As we prepare to leave for the Holiday Break, this blog’s focus in on tutoring featuring information from TMB Tutoring. Educators, it’s critically important that we help scholars identify current areas of difficulty. Parents, it’s vitally important for you to know weak areas of your child and how support like tutoring can help. Tutoring is much like servicing your vehicle. No matter who you are, what kind of car you drive, or how cautious of a driver you may be, every car eventually needs a tune-up. Car manufacturers suggest that you come in for a service periodically, even if you don’t notice any warning signs (or lights).
Any certified mechanic will tell you that it is always best to spend a smaller amount to maintain the condition of your vehicle than to ride around for thousands of miles, knowing that you are experiencing issues and then, try to get things fixed when your car is broken down on the side of the road. And since math builds on itself and many of its principles are designed to work together as seamlessly as the parts under your vehicle’s hood, it is imperative that your child’s math skills are operating at optimum levels of performance. With that being said, tutoring should no longer be viewed as something to seek out when all hope seems lost but rather a much-needed service for every student that desires to continue riding smoothly down their own road to success. Tutoring will diagnose places where your child may not be operating at full capacity, and focus on fixing those points long before your child experiences difficulties that cause a breakdown in their self-esteem or academic performance.
One of the most common side effects of a student that has been feeling overwhelmed in math is a low-level of confidence. This is the place where we start! We begin to build rapport with our tutees by asking the about their feelings toward math Abe school in general. We show them that we care about their perspectives and concerns and from there, address how we believe they can and will conquer their problem solving anxieties. After years of tutoring, we have found that the culprit for this condition usually originates from one of just a few places. Regardless of which issue has weighed in most in causing a student to struggle in math, three of the most common are missed, misunderstood, or mis-taught information. Missed information usually comes from a child being sick or injured, switching schools, or being a victim of a curriculum that is being taught at such a pace, that it is extremely difficult to keep up. Other times, missed information may also be a result of a student that is disengaged and/or disruptive in class, which may stem (understandably) from a myriad of circumstances but be perpetuated by the result of having challenges in grasping the lesson. Misunderstood information may come from the way that something was worded or the way that the student processed the information that was presented to them. Students who speak English as a second or third language may misunderstand the lesson being taught around the numbers being used. On the other hand, a student that struggles with dyslexia may understand everything being spoken but may transpose numbers and, as a result be at a disadvantage when it comes time to solve problems.
And lastly, mistaught information by a teacher, regardless of how pure the intentions, can derail the progress of a successful, star math student. It then becomes easy to see how one of these issues can turn into a malicious mathematical mainspring for your child’s lack of confidence and subsequently, cause them to be disinterested in math. The good news is, with patience, genuineness, encouragement, and great teaching, all of these problems can be solved – and that is what we try to provide through every tutor at TMB Tutoring. We desire to have our tutoring inspire students to greatness and a steadfast confidence that overrides their former fears of failure.
Attempting to decipher state curriculum codes can be very difficult for most parents but having a tutor that is familiar with material that will be covered throughout the school year will allow that parent to ask questions regarding their child’s success and hear their areas of potential growth communicated in plain English. The feedback we’ve received from many parents regarding larger, well-known tutoring services is that they are overpriced, crowded, impersonal and/or ineffective. At TMB Tutoring, we try to maintain affordable rates, sustain a healthy student-to-teacher ratio, treat our clients as valued customers (as well as their families), and provide excellence with every interaction.
. . . But why just take our word for it? Why not call us today to see how we strive to make every child feel encouraged and show how brilliant they truly are! We are a company that focuses on teaching and tutoring in math for your child’s success in school. Our slogan is that we are “training minds of brilliance” because we believe that your child is already brilliant, we are simply helping them realize that in math. Want to help your child get ahead of the game in math? If so, join us this upcoming semester for one of our Pre-Algebra, Algebra or Geometry courses. Each 10-week course will incorporate a ratio of 5 students to 1 tutor to ensure that your child is not lost or left behind in any information covered. We will lay a healthy foundation for the math that your student has struggled with in the past, is currently taking or looks forward to taking next school year. To register today, visit www.tmbtutoring.com and enter promo code SAVEBIG. For an updated listing of the location nearest you, please contact us at (678) 453-6915.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.