Mohammad Abdullah

What lights my fire is the idea of bringing out the potential of young people through my love of the Mathematical world. After my PGCE in Secondary Mathematics, also enabling me to teach Primary, I decided to use my Psychology degree knowledge to work with those who had barriers to their learning and started teaching at an ASD provision. From here, I grew my experience which has allowed me to be in the fortunate position of being able to offer you my skills today.

Mathematics has always been a passion of mine and has been part of my teaching since the very start. From P1 and entry level to functional skills and GCSE, the material I have covered and taught is extensive. Having been a Mathematics Coordinator, I’ve managed and dealt with the needs of other Teachers and advised on optimum strategies to help them engage their students.

Confidence is felt through positive framing/reframing and appropriate bouts of praise. My focus is never on what the student gets wrong, as it’s all about celebrating what they did right (I can always something positive to say) and building upon that. I would rather ask simpler questions as oppose to stating the answer, as this encourages them to answer the question themselves (which always feels better). Self esteem feeds on confidence and results in an upward spiral of development.

Tutoring Experience

Maths and Special Needs teaching in primary and secondary schools from 2001 to present with a 3 year period teaching English in Poland, 2012-2015. Private tuition in Maths and Primary English.

Tutoring Approach

My approach is student-centred, as it must be.

Involving students themselves and encouraging teamwork are ways that I’ve found that bring a light hearted approach to learning but still gets the job done. Tangible objects that they can manipulate (e.g. playing cards, bricks, magnetic numbers, plastic cups), physical activities (e.g. human number line, measuring a range of things in different places) and interactive ICT has helped foster a sense of fun in my lessons.

Gaining attention of students who are challenged in keeping focus starts with building the necessary relationship with them. Through that connection, I have found their dominant learning style and, above all else, their interests. I use this as a hook to help gain some insight into their world and find activities that are in synch with them as an individual. Once found, the structure I use is based on a carousel that incorporates multisensory experiences, interactive games and breathing space for movement breaks to avoid information overload.

The curriculum I have delivered over the years has been wide-ranging and, as a core subject, has included English and literacy. Using resources such as Makaton, symbol writing software (Widget), colourful semantics, picture comprehension, spot-the-difference and keyword identification, I have developed the literacy skills of my students. Along with interactive approaches (role play, music, Guess Who games), I help create engaging sessions that play to the student’s varying learning styles. I support more complex learning through comprehension exercises of greater word length involving topics that the students find personally stimulating. Finding the area of interest that really fires up a student and captures their attention and imagination is almost more important than anything else.

The overall aim is to make students realise that they can work out the solutions themselves; plenty of worked examples around a main problem-question/area are given, as well as some consolidation work to do before the next lesson. Real-life contextualisation is always provided to make the subject matter less abstract.

Availability:
Mon-Fri: 10.30am-12.30pm, 7.00pm-9.00pm (except Tuesdays)
Weekends: upon discussion