Personal statement Find_Tutors Ken Adams (393 words)
Hi everyone! I have taught classes and tutored private students in everything from: Basic Numeracy, GCSE, AS and A ‘Level; and University maths for both Business and Engineering.
I live in Londonderry Northern Ireland. I have a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a doctorate both from the University of Ulster; at the University of Greenwich I completed teacher training with a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching Mathematics and Statistics for Further Education (PGCE FE).
I am experienced (15 years); I taught on many courses and taught students from a wide range of ability and backgrounds.
I am patient and kind to students. People learn in a different way and may have different learning styles, so I am flexible and adapt my teaching style to suit the individual or group.
During my time on one-to-one tutoring, I have taught many students. Often, I had students with maths phobia who needed their confidence built up and would gradually get better and better. I also taught students pushing for a high grade so this mean that the student and I would work together to focus in on precisely where the problems are so they can be retaught, (often in a fresh way to how they were taught the first time).
For new tutee the first task is to find out what topics they are confident with and where they get stuck. To that end I can get them to look at the chapters of their textbook and indicate where they are good, where OK, needs some help, needs lots of help. Thus, I can take students from where they are now to what they need to know to achieve their desired grade.
I am open and sharing and am happy to explain to the student what I think we should be doing during each lesson. I endeavour to teach with clarity however if the student is unsure, I hope we have a good atmosphere where the student can say to me if there is something they don’t understand. I believe in maximum feedback during the lesson.
Students can take home everything they want including: a scanned copy of the sheets I wrote on during the lesson, the video if the lesson is online. After each lesson I decide what homework to give the student. If scans are sent to me I can write my comments on them and send them back.
I really believe in building up the confidence and ability of the student. So some study skills are explained as well as just tuition. Typically, the student should follow a path from a lot of help needed, then they start learning at a steady pace with my help finally they need less and less help from me as they become more and more independent.