorite to come back to later. I think that students will like seeing their best score, and best speed, along with the average seconds per question. That information could lead to some excellent self-monitoring and goal creation.

Cons:

When playing this game, I purposely got a question wrong, but the app did not correct me. It simply had me continue guessing and never stepped in to give the answer. I think that this could be extremely frustrating to students who are not strong in their basic facts or strategy work. I had 13 incorrect responses and the program still had not advanced me to the next question.

Elementary Math Flashcards (4 out of 5 stars)

Pros:

This app offers all four operations and the choice of adjusting the number of questions asked in a set (5,10,25). Students can enter their name before starting to play and the program wishes them "good luck", which is always a great way to start a game that can be stressful for students. With a plain blue screen, large numbers, and white lettering, the graphics are very easy on the eyes. There are distinct buttons for students to help with navigating the app, including a green arrow button to advance to the next screen. When students get a problem incorrect, a red "x" is placed over the option and then students have the chance to pick another option. At the end of the review, the game results are given, including the students score out of the total number. The program also ends on a positive note by telling the student "good work " while displaying the back button to start over.

Cons:

The main con for this app was in the graphics. This is a very basic design and it seems that students might get very bored with the lack of bright colors and the true interactive gaming feeling that is so prevalent in their lives. Nevertheless, this app still delivers a great review and quick practice for basic computation.

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Montessori Preschool Math Education - Here's Why it Works So Well

After 15 years as a math educator, and parent of five children, I actually saw something new (to me) in math education this past year, that really impressed me.

My (then four-year-old) son attended a Montessori preschool class and learned math concepts in a way that I had never used myself in the classroom, nor had any of my three older children learned before.

The Montessori Approach to Math
The Montessori math education concept is based on going from concrete to more abstract lessons, referred to in Montessori lingo as "works," which are really just manipulatives.

These well-designed, highly specialized manipulatives for each "math work" make the abstract ideas much more accessible to a child.

Each new work is introduced to the student only via a one-on-one lesson with the teacher.

Thanks to this individualized instruction, the teacher can wait until each student is ready for the next level of abstraction before introducing it.

Step-by-Step Progress
Some children in my son's (mixed age) preschool class were still learning to count to twenty, while others were learning place value and addition and subtraction. But, even those younger children doing the early math works understood that they needed to master counting and one-to-one relationships in order to do the place value and addition and subtraction works.

This is an extremely important concept for children to remember. There can be no "skipping" lessons in the Montessori preschool math curriculum, (and there shouldn't be "skipping" in any math curriculum, in my humble opinion.) My son's classmates understand that mastering each lesson is a means to an end in competency in math. It is a wonderful approach to preschool math education!

Math Lessons Are Fun!
From my son's perspective, the "works" he used to learn math were almost like toys. He got to play with them in the way the teacher showed him and then he came away with mastery of a math concept. In reality, those works are just really well-designed math education manipulatives that teach one highly focused math concept.

There are works that teach key math education skills such as; measurement, counting, number order, number formation, one-to-one relationships, addition and subtraction, and even higher math concepts. Every time the teacher introduced a new math "work" the kids who were ready for that next math concept were excited and energized to learn a new math skill. They watch and help each other complete the tasks of the work and learn from their peers in that way. This is a great way to have group math work!

Montessori Works as Toys
Some of these math manipulatives would make wonderful toys and "kitchen table" lessons for parents to do with their children when introducing math concepts at home. I was very pleased with my son's progress in math using the Montessori preschool-math education method, of course he had an exceptionally talented teacher, but I think many children could benefit from using the Montessori math manipulatives at home,too.

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