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| "JovialJman is so cool, he teaches people by folding his arms and ignoring them. Or by letting the lady behind him that you probably didn't notice deal with it." - OddballGreg |
Teaching people things is a difficult thing to do. Sometimes because the person doesn't want to learn, or because what they're trying to learn is hard to understand. In my experience, learning to teach people what they need to know to do something correctly is both difficult and necessary for their success. Let's talk about that.
I have always been that guy who helps people out when it comes to maths, and I have found that oftentimes people don't understand the things they are doing in maths, but try to do it anyway so they can get it done and out the way (Rather than serving detention). Since realizing that, I started teaching people maths in a way that helps them to understand what it is that they are actually doing at school and now (for a fee) and I enjoy it.
Two years ago, I would never have said that I would ever enjoy teaching but when it comes to maths it has turned out to be something I quite enjoy. The only problem being that I have a bit of a low tolerance to people that don't really listen. (A rather big problem if you have many people asking you to tutor them.).
I have, so far, tutored two people this year, (and two while I was still in school), and from what I could understand from them, is that I actually help them understand the concepts behind the maths which made it easier for them to do and easier to remember the steps as a result. My memory is something to laugh at but maths I can just do even though I don't always know how to explain it to someone. I can however do it because I understand the meaning behind what I am doing as I work towards the answer.
There are different ways to go about teaching, (which I found out while trying to learn how to teach, yes you have to learn to teach believe it or not, bachelors in education are not silly qualifications.). I tried to see where the person was at with their thought process and build on that and correct the errors; as starting from the beginning means a lot of time might be wasted on stuff they know really well already. After you have found out how they approach different problems you can get them to refine their actions and provide a more secure way of achieving the answer or become faster at the approach they are already using by improving their understanding of the methods and the reasons behind them.
Unfortunately, my overconfidence with maths did me from getting the matric mark I wanted as I did not concentrate on the different aspects of certain questions and, liking getting to the answer straight away, I left out crucial steps where in maths you have to show how you got to the answer to be fully awarded the makrs. This is really annoying in my opinion but it is something that they must keep in place. This allows the people that do not understand the different parts in maths too well to try and understand the steps and get at least some of the marks, instead of giving up hopelessly, (even though some still do that).
Despite all that, teaching is not as easy as I thought it might have been. I have had my struggles and downfalls, but I always managed to get it right in the end thanks to hard work, a good understanding of maths, and my humbling experience in the form of worse than expected school results. I will say thank you to all the teachers out there that may be reading this as you must put up with a lot from your pupils and yet you still go at it day after day. I commend you. So for those of you that cause mischief in the class, do remember that the teacher does what that they do for your benefit, not theirs. Without teachers, our regular lives would not be possible, so keep that in mind the next time you want to be painful in class.
In any case, that's all I've got for the topic of tutoring for now. Do you teach people and appreciate just how much it takes to teach properly, or are you a trouble maker in class for whatever reason, please let us know down in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter. If you enjoyed this post and would like to read the newest posts as they are published then please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Do you have any friends that would like to become a teacher one day, or a friend that causes trouble in class despite how hard these unfortunate teachers work; if so, please share this with them to show what teachers and tutors go through to help expand the minds of their students. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and I shall write again overmorrow.
Learn hard comrades.
