David

I graduated from University College Dublin in 2011 with a BSc in pure chemistry, then moved to California and completed the equivalent of the PGCE and then a Masters in Education with the University of California, Davis, and then taught chemistry in US public schools in the catchement areas of UCDavis and Stanford, and also in two socio-economically deprived schools, until 2022 (except for one year from 2020-2021 when I taught in a school in London) when I moved to the UK to begin a new degree in a new field.

Tutoring Experience

I taught at a number of state schools, mostly in California but also for a year in London. I have been a full-time teacher of chemistry for 7 years, and spent 2 years in the classroom as a student teacher and/or substitute teacher before that.

During these years I tutored many different students as a part of my regular job. My experience is largely based on the California standards, but having been raised and educated in Ireland, and having taught for a year in London, I am familiar with the structure and expectations of the English curriculum.

Tutoring Approach

Build foundational conceptual understanding first and apply mathematics later; doing the maths first means one can define a process without understanding why it happens, and in my professional view this is the reverse order in which a natural phenomenon should be understood.

With tutoring, I have the student come with specific questions about specific material and then work with them to solve the problems, checking understanding for the underlying concepts before engaging with mathematics; in the first half of any problem-solving talk, it is ideal that the student do the majority of the talking so the tutor can figure out what they know and what they are missing.