Tutor in Calabasas, CA 91302

I have five years teaching experience at the College level in Mathematics and Statistics, three years experience tutoring Mathematics at K-14 level, and a year and a half teaching Mathematics and Statistics at the K-12 level. I have a PhD in Mathematics with a specialization in Statistics and Finite Mathematics. I hold a California Junior College Teaching Credential.

I have designed web sites, and can teach HTML and CSS. I also have can teach Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, since my hobby is Graphic Design. At elementary levels Mathematics is often taught as an un-creative exercise in following rules. This is partly because teachers don't have advanced training in Mathematics and are using canned instructional materials. Rules are easily forgotten, but concepts are easy to remember, so to insure future success it's important to take the longer path to understanding instead of the shortcut of following rules. That is why I emphasize understanding. I assume that, most of the time, if a student fails to understand a concept then it's the fault of the teacher; there are many ways to explain a concept in Mathematics, and each is appropriate to a different kind of student. It's not that practice is not important; practice is important, but practice in following a rule you don't understand has no value.

Mathematics is often characterized as un-creative. Often teachers fail to communicate the creativity involved with this subject. It's true that usually students at the K-12 are working with Mathematics that was created centuries ago; but those things had to be created. The fact is, even at the K-12 level there are new inventive things that a student can create and discover in Mathematics.

Look up Srinivasa Ramanujan. He was born to a poor indian family in 1887. He started his education in Mathematics at age 10. Without access and in isolation, he reinvented Mathematics that was being invented in Europe and established new Mathematical ideas.