Daniel

Math has always been a true passion of mine, and I love talking about the beauty of it to my students. I have a master's degree in mathematics from West Virginia University and I tutor grades 6-College.

My tutoring style:

I subscribe to a Socratic method of tutoring, which essentially boils down to the idea that everyone is capable of learning math. As a tutor, I prefer to facilitate student discovery instead of simply lecturing out the material. I would rather have students struggle and make mistakes on their own than get every answer right by following exactly what I say. Contrary to what you might think, making mistakes is actually very beneficial when learning new concepts, as long as you take a minute to think about WHY those mistakes arose and what can CHANGE in order to fix it.

At the end of the day, math is just another way to communicate ideas, and so it can be thought of as its own language (and no one is born knowing how to speak a new language!). So I believe that with the right guidance and perseverance, anyone can succeed in math.

Success story:

Not too long ago, I was tutoring a student who was planning to go into Calculus 2 in the upcoming school year. He had always enjoyed math more than other subjects, but it was still a subject that he struggled with. I noticed that before going into Calculus 2, we needed to take care of a few foundational concepts that he was lacking. I noticed that he was quite curious and generally enjoyed working with challenging math problems; instead of just reviewing the foundational topics of Calculus, I thought it would be more beneficial to explore WHY these structures worked the way they did. This worked beautifully - the moment he realized where the derivative comes from (instead of simply learning the derivative rules), his face lit up and it was like he had just solved a fun puzzle. Different students have different motivations, and this student’s motivation was pulling back the curtain and enjoying the beautiful math gears that were turning away. After that, we made it a priority to focus on the WHY rather than the WHAT, and he was able to regain that foundational knowledge needed to succeed in Calculus 2.

Hobbies and interests:

I play Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively and run my own YouTube channel about it (”B&D Games” - if you wanted to subscribe...)

My wife and my cat are the most important things in my life (they came as a bundle deal - it was too good to pass up)

To not stare at a computer screen all day, I do go out and play ping pong (my serves aren’t the best, but I do have a brutal top-spin loop)