Adrian

My name is Adrian and I recently moved back to Newcastle to work in Data Analytics. I am looking to spread my knowledge and love of maths through tutoring.

Tutoring Experience

Over the course of the 2015/16 academic year I worked towards and obtained my Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Mathematics. Due to the nature of this course I have taught students of all abilities with varying learning needs from Year 7 to Year 13. Although not a teacher of Primary Education I have spent time working in a primary school and feel confident in my abilities to teach such ages.

Since qualifying as a teacher I have spent time working in a local secondary school with my focus being on students with various learning and behavioural needs. I have also been tutoring multiple Year 11s on their approach to their GCSE exams.

Aside from my time working in schools I spent time during my second and third years of university as a PASS leader helping to run sessions for first year Mathematics students. I also spent time in high school helping to run drama sessions for primary and secondary school students, as well as helping with GCSE drama performances.

Tutoring Approach

Over the final two years of my university education I was a mentor to students from Germany, China, Korea and Japan; I feel that being a mentor to these students is similar to teaching and tutoring. Due to the language barrier between myself and these students communication could at times be difficult, so various ways of explaining something had to be found, and it is the same with Mathematics. When teaching, it is about finding what works for the student and how to explain a given topic or concept.

The ability and maturity of the student is also an important factor that informs my approach to tutoring. There is a certain level of self-awareness and acceptance by the tutee as to what they need to work on that can also help plot the course of what is needed to be done and the content of sessions. Otherwise tailoring work and sessions to what they need can simply be a matter of going through their exercise book, looking at previous homework and going over schemes of work.

The final part of tutoring is less about the work itself but more so to do with confidence and resilience. At all levels and abilities, no matter the “set”, there are students that don’t believe they can do it. We have all struggled with topics and that is the same for myself and their school teachers, it is the promoting a sense of academic resilience and a “Yes I can” attitude that will truly allow them to succeed.