Tutoring Rocks

Today I started tutoring my third student with Club Z. I suppose I should use pseudonyms to protect the innocent .... so, um, Randy was having trouble with Trig, and a needed help with Chemisty too. We focused mainly on Trig for this first meeting, because that's where he was struggling more. Randy is this super-personable, chatty 17-year-old guy who characterized himself as "lazy." I don't think so! No "lazy" person wants to understand WHY the Law of Cosines works.

We started out looking at the half-angle and double-angle formulas, and it turned out that they used the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines, and then it turned out that the Law of Cosines used a trig identity... anyway, we ferretted out the underlying truths together, and it was really hugely gratifying for me.

Tangent: about six or seven years ago, I lost something irreplaceable: the red felt Christmas stocking that my mom had sewed and decorated for me when I was a small child. It had a happy felt snowman and a green felt Christmas tree, all surrounded with sewn-on buttons and sparkly bits. To me, this stocking WAS Christmas, never mind that it was something my mom made me.

I had moved six times in just three years, including treks from MA to VA (and then back again). After several fruitless searches, I gave up. I owned up to my mom (hard moment) who promptly began a new stocking for me.

Then, guess what? I found it. Once I found it, I knew just what had happened. I'd been home for Christmas (or maybe at Grandma's house, I'm not 100% sure), and I had received (among other things) a Lego castle kit. I had put it together, but then to travel home I'd taken it apart again. Given the handy box with empty space, I put a pair of snowman-themed red socks inside -- and my Christmas stocking. I'd spotted the Lego box during each move, and each time I thought, "Oh, I don't need to get any Legos out." I never looked inside, year after year.

Figuring out the Law of Cosines was like finding that stocking. I knew I had it somewhere in storage, hoped I did, had half-heartedly given it up for lost -- but *poof*, when I was looking at something else it turned out to be stored in a box all jumbled together with other knowledge. One thing about me I've always liked is that I rarely forget something I've read or seen. Stuff I've just heard, I sometimes can't remember more than a few seconds. (I'm the person on teh phone who says, again and again, "Could you slow down please? Could you say that number again?") Unfortunately, my mind is like my stored boxes after too many moves: everything is shoved together in boxes that don't reveal their contents.

Digging through the boxes in my head is one enjoyable part of tutoring. I truly enjoyed learning stuff in high school! I rocked at high-school math, it was great. I didn't get sullen about it until college, when I found out that MIT counted my two f-ing years of Calculus as one piddling semester of credit. I got a 5 on the BC exam, for heaven's sake! (Obviously: I'm still not over this one.) But Trig and Geometry -- man alive, I love this stuff.

The other part I like is getting to know some high-school students. I have a feeling I've been given the older kids because their is a dearth of people with ClubZ who are able/willing to tutor in math. It's so ironic to me, considering how much I avoided math in college.... although perhaps we can lay that aversion at the feet of my college boyfriends, both of whom were wicked math geniouses.

Anyway, back to the students.... my first student was Isabel, who was struggling in Geometry. Her grandpa had been helping her up until recently with math, but once the proofs started he couldn't help her anymore. Why? Isabel's parents and grandparents were all native Ukranians, with varying English skills. I suspect the amount of English required for writing proofs eluded Grandpa. Certainly they were all very, very smart. Isabel's mom had jumped through all the necessary hoops (seven year's worth!) to transfer her Ukranian MD to the U.S. She spoke fluent English, and Isabel had no accent -- but mostly I dealt with with the grandparents. They seemed eager for her to do well, and to do lots of work -- we had some odd conversations:

Grandma: Give her more work! She needs work more!
Me: I left her with some extra problems...
Grandma: It's no problem! Give her extra work!

After six weeks, I was really getting into it. But, then Isabel got accepted into a weekend math program in Boston, and her parents decided that would be enough extra help. Truthfully, she was probably going to be just fine; I was sad to lose the contact though.

My second student, River, just started a week ago. She's this brilliant girl -- honors everything, quick as a whip. River's getting help because she's dropped to a B in one class, Pre-Calculus. Her mom is worried about her not getting the basics, and having that hurt her later on -- also a lot of the Pre-calc topics show up on the SAT IIs, which River has to take this spring. Smart, all the way around. I have to say, between the subject matter and her super-brightness, I am at the limits of my ability to teach. Staying one step ahead of her will be quite a challenge!

I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed tutoring, and how much I look forward to sessions with these kids. Using a part of my brain that doesn't get trotted out very often is fun, fun, fun.