Six Characteristics to Look for in a Math Tutor

Author: Ishmael J Robinson

1. Educational Background

An effective math tutor must have the ability to master concepts they are teaching to others. Having a strong understanding of mathematical concepts will help the tutor and your child. When teaching elementary and middle school students a high school diploma is the minimal expectation. Math concepts on the high school and collegiate level may require a tutor with an undergraduate degree, preferably an individual with a major emphasizing mathematics engineering or science.

2. Training or Past Experience

Communication skills are key a component needed when helping others learn. Delivering materials to meet the individual's needs is another important characteristic of an effective tutor. Previous teaching or tutoring is a highly recommended quality when searching for an ideal tutor. Experience at the grade level of your student is also something to look for when selecting an individual. The education field is always changing therefore good tutors work for companies that provide ongoing professional development or seek continual training themselves.

3. Location or Site and Schedule

Reducing the time and cost of traveling expenses is important and should be convenient for the customer. Several bigger companies have multiple locations to provide customers with the ability to choose a site in their neighborhood. Other companies provide telephone or online tutoring, either as their primary approach or as a supplement to classroom settings.

4. Student to Teacher Ratio

Several case studies have proven that students learn best when instruction is delivered to meet their individual needs. Also smaller class sizes and one-to-one learning, are emphasized so you can get the maximum assistance from math tutoring. Usually, younger students benefit the most from smaller classroom sizes, although older students also improve academically from more individualized attention.

5. Teaching others, Practice and Testing

The best way to retain information that is taught is by teaching others; this method translates into a 90% retention rate. This can be accomplished through probing questions used by the tutor. Practicing is the next best retention method, which results in a 75% retention rate. One way to accomplish this is by completing homework assignments or in-class problem discussions. Ongoing testing will help to ensure that the concepts taught are being mastered. Math tutoring companies often assist parents for preparation on standardized test such as the: ACT, SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, therefore having access to test in the same format as the standardized test can be beneficial.

6. Prices

Individuals that tutor need to be compensated for their time and services, so it is not practical to think that you will receive good math tutoring for free. In order to receive a small student to teacher ratio, it will more than likely cost a little extra. To determine if the money invested is worth it, you will have to look at the individual needs of the student and how much they want to succeed in the subject of math. Remember that educational expenses may be tax deductible at the end of the year, depending on the state you live in. Therefore, it is imperative that you save your receipts and ask your accountant further questions.

About the Author:

My name is Ishmael Robinson. I have been an educator for 11 years working with students from K-12. My experience consist of teaching math, serving as an administrator and teaching others how to use technology. Please visit my website for more information at http://www.tutorfi.com/ishmaelrobinson

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/tutoring-articles/six-characteristics-to-look-for-in-a-math-tutor-728402.html

How to Develop a Super Memory in Your Child

Author: Martin Mak

Anyone can be taught the skill of having a super, trained memory, even a child. When I hear someone say, “I can never remember faces.” Or “I can’t remember names, but I never forget a face.” I think how casually we treat our memory and how often we take it for granted. If a child or young student crams for an exam yet delivers a poor paper, adults have a convenient explanation, “a bad memory.” The young person, grateful for a way out of something that is perceived to be beyond his control, seizes the “bad memory” excuse, and often ends up using it for future failures.

It seems strange that we are comfortable in telling others of our mental shortcomings. We are constantly assuring one another of how poor we are at remembering, how we have no head for figures, and how we can’t even remember what we had for lunch. It is seen as a very natural state of affairs. Yet we need a good memory, and your child especially needs a good memory, or to improve his memory to pass exams. While our education system is not perfect and it can be sad that our children have to rely so much on their memory rather than truly understanding the subject. We may conclude that the entire system needs to be totally revamped, but if we still choose to place our children in a school, we must help them develop the necessary skills to handle it, and a good trained memory is the primary skill. Your child may be able to work out a math problem with brilliant accuracy, but if he can’t remember who was the first man to walk on the moon, when World War II ended or what the capital of Australia is, his report card will suffer.

A good memory is important because it helps to apply thinking and intelligence to a continuous stream of information. Most of us have yet to realize that we are all born with equal powers in our brain. If I were to tell you that there is no such thing as a bad memory, you may want to hold yourself up as an example to disprove me. But eminent psychologists who have researched the memory phenomenon can attest to my claim.

One marvel of the brain is a museum of microfilms, one of its most striking features being the back-up system. In those minute gray folds, tons of information get stored, which is why a tiny jolt of electricity can make you relive a scene from your childhood, a smell or fragrance can trigger a recall of another vivid memory. A super memory is already within you and your child. All you have to do is train it so that you can tap it whenever you need it. After all, every thing needs assistance to develop to its full potential.

To start with, don’t put the idea into your child’s head that he has a bad memory. He does not. If he seems to have forgotten something, don’t use phrases like “Why can’t you remember?” or “Why have you forgotten already?’ This will give him the false assumption that he has a poor memory. Instead, use more assuring phrases like “Of course you remember, think back carefully” or “It will come to you, just give it time.” Secondly, he aware that we don’t all learn or remember in the same way. Some of us remember best what we see and some remember better what we hear.

Our memory is like a bed-sheet on a clothesline, held up by pegs. If you use only one peg for a wide sheet, the wind will soon toss it about, and it won’t hang or dry properly. But if you use the right number of pegs, it will stay in place and dry thoroughly. To apply this analogy to the trained memory, in this case, the “hearing” or auditory memory, if you tell your child to say Eisenhower, he may get stuck and be unable to say it because the “pegs” in his brain have been unable to catch it. But if you break the word down to its phonetic units, I-sen-how-wer and say it slowly and clearly, his brain will seize each syllable and commit it to memory.

The same principle applies to “sight” or visual memory too. You can train your child’s brain first to focus on tiny details to “peg” or anchor each one into the brain, then to give every important detail equal attention until the full picture is stored in his brain. Good memory is about good observation. With good observation skills, a child’s memory can be improved, and much can be recalled later.

About the Author:

Martin Mak has developed a new program to help people enhance their memory and learning experience. Find out how with his free and popular ecourse at

http://www.mightymemory.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/childhood-education-articles/how-to-develop-a-super-memory-in-your-child-759209.html

Educate Your Schooler the Fun Way

How to Educate Your Schooler the Fun Way

Author: Rachel Nunez

Fun should always be incorporated in teaching children. This is to avoid boredom and decreased concentration. Learning never stops. It continues amongst friends and within the confines and safety of the home. School age children are a little bit challenging to teach. So fun in learning should always be the main concern when it comes to educating them.



As we all know, concentration is very important for the child to absorb all those facts that they need. So they need some extra help from friends they find very interesting at their age. Characters they are familiar with from afternoon cartoon shows, animated movies and motion pictures facilitate the needed interest for learning. Games played with parents and grandparents as well fill in the gaps for bonding and family time, which also develop a heightened sense of appreciation for family and life values.



It is true that children need to learn as much as they can as early as they can . Both home and school environments help them in attaining this vital goal. But they do not have to be boxed up in a room filled with books, pencils, and whiteboards to be educated especially with the certain age and developmental stage they are in.



Educational toys play a very important role in introducing the schooler to learning. These toys are extra special because they do not only give fun and entertainment to the child but also enhance skills that he or she needs in and out of the school. Here are some "oh so fun" ways to help teach your child without droning the life out of both of you!



1. Play old fashioned board games like chess, scrabble, monopoly, or even jenga. These have already been tested by time and have really helped develop the young mind through the years. Playing together as a family tightens family ties and the children grow more appreciative of the family that they have. When children go outside of the home, they interact more interestingly with other people as these games promote conversation between or among players.



2. Follow the present trends. This helps a lot especially when you go out on your own to buy a gift for your schooler. These days, because of the sudden explosion of computers and gadgetries, most children become instantly attracted to video games. Some may be portable or home installed but what is important is that these games are 3D and very interactive. As the adult who buys these games for them, do not forget the content of the game and the valuable skills they would eventually learn from what you have bought for them. Remember, children talk about these games when they get together at school or at play, so it is very important that you screen these games very well for them to learn more while having fun-thus, educational toys.



3. Find out what interests your child. You do not have to impose things that you think your children should know at their age. Always keep in mind that the needs of your child come first and not the satisfaction of teaching your child. Teaching is not the same as programming so have the extra effort of secretly snooping around to find out what really sparks your child's interests. If they are very much into a kind of sport, go ahead and ask them what sport they like to play and perhaps enrolling them in a special class and buying them the correct starter equipment would help them enhance their skills in that particular area. If your children like to plant or are fascinated by plants, take them to a botanical garden and after that, perhaps purchase a starter gardening set which could also teach you a thing or two while having fun with your children.



4. Be creative. Toys are products of the imagination. They are materialized imaginary friends, cartoon characters, superheroes, and perhaps dream jobs that your child would want to have when they grow up. So, if you have the imagination and the resourcefulness to match, you do not have to spend a single dime to have that ideal educational toy for your child. You could make cut outs for your child to make a story with, you could make puzzles out of construction paper, you could make craft projects out of old magazines, or you could make a lab set up using recycled materials. What is important is that you are there to facilitate your child's learning while having fun, even if the toy doesn't come with a price tag.



5. Do not be afraid of change. Children shift interests easily because of what they watch on TV or because of the everyday lessons that they learn from school with friends. This results to a varied change in interest which could actually blow your mind if you get fixated on your child's prior interest. Be prepared for a sudden change in interest, always be supportive of the change, but let your child know that they should finish a project that they both of you have started first, before moving on to the new point of interest. This allows your child to appreciate each effort and hard work that the two of you have poured out into every game, every sport, every trip and every educational toy. Do not worry and do not get yourself worn out with the shifts and changes. Eventually, as children grow and develop more, they would find their own niche and that favorite interest will be part of their personality for the rest of his or her life.



Being there for your child is very important especially during the starter years when basic knowledge about life and the world around us is established. For parents whose children are only beginning life in school, it may seem difficult to get a firm grip on the techniques that to be kept in mind in order to help them learn the important lessons. Most of the time, the pressure of getting good grades is greater for the parent or adult guardian than on the child. This does not have to be. Just be there for your child and never forget to add FUN to each subject.



Cooperate with your children and try to see things through their eyes. With this, you could very well educate your schoolers the way that is suitable for their learning style. Just always be patient and supportive. See educational toys as partners in educating your child the fun way.

About the Author:
For more tips and information about educational toys, check out http://www.thekidstoystore.com/science-kits.html .

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/how-to-educate-your-schooler-the-fun-way-754590.html