Math 2010 Tutoring Reflection Essay

Throughout this semester, I have been able to work with a group of fifth and sixth graders

at Navigator Pointe Academy. As a result, these students are anywhere from 10 to 12 years old.

We are currently going through 6 and 7 grade material. It has been beneficial to go through this

course while being in the classroom and seeing what I can work on to be a better future teacher.

I’m constantly learning strategies to approach different problems.

As I was tutoring, there were some rough patches as I was learning how to apply what I

was learning. As I mentioned in one of my past reflections, there was a tutoring session where I

was pretty congested so I couldn’t hear very well. I also happened to obtain the hiccups as math

started. I was working with one girl in particular for a good majority of the class and she is pretty

quiet. As she would ask questions, I couldn’t hear her or would misunderstand her. On top of that

she was getting confused on the rules for multiplying and dividing fractions. This was getting her

the wrong number over and over again. I tried to show her a simpler problem and explain why it

had to work this way, but she kept forgetting. I couldn’t think of any other learning strategies to

help her with this type of problem.

I’m not sure if it was because of my lack of hearing or she was just misunderstanding but

we both were getting frustrated. Finally, one of the students overheard and explained it in

different words which seemed to help. However, when she turned in her next assignment, she got

all of that type of problem wrong. The teacher that I work with helped me find a worksheet so

the student and I could work through it. We talked through a couple problems together and then I

let her work on her own. I think the repetition of solving the problems in the correct way will

help the rules stick. She is a professional now, but there were trying times and a lot of patience
involved. I learned to keep trying and use different strategies to teach if the student doesn’t

understand. Helping the students understand the why can also solve a lot of problems.

Although there was some rough patches, there have been experiences that make all those

hard times worth it. One of my favorite times was right after we learned to use visuals to

represent fractions in our Math 2010 class. The students were also learning about adding and

subtracting fractions and there was a girl that wasn’t understanding. She would forget fractions

had to have the same denominators, would add denominators, didn’t understand how to borrow,

or would get some random number. I sat down with her to see what she was struggling with. I

decided to do a sample problem with her on a sticky note and use visualizations of pies to help

her understand using simpler problems. Using visual aids helped her dramatically. She began to

understand why she wasn’t supposed to just put a one in front when she borrowed, or that the

denominators wouldn’t also be added together. There are a lot of hard working students in that

class that like to figure out why things work. They are smart but sometimes give up too easy. I

love using the 10 problem solving strategies to help students understand the problem.

As I mentioned before, everything that we learned about fractions was useful while

tutoring the students. We also have been learning about multiplying and dividing decimals as

well as ratios. Although, the students learned about decimals and ratios before we went over

them in our Math 2010 class so I wasn’t sure on other strategies in the moment. It was interesting

to try to figure it out on my own and recognize what the students were struggling with. I had to

figure out a way around it. Since I was working with a fifth and sixth grade class there wasn’t a

huge need for tips on addition and subtraction and simple multiplication and division. It was still

beneficial to learn the other strategies and know multiple ways to teach math in the future.