Hello!

I know that this is often incredibly stressful for parents. If you’ve seen your child struggling and you’ve done so many things to help them, it can feel terrible.

It’s also scary because of the stakes involved. Grades are important for getting into college, and math itself is important for getting into a lot of majors and good careers.

I want to do everything I can to make this as stress-free as possible for you, too! I send email updates after every lesson to let you know how things are going, and I’m always happy to talk over the phone, too, to check in. It’s really helpful for me to hear all the background and what you’re noticing, too.

If it helps, I’ve learned over the years that while it can be incredibly stressful at the time, there are lots of ways for things to work out. If a student fails a math class, sometimes if they switch to a different class, teacher, or even take a break for a few months and come back to it later they find it’s suddenly easy and they do well. Or, if they stop putting pressure on themselves to get A’s and instead aim for B’s, they find they make slow, consistent progress and end up doing really well after a few months. I’ve noticed that often when we approach things with the goal of just having fun, getting through the homework, and making things as stress-free as possible without worrying about the outcome, we often make the quickest progress.

We’ll make good use of whatever time we have, but here’s what I recommend, in general:

As-needed lessons:

If a student isn’t needing regular support but would like to occasionally meet to go over a concept in more depth or ask me questions before a test, we can absolutely do that. We can either do a full hour or even just a quick half-hour.

1 lesson per week:

This is a good basic schedule for students who are already doing pretty well in a class. We can usually cover a week’s worth of material in a 1-hour lesson. If a student just has occasional questions or would like a little more support in a class, this is a great option.

2 lessons per week:

If students are taking both math and physics, it generally works better to have one lesson for each class every week. 2 lessons per week is also ideal for students who are struggling, or who have background material to catch up on.

If we’re covering content that’s different than what’s covered in class (for example, if we’re reviewing fractions, percentages, and decimals) it’s best to have at least two lessons per week, just so that they’re getting some engagement with the material a few times a week, in addition to homework. This could absolutely be two half-hours per week.

3+ lessons per week:

For students who are taking multiple classes, or who are wanting to make a lot of progress quickly, or who have a lot of material they want to cover, or who struggle with doing homework on their own and temporarily want more support and to work through that together, three lessons per week can be really great. 4 lessons per week can be great over the summer, if they’re wanting to fill in gaps, get caught up, or work ahead.

My rate is $135/hr.

All lessons are 1 hour long.

For cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice I charge half the cost of the lesson. For cancellations with less than an hour’s notice I charge the full cost of the lesson.

For payment, I accept Venmo, Zelle, or mailed check, payable the day of the lesson.

I do give extra practice sometimes. It can be very helpful, but I’m very careful about what practice I give and how I give it. Because my primary goal is to empower the student, I never give them homework that they don’t want. This might sound strange. Who would want to do homework? Surprisingly, a lot of students! Sometimes they don’t have time, or they’re too disheartened, or it’s too stressful, but after we’ve made math into less of a terrible experience, lots of students ask me for extra practice. I only give practice that is specifically tailored to them. I try to give a small enough amount that it's effective but not arduous. I always give answer keys because for practice to be beneficial we need immediate feedback, otherwise we’re just reinforcing incorrect processes. I also only give practice on topics that we’ve gone over, again so that we’re not just reinforcing incorrect strategies.

Practice is great, but it’s extremely detrimental if I’m giving them homework they don’t want, because that reinforces the idea that math is something they hate and that they’re being forced to do. It’s also detrimental if the homework is another obligation on an already too-full plate. They don’t have time to do it, so it just sits there as something they feel guilty about that they haven’t done. Again, first and foremost we want math to be fun!

If you’re interested in working with me, contact me on my contact page and let me know what you’re looking for.

From there, I usually like to schedule a thirty minute trial lesson, where the student and I go over something they’re currently working on, just to see if they like working with me and if it seems like a good fit.

Algebra 1

Geometry

Algebra 2

Precalculus

Calculus

AP Calculus AB

AP Calculus BC

Physics

AP Physics 1

AP Physics 2

AP Physics C: Mechanics

AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

I meet with all students online, via Zoom.

For students who use OneNote, I create a shared OneNote with a new page for every meeting, so they always have access to the notes we take. They can also put questions in there any time between lessons, and I will also put as much extra practice in there as they’d like.

They’re also welcome to text or email me questions any time between lessons.