Stephen G

I have been tutoring since 2012, and I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Appalachian State University, where I also currently teach.

Ages I've worked with:

I have worked with middle and high school students, as well as college students and adult learners.

My tutoring style: 

I strive to help students achieve their goals by developing plans of action that focus on directed objectives. I seek to develop a relationship with each student that fosters trust and confidence, and I take every student’s academic background and personal experience into account when tutoring.

I truly believe that anyone can learn mathematics, and it can also be fun! Math is a language, and the vocabulary and notation are important for both communicating and understanding. As an educator, my goal is to help students recognize the beauty and significance of mathematics so memorization is unnecessary and meaningful comprehension is achieved.

Success Story: 

Once I had a student who was particularly troubled with math anxiety, and they had a lack of confidence especially when dealing with math that involved letters, or variables. To make matters more challenging, they had a particularly strict teacher with high expectations. This student was in an algebra II class in high school and had goals of going to a university to pursue nursing.

We started working together and had to spend extra time going over the foundational skills from algebra I that were creating difficulties with comprehension of the algebra II material. Over time, we developed an approach that incentivized finding these gaps, and together we addressed these topics so they became confident with the material that was previously unknown. We also oriented the focus towards mastering the content, as opposed to simply getting a good grade, and we worked on utilizing these study habits in other classes. With hard work, this student passed the class, later graduated from the university, and is currently working as a registered nurse.

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Hobbies and interests: 

Cycling is a major passion of mine. I fix bikes part time and enjoy riding on roads and trails, often with my dog, year round.
I enjoy playing and listening to music. The drum set is my primary instrument, but recently I have been studying the piano.
I make pottery for fun. I enjoy throwing on the wheel and creating glazes with ceramic materials using chemistry.