Julia, Maths Tutor

(We're recapping solving quadratics by factorising, student has expanded some brackets, factorised some expressions and we're ready to remind ourselves of how to solve...)

Me: What number would we like our quadratic to equal? What's the magic number?

Student: 16? Because I'm turning 16 next year.

😆😆😆

Is there ANY better sound than a student saying "Oooooh, I see! You're (proceeds to put my explanation in their own words)"?

Student: Was your husband a firefighter?

Me: No, I'm the only one on either side of the family who has been, as far as I know.

Student: Oh, so you're the cool one.

Me: I'll inform my siblings - Sophia Pugsley, Will Pugsley

Student: is 36 divisible by 4?

Me: Usually yes, but you seem quite tired...

Working through some senior UKMT to give a sixth form student a change of scene. This one’s a bit trivial though, isn’t it?

One of the reasons I chose to do a maths degree (with the ) years after becoming a maths teacher/tutor was because I wanted to be able to talk to my students about what comes after A-level, and where what they're learning is leading. I can now pepper next steps into their lessons, which gives me great pleasure.

What I also really enjoy is when they proactively ask me about my studies as one of tonight's students did. I get the challenge of working out how to explain the concept of scalar and vector fields to a GCSE student (not as tricky as I initially feared), and they see that I'm still a student as well as a teacher.

Student: “I think I’ve seen your daughter. She’s tall. She looks like a cult leader.”

I can tell I’m in the right job as I’m often fascinated by my students and their thoughts.

https://juliamathstutor.substack.com/p/teaching-and-time-travel?r=ivxmz

https://juliamathstutor.substack.com/p/teaching-and-time-travel?r=ivxmz

Teaching and time travel I really enjoy those stately homes where people pretend to be living in 1534 and you get to play along.

I love it when a lesson gets dramatic, even declamatory.

Student (while being quite successful on tricky trig parametric integrals):

"I'm not buying anything trig is selling. On Trustpilot, I'd give it negative stars. I have to; others must be warned."