I’ve only been a tutor at Study Hut for two weeks, but I am most impressed with my students who are well-organized. What does a well-organized student do? They fill out their agendas with all their homework and upcoming tests/quizzes. They fully take advantage of their planners. They bring in all their books and homework worksheets to the tutoring session (those that do not have the correct materials, just end up wasting time by having to call someone to bring the book or having the tutor waste time figuring what the student has to do). The well-organized students are able to get more from their tutoring session because they have a plan for what to do before they even show up to study hut. They know what classes they have homework in and are able to assess their weakest subjects so that we can spend the session working on that subject.
One of my most organized students is Tim, a junior, from Mira Costa High. Tim mainly comes for help in Geometry and Chemistry. While he may not know how to do the problems at first glance, after an explanation of the concept behind the problems, he is able to work out similar problems by himself. One of the main reasons why Tim is able to do this is because he writes down all his work on paper. I constantly stress to my students to show all their work because if they get the wrong answer, they can go back and pinpoint exactly where they made a mistake. This enables the student to make a mental note of the mistake they made and not make it again in the future. Tim also comes to each session with an attack plan on what to do during the session and he always knows whether he has an upcoming quiz or test.
In all, to stay ahead of the game that is school, one needs to be organized by making full use of the planner and to show all relevant work when doing homework!
Everyone who comes in for tutoring at the Hut has the same goal: to do better academically. Of course, methods and results can vary drastically from person to person. So, a major question that everyone should ask themselves as they walk in here is this: “What can I do to make the most out of my Study Hut experience?”
Now, some people might think that the smartest students are automatically the ones who will do best. I am here to tell you, this is not the case. Natural intelligence is rare. The one common quality, or “common denominator” for you math fans out there, is attitude. All of the students who show the most improvement all have that in common: a great attitude. It doesn’t matter if you’re Albert Einstein; if you come in here with no interest in working, no desire to improve, and no excitement for the material, odds are you won’t make much progress. The students whose scores improve the most are the one’s who come in with the goal of doing BETTER. They may not understand the material well, or even at all, but they want that to change and are prepared to work for it. Some of our students come in knowing EXACTLY what they want to work on, have done the appropriate preparation, and eagerly accept the tutor’s help. Other students come in mumbling, having no prep work done, and couldn’t care less if they learn the material. I’ll give you one guess as to who has the more rewarding experience.
Attitude is what it comes down to. The one’s that want to learn, and are excited about learning are usually to one’s to excel. And they’re ALWAYS the one’s to appreciate the Hut the most.
For older students the incentives are easier to see, better math skills lead to higher grades. For younger children the final incentives of productive studying are harder to see, which is why we sometimes need to provide an extra boost of encouraged learning with a small piece of candy for a correct answer. Getting students in the mood to learn, and to appreciate their education can be one of the hardest things to accomplish as a tutor.
When the students learn how useful math can be to them and how they can apply specific math skills to real-life situations, they work harder and perform better. Mathematics revolves our daily lives. Teaching kids about everyday uses of math helps them to better understand the real world around them. Some examples of everyday uses of math included: problem solving, budgeting money, time management, calculating tips and tax, memorizing important number data i.e. phone numbers and locker combinations, and estimating distances and weights. These real world skills have major benefits towards the academic success of an individual, and can lead to a greater success in careers that you might not expect to be math-intensive such as, agriculture, law, business, politics, psychology, and music.
Daily mental math exercises to help keep your brain active are a great way to stay on top of your mathematical game. Solving puzzles and exercises such as, suduku or homework problem sets, keeps your mind sharp and ready to tackle any challenge. Mathematics may seem to be an underrated subject, but it has lasting influences in our lives everyday. From the moment we wake up to check the clock, to the number of hours we work each day to make a living, we are constantly surrounded by numbers.
I am currently an academic tutor at Study Hut Tutoring in Redondo Beach. Every week here at the “hut” is a new experience. Last week one of my students absolutely blew me away! She started with us this summer and attends Redondo Union High School. When she came in the first few times for math tutoring it was obvious that she wished she were elsewhere. As the summer progressed she opened up slowly when we talked about music, or clothes, or yes, boys! (I went there!) Last Tuesday she walked in holding a can of whipped cream and exclaimed “I’m gonna be here for while!”. She went to kitchen filled two cups with coffee and told me “You have to try this”, as she packed on the delicious whipped cream. We sipped our indulgent treat as we tackled her math homework. Near the end of her hour it became evident that she still had more work to do. She asked if she could stick around even though I had another kid coming. She sat at the other table throughout my next two sessions, drinking sweet coffee and working steadily. Three months ago she would NOT have chosen to stay here for two additional hours! Now she sees Study Hut as her place– a place she can hangout at– and she has changed her mind about school.
Throughout my four years in college I was a tutor, now a grad student, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything work as well as Study Hut’s approach. Everything from the relaxed decor to our energetic tutors make this place conducive to truly enjoying tutoring.
Nowadays, kids rely heavily upon their calculator for simple arithmetic. Most of us know our multiplication tables and how to multiple or divide some easier numbers. When the numbers start to get more complex thought, people get very frustrated and don’t even attempt to figure it out without a calculator. Here are some tips for doing mental math:
Say we wanted to multiply 12 by 23. Not too hard to do by hand or calculator, but when most are asked what the answer is without a calculator, their response is without thought, “I do not know”. You can always break these numbers down into problems that are much easier to do in your head:
First let’s look at something like 12×20. 20 is 2×10, so 12×20 is just 12x(2×10). Since 12×2 is 24 and 24×10 is 240, 12×20=240.
Now, let’s look at 12×23. The trick here is to rewrite one of the numbers as the sum of two numbers we can easily multiply, then use distributive property to make the one multiplication the sum of two easier multiplications. We can write 23 at 20+3. So, 12(23) = 12(20+3) which by the distributive property is 12(20) +12(3) = 240 +36 = 276. Since 12×20 and 12×3 are easy to do in the head, multiplying 12×23 can be just as easy if you can keep track of a few extra numbers.
Similarly 12 = 10+2, so (12)23= (10+2)23 = 10(23) +2(23) = 230+46 = 276. Either way, it isn’t as hard as most people think it is.
The next trick is to change the numbers we are multiplying. What is 15×18? Well, 18=2×9, so 15×18 = 15x(2×9) = (15×2)x9 = 30×9. Again, 30 = 3×10, so 30×9 is 10x(3×9) = 10×27 = 270. While this may seem like a lot of steps, once you get the hang of it, you can do this really quickly in your head.
These tricks work well for numbers under 100. When you get above 100, the tricks work the same, there are just more numbers to keep track of. Once you get the hang of keeping track of all the numbers, bigger numbers will become just as easy to multiply.
Try these in your head:
18×32 [18=20-2 so 18×32 = (20-2)x32 = 20(32)-2(32)= 640-64=576]
Many people think math is really boring. This is because, for the most part, teachers are lame and don’t make the material interesting. There is a lot of cool and weird mathematics out there that kids unfortunately are not exposed to. Here are a couple of interesting mathematical oddities that will hopefully spark some interest in math:
You want to find the sum of the infinite series 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-… This pattern repeats forever. At first glance, you would likely say (1-1)+(1-1)+(1-1)+… = 0+0+0+0+… and conclude the sum is 0. At second glance you may say the 1+(-1+1) +(-1+1) +(-1+1) +(-1+1) = 1+0+0+0+0+… = 1. Turns out both of these are wrong and the sum turns out to be ½. Here is why:
Let’s call the sum of the series S, whatever it may be. So, S = 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-…
Now, look at 1-S. We get 1-S = 1- [1-1+1-1+1-1+1-…] = 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-… = S. This is the same as our original series. We just showed that 1-S = S which means that 1=2S or that S=1/2. Pretty crazy that you can add 1 and -1 infinitely many times to get ½.
Here is another cool little proof why 1=2:
Let a =b. Then a2 = ab.
So, a2+ a2 = a2+ab or 2a2 = a2+ab.
Now, Subtract 2ab from both sides of the equation. Doing so, we get:
2a2 -2ab= a2+ab-2ab
So, 2a2 -2ab= a2-ab
Now, we factor out a 2 from the left side of the equation which leave us with:
2(a2+ab) = a2+ab
Divide both sides by a2+ab leaves us with:
2=1.
Take a close look though. While everything seems to be right, we all know 2 does not equal 1. Can you find the erroneous step? If not, come to the Study Hut and we can show you what’s up.
Yesterday was a busy Thursday. In fact, every school week there is a busy Thursday, whether you come to Study Hut Tutoring or not. With tests and quizzes, homework and projects, six classes of papers going in and out of the backpack everyday and all your friends jammed into one classroom, the task of managing a workload is impossible. Am I right? Let us take a quick look of how this impossible situation appears when our 8th grader Corey sits down for his tutoring hour. Corey is a very sharp student who is able to breeze through his pre-algebra assignments. He is very capable in other areas too. He is maintaining a strong grade in social studies, however, his grades dont reflect his intelligence.
So what is the matter? What do we do? How can we bump up these “C” grades up if Corey doesn’t need help with the actual subject matter? Lucky for Corey, the Study Hut knows exactly what to do. After speaking with his mom, I know she is frustrated with Corey’s sluggish performance around the house. So now Corey is at Study Hut, sitting down with me. The first thing I do is look at his daily planner. It is a bad sign when the whole thing is blank. The planner is the tool that fosters accountability, so if the planner is blank, Corey isn’t even accountable with himself, let alone with parents, teachers, and his tutor. The next step is manually going through the backpack. This is crucial to set the record straight and explain the reasoning and utility of behind using the daily planner.
After all, why do something if it doesn’t serve a greater purpose, save time, or help in the short term and in the long term. Young students are no different. You would never do a lot of things the right way if there was no direct or indirect benefit. After digging through every subject and organizing the folder, we see that there is a pile of old, completed work that can go into a folder and can be stashed away at home in the closet. The other pile was larger than I would like. This pile had a ton of incomplete work. Our plan from here on out at home everyday and at tutoring is as follows:
1)Write in the planner for every subject, during each class period, every week.
2) take notes each class period, everyday
3) make a list prior to tutoring of what we will be working on at Study Hut, and what will still have to be done at home.
4) Make one study tool (flashcards, outline, study guide, practice test) for each class each week.
5) show all of this to the tutor to remain accountable during bi-weekly tutoring sessions.
These simple tasks will, and have already started to, pull grades up, increase accountability, and lead to domination.
After missing a few consecutive days of school due to illness, a local Manhattan Beach Middle School Student (who shall go unnamed) was inundated by a surge of school work. Having missed many critical days of instruction, his class left him behind and he didn’t have the study skills to catch up on his own. He failed his first quiz after returning and wrestled with hopelessness and despair.
He met his teacher after school, but still couldn’t quite understand the lessons completely. Lacking confidence in his understanding of the material, he turned the tv on…and yes, mom was well aware. Stressed and working a full schedule herself, his mom was unable to help him understand his math concepts and therefore she couldn’t help him catch up. Struggling to keep his head above water, the student was desperate to find help. After talking to some teachers and parents, Mom heard about the Study Hut… and not a moment too soon!
After only two hour-long visits, the student caught up on all his school work, and felt confident working with the material. After two more visits, he was able to get ahead of the curve by mastering the math concepts from the chapter that his class had yet to cover!
Working with the same tutor each session, the student was able to master his homework as well as develop concrete study skills that he will use for the rest of his student career. Today, his scores and self-esteem are on the rise his and new study skills have given him the confidence to study on his own.
After a month of working with a personal tutor at Study Hut, he’s come from teetering on the brink of failure to blossoming. His scores have risen steadily and now he is a leader in class.
Attention Palos Verdes students: Are you struggling with math, or more specifically with algebra? Well at Study Hut Tutoring, we have plenty of well qualified tutors that can assist you with this difficult and frustrating subject. Study Hut Tutoring has assisted several students from Palos Verdes High School in all areas throughout a year’s worth of algebra 1 and 2. Whether it’s analyzing inequalities, graphing linear functions, or the dreaded factoring of polynomials, Study Hut Tutoring will not only teach students the proper steps to solving problems, but will help point out more efficient approaches to problems, so that algebra students don’t get stuck working on a problem for five minutes when it could have been done in 30 seconds!
Here at Study Hut Tutoring, students typically bring in their daily homework and work one on one with an experienced algebra tutor. Read the rest of this entry »
Spring is in the air in the South Bay, and finals are right around the corner at Redondo Union High School. As tutors, we know that one of the subjects that requires the most practice and review is Spanish, especially around finals season! With our one-on-one sessions, we not only help students understand supplementary vocabulary, but we also help students get a better handle on how to properly execute correct grammar. With the year coming to a close, the newest material is often the hardest to understand in the least time to understand it. Read the rest of this entry »
