We are all living in the technology age, unlike any age before. We scan our palms to pay for groceries, never have to take keys out of our pockets to lock our doors, and watch livestreams from people we admire as they travel in faraway lands. In the seductive glow of our screens and smart watches, we lose sight of some skills we may have lost: gardening, remembering phone numbers, and, for some, mental math. How many minutes are in a quarter hour? What is three times half a cup of sugar? How much change should I get for these organic tomatoes at the farmers market? To those who grew up without calculators in our pockets, these can seem like simple questions that hardly take more than a moment to process; for those in school now, however, these can seem as daunting as anything found on a math test.

One of my goals as a tutor is not just teaching my students how to solve homework and test questions, but also making them comfortable enough with numbers to try different strategies, and have a better understanding overall of the fundamentals. Math, along with sciences, is learned best when there is a practical understanding of the concept at hand, not just the rote knowledge of how to get an answer. I strive to provide those examples to my students, using coins to teach fast-math; describing a personal anecdote where I used a physical principle; or asking how they would solve a real world problem, then relating it back to their lesson. If you or your student is struggling in math or science, please reach out now, so that we can help with catching up, keeping up, or really getting ahead by ensuring your student isn’t just memorizing, but truly understanding. Here at West Houston Tutoring, we prioritize education, in order to pursue experience, so we can achieve excellence.