It will come as no surprise, given the current situation, that the pace of home schooling and distance learning is accelerating. I could quote all sorts of stats, but I think you know it's true. Parents need help, and I have some ideas.
There's a lot to read here, so the menu at left will help you zero in on each concern.
Who am I
My name is Jim Henriques, and I am a retired physicist with over 30 years experience teaching Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physical Science. That last subject is pertinent, because for 18 years taught Physical Science to Elementary and Middle School student teachers. I also taught Math 096 (Intermediate Algebra) at TMCC Spring 2020, the last half of the course being online for obvious reasons. Topics mentioned below are from that course.
Who are you
You're in the North Valleys of Reno (Cold Springs / Lemmon) and are the parent(s) of a child whom you are either home schooling or is enrolled in a distance learning program, and you need help with their Math (and maybe science) lessons. If Mom's an engineer and Dad's an accountant, you probably don't need me, but if you come from, say, a Fine Arts background (as I do!) my sense is that your familiarity with subjects like Algebra, Trigonometry, etc. has faded in lieu of more immediate concerns like family and careers.
Will I tutor your child?
I have tutored high school students in the past (fun fact: I tutored Rene Auberjonois's [M*A*S*H*, Benson, Deep Space Nine] kids when I was living in LA), so sure, I'll tutor yours - for $50 per hour. Why this much? As a grad student in Atlanta in 1984 I got $20 an hour for tutoring which is, adjusting for inflation, $50 now. But I think it's more efficient and cost effective to consider first what I am proposing.
What I am proposing
I propose to help you with the mathematical subjects you help you kids with. As you read above, I taught Physical Science to Elementary and Middle School student-teachers who weren't much younger than you. And I've taught Algebra online, so I can do this.
A few comments from my students at TMCC:
"Thank you so much, I really enjoyed your class. I definitely learned a lot this semester! Thanks for helping us through a complicated semester."
"You are a great teacher, thanks for your effort."
"I can genuinely say that I very much appreciate you and your style of teaching. I have never had a math instructor that simplified everything quite like you have and I am very glad I was in your class."
Courses, etc.
When I went to school (right after dirt was invented!) here's what I had and when I had it:
- 7th Grade: Pre-algebra
- 8th Grade: Algebra I
- 9th Grade: Algebra II
- 10th Grade: Geometry
- 11th Grade: Precalculus
- 12th Grade: Calculus
I've taught all the above in college, substituting Trigonometry for Geometry and Business Calculus for Calc I (Also Algebra III, but you're not likely to need that).
So these are the courses we're talking about.
How will we do this?
Maybe when all the restrictions are lifted we can meet in person, but for now I'm thinking a Zoom or MS Teams meeting, with no more than 5 or 6 participants at a time.
Why not 10 or 20? Because I am adamant that we have a collaborative environment, and too many people present in a meeting might be intimidating for those with questions. Now, I could teach a full lesson on solving rational equations or complex numbers to a big assembly, but there are scores of good canned lessons out there for that. What we need to build is an environment where you can say "Wait! What just happened?" when I use a conjugate to rationalize a denominator (sounds like fun already, right?). If there are too many attendees, some may become too shy to ask.
But I think this is what you need, a kind of instant gratification in deciphering the materials your child is presented with. And if I haven't been convincing enough, think about this: WORD PROBLEMS! Friends, Physics is really an endless series of word problems so I can definitely help you with them.
What about individual meetings? I feel collaboration is better. Think about it: you talk to other parents about the joys and difficulties of child rearing, you share news of opportunities and pitfalls for your kids. I'd like you to also share what you've learned and what you're still working on with others in our group, outside of the meetings. Help other parents and you'll understand the material better.
BUT if you really want, I can do individual sessions with you.
Cost
If we have 5 or 6 attendees at each hour long meeting, I can ask for my 1984 number of $20 from each of you per meeting. That's much less than $50, and I think group work more useful, especially if your child has younger siblings who will be needing the similar assistance in years to come; you'll be prepared!
And again, if you really want individual tutoring, I'll do it for $50 per.
Logistics
We can be flexible as to when and how many times per week we meet, and about what we'll do at any particular meeting. Maybe a group of you is using the same curriculum; if so we can target those areas that are most troublesome. Maybe sometimes a flat out lesson is needed, or maybe we have a general help session on a variety of topics.
This we can work out together. We'll need to get some kind of thread going somewhere, and I would resist a service that charges us or beats us up with advertising and data collection (I'm looking at you Facebook).
So for the moment here's my email address:
NVHTA @ esunit16 dot com
I separated the above to foil spambots. Eventually we'll do everything in our online group.
BTW, if you are wondering what the heck esunit16 is, that's the website I own for my musical adventures - yes, I am a working musician, or at least I was until the shutdowns hit. Poke around sometime!
Textbooks
I don't need a text to teach, but you're all going to have a book or similar coursework. The materials you received for a curriculum may be so well written that you need only a little help, but things have changed to distance learning so abruptly that I don't think there has been time enough to 'stress test' the texts and ancillaries.
That means you'll need an interpreter. Sadly, I don't have a library of all the middle- and high-school math texts used in Northern Valley schools, so when you come to something hazy you'll have to get me a scan of the appropriate pages. If your webcam is good enough maybe you can just hold the book to the camera!
Should we organize our meetings around common texts?
And one day, we'll have to have the 'textbook talk'...the things I could tell you!
Calculators
This is a whole other can of worms, and I'm sorry it is because I'm a big believer in calculators. That said, every school will have its own policy. I've taught Algebra II classes with minimal need for a calculator and others based around a powerful Ti (Texas Instruments), so we'll have to address this individually as we go along. But here are a couple of guidelines:
If your child is headed into a STEM program, get a Ti eighty-something; they aren't cheap but they are powerful and durable;
If your child is ultimately headed towards a career in the Arts, a cheap scientific calculator should be sufficient (a ten-key basic calculator won't do).
On my Android phone I have Graph 89, a decent Ti-89 simulator; Apple probably has something similar. There are even more powerful calculator apps, but that'd be overkill. Besides, I doubt any teacher will allow a phone during a test, but an app will do if things are tight.
What about me teaching a 'pod'?
We could do this, but I would want parental oversight to both keep the kids on task and assure you of a safe online environment. I'm the nicest guy in the world, but you as a parent hold your child's safety above all else, and I would want you to always feel comfortable if I am to work with your children.
We'd need to discuss this in detail.
If you're in
Please email me at the address above. So that I can begin to organize please tell me:
- What mathematical subjects you'll be helping your child with;
- How comfortable you are with mathematics;
- If you are home schooling or distance learning or just helping with homework;
- The online platform you've been using (Zoom, etc.);
- Generally when a good online meeting time is;
- I'm in Cold Springs Valley - where are you?
- Requests, concerns, suggestions.
I'll start a list and do some initial organizing. I'd like to get this going for Winter session 2021. We might start with a big (free) online meeting for us to get a sense of what it looks like and what is needed.
Closing thoughts
I don't want to usurp your kids' teachers; if they have a certain way they want their students to do things, I bow to their expertise.
No contracts. If one session was all you needed, great. If you want to be proactive and sit in on every topic, that's great too. No hard feelings if you stop after a couple of meetings because my idea just isn't working out for you.
Payment is strictly honor system. I'm not looking to buy a chateau at Tahoe, but I feel my time is worth something. I want to keep this informal, so we can use Paypal, Zelle, or something.
No testing, unless you want a practice test. I have no authority to grade or proctor anything that goes into your child's educational record.
Ethics: I really don't want to be solving problems for which your child will get credit. That's not ethical, and we need to have an understanding about that.
I kind of buried the lead here, but I am a Physicist; we aren't limited to Math help. If you want to set up something like this for Physical Science/Astronomy I'm open, but that's a whole other discussion.
We're going to have an entirely secular sessions.
I'm anticipating that there are a couple of dozen families in the North Valleys who can use my assistance; if word gets out and folks from Sparks or Carson City want to join in I'll quickly get swamped. I'll have to consider the work load (I LIKE being retired!) and may ask one of you with management skills to advise me.
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