Pythagoras Theorem Explained

Ever wondered how Pythagoras Theorem, the so called 1st theorem of Elementary Mathematics is proven as such?

Here’s an interesting video and method which you can explain to your Secondary students!

Make your tutorials fun and interesting!

Tutoring Guide Series: How to help a student who is lagging behind?

Drawing parallels from the famous illustration by Zhuge Liang, often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era during the Three Kingdoms period in China in novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms:

[A man has fallen into a terrible malady.

First the physician must administer hashish, then soothing drugs until his viscera shall be calmed into harmonious action.

When the sick man’s body shall have been reduced to quietude, then may he be given strong meats to strengthen him and powerful drugs to correct the disorder.

Thus the disease will be quite expelled, and the man restored to health.

If the physician does not wait till the humors and pulse are in harmony, but throws in his strong drugs too early, it will be difficult to restore the patient. ]

~ Zhuge Liang in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

A tutor can only effectively help a student who is lagging behind by first finding out the root cause of the student’s academic performance.

Each student holds a different lock and a personal tutor will have to find the key to the lock!

While it could be tempting to hasten the learning for the student in order to improve within a short time period, however the personal tutor or private tutor will have to understand that if the foundation is not laid and true understanding of the content is not attained, it will not be beneficial to the student as new content is being introduced.

Why?

This is because usually the content learnt in higher grades are based on the content learnt in lower grades and going up from one level to another e.g. (Primary 4 to Primary 5) would follow a T-shape trend for different topics- increase in breadth and also in depth.

So, help a student who is lagging behind by leveraging on what private tuition can best do- personalising and planning what is appropriate for the individual student. Prepare and customise lesson plans according to the student’s needs. Also, remember to explain and discuss with student and parent why your lesson plan will help the student.

Of course, to sum it all,  “administer” the right “medicine” for your student!

A Different Perspective to “Teaching”

“I cannot teach you.., only help you to explore yourself.” ~ Bruce Lee

“Think-Out-of-the-Box” Multiplication Method

Ever wonder that other than your calculator or the manual working method which you have learnt in Primary school, are there any other ways to do your simple multiplication sums?

Here’s one really interesting way to do it!

Have fun trying it out-the pictorial way of solving multiplication sums but we don’t recommend using it if not you will have a hard time solving 999 x 999!

Tutors and parents: Feel free to share this with your students or children as a fun exercise or as a way to wow them and show how fun Maths can be!

Changing Education Paradigms

Ever thought of WHY people are in this “rat race” in the modern world where they  “paper chase” and teach their kids to do so too in a never-ending cycle?

Arguable, it is entirely human nature to better oneself’s prospect and yes..purely of own personal choice sometimes in the spirit to excel.

But what if you are inhibited by the education system that places emphasis on some field that you entirely do not have the passion to excel in much less to say about the talent to do so?And you want to really pursue something you dream of?

Then its important to understand how to get around it and pursue your dreams by paving your own way. “If there is a will, there is a way!” But first, understand how people in your own society views education and whether YOU are stuck in that paradigm or in a NUTS- No U-Turn Syndrome.

Start thinking differently and see things in a different perspective!

This video by RSA Animate- Changing Education Paradigms might help to get you started off. If you are the inspirational type of tutor from ConsultAtutor or even a parent who wants to fire up the passion in your child, watch this.

April Fools’ Joke in Math Class?

Think that April Fools’ Day is only for the cheeky and foolish ones? Wait a second, April Fools’ Day in school is a good day to exemplify to students how creativity simply do not have any boundaries, a little humour in class simply make lessons much more fun and interesting too!

No matter whether you are a tutor, parent, teacher or a mentor to someone, you can make a difference by being a cool educator. Enjoy!

Edu-snips Series: Nurturing Bilingualism

In recent years, the Singapore education scene have seen numerous debates on the emphasis on Mother Tongue languages in the education system vis a vis the practical use of our mother tongue languages in everyday use including the underlying societal and cultural meaning of practising them.

Generally, mastery of a language can be classified into 3 major categories- reading, writing and conversing. It is perhaps important to note that dialects do not apply as they are generally focus more on the conversation part of a language. It is understood that of the 3 categories, new learners are likely to exhibit difficulty in either one or two or the areas and strength in a minimum of one area. This is due to the learning style preferred which is unique to everyone.

By identifying your tutee’s or child’s learning style in languages would certainly be a good first step in trying to lay strong foundation in future learning and practicing of the language. However, it is important to understand that different teaching pedagogy would usually overlap one another in trying to achieve a same result i.e. a certain method or exercise that is used to stimulate say, the reading skills or the ability to recognise words would probably achieve the same objective as listening to the word and spelling it out on paper, although the latter is focused more on writing.

Now we understand how complex learning a language can be, let’s put down some structure with some suggested tips to nurturing bilingualism in your very own household!

Tips

1. Practice makes perfect, arrange for your child to speak both languages regularly. Create a conducive bilingual environment by making your child speak to Dad in English and Mum in Mother Tongue or vice versa. You surely wouldn’t want your child to speak solely English both in school and at home right?

2. If you think that English can be emphasised greater, given that all Maths, Arts and Sciences subjects are all set in English, head down to the library weekly as a family outing for some books picking! Choose more English books and get better by improving comprehension skills.

3. Want some balance to Mother Tongue, a good step to improve Mother Tongue language is first to understand and appreciate the language as a cultural ballast, especially in multi-racial and cosmopolitan Singapore! Immerse your child in the appreciation of the arts related to the Mother Tongue language by going for activities like Chinese Caligraphy or Indian heritage tours in musuems to drum up interest.

4. To set a good example for language proficiency, be a good role model as a parent or as an educator by speaking accurate and fluent English or Mother Tongue. Of course, an occasional “lah” or “loh” serves no harm since its how Singaporeans identify themselves with as long as its kept out of the composition papers.

5. In an unfortunate scenario that bilingualism is seemingly too difficult to master? Well, don’t stress up the children or students too much by enforcing a one-for-all approach, adopt a customised-for-one approach instead and perhaps allow emphasis to be on the conversational ability of the child first before moving on reading and writing when there are improvements. Passion makes all the difference, most of the time.

Last of all, start early as its usually the formative years that matters the most.

Now that we have 5 tips about nurturing bilingualism, do you have any to share?

Feel free to share by submitting your comment!

Tutoring Guide Series: Tutoring Professionalism (continued)

Mastering Tutoring Professionalism

What does it mean by being someone’s “tutor”?

First, know the definition:

A tutor is a teacher who gives additional, special or remedial instructions and often privately.

&

Professionalism is about exhibiting professional character, behaviour and spirit.

To make it simple, here’s a list of how a tutor can exhibit professionalism (the points are not in any particular order, all are important!):

1. Be punctual for all lessons and be well-prepared. (This very much applies to all professions and jobs..)
2. Be reasonably well-dressed in appropriate attire. Ask the guardian/ parent if they are comfortable if you really, really need to.
3. Be responsible and accountable. (Make sure you exchange contacts with guardian/parent and inform in advance of any unforeseen events if required)
4. Always put yourself in the tutee’s/guardian’s/parent’s shoes and try your best to accomodate if necessary.
5. Make  sure you are available to help if necessary. Extend your help and you’ll be appreciated, especially in exam crunch time. Its all about imparting your knowledge, right?
6. Remember to make lessons enriching, interesting and fun as much as possible!
7. Communicate, communicate and communicate! Improve on your delivery of speech!!
8. Discuss lesson curriculum planning with tutee. Keep the guardian/parents updated, always.
9. In scoring As, its “No goals, no glory” not “No guts, no glory”. Hold goal setting sessions with your tutee! Set reasonable, attainable goals and paste it on the wall in front of the study desk!
10. Analyse and know your tutee’s learning style and adapt your teaching style to suit it. Read our Tutoring Guide Series on more about this.
11. Last but not least, know the above 10 points and you are on your way to master tutoring professionalism! =)

A point to note is that tutors could act as mentors too. Advice based on personal experience for example, on studying methods sharing and exam preparation techniques like mind mapping or memory-tagging system can certainly show how much you can make a difference in your tutee’s lives.

Make the extra mile to make lessons more fun, more enriching and more impactful to your tutee today!

Share the same traits as what is described above? You might want to know more about tutoring via ConsultAtutor.com!

Using Apple’s iPad as a Teaching Aid

iPad as an Education Tool at Wake Forest University, US by Ken Bennett

Apple’s iPods, iPod Touch and iPhones have revolutionalise the way we lead our lives side by side with smart electronic gadgets. The design and ingenuity of a platform created by AppStores have created a new phenomenon of Apps or applications that basically bundles up mutiple uses of every single app into a one stop shopping gateway for features, utilities, games you name it. In the advent of the iPad, life with such smart gadgets has just gone up another level.

With the introduction of Apple’s iPad, new ways to teach and educate our young has emerged-in a wave. Schools in various parts of the world have started pilot projects on using iPad as a teaching aid, leveraging on its large screen, intuitive interface, portable slim design and of course, the multitude of application softwares that are accessible with a touch on the screen. No more CDs, no more bulky desktops, no more oversized monitors that obstructs teacher-student’s view and best of all, convenience.

If you are an educator like a ConsultAtutor Personal Home Tutor at ConsultAtutor.com, think of whether you can customise your lessons further according to the students’ needs and make lessons more interactive, fun and enriching using teaching aids like the iPad and its various wonderful apps that are increasing by the day. The pedagogic potential of iPad with its apps is immense and this is probably the beginning to how enhanced learning will become in the future.

Well, just an interesting point to note- the iPad’s isn’t the first and it definitely won’t be the last innovative education solution. The “Pad” term coined by Apple isn’t new either, our very own Singapore schools have in fact, once pilot tested iPad’s so-called “predecessor” albeit to a lesser extent- the EduPAD.

The EduPAD

Find out more about the iPad and its educational Apps or EduApps that you could employ/ customise here or here and start making a difference to your students’ learning experience!

 

 

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Preparation for PSLE starts now!

Success can be sweet.....if you are well prepared

It’s the beginning of the school year and an exciting learning journey lies ahead!

For 2011 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) students, it is a pivotal year that will determine which secondary schools to spend the next 4 years and a whole lot difference in learning experience depending on choice after the examinations.

With less than 11 months counting down to the PSLE, it is of paramount importance that preparation is made now if not preferably earlier during P4 and P5. Nevertheless, it’s still not to late to make up for lost time and prepare for that run down to the finishing line.

Here are some tips for you as a parent or a ConsultAtutor Personal Home Tutor alike to make preparations for the PSLE:

1. First of all, assess the weaknesses in terms of subject or individual topics of the student. Attempt to understand or analyse the reasons that contributes to the weakness including inappropriate learning styles, poor exam time management or lack of basic foundation knowledge.
2. With that (point 1) in mind, set a realistic target in terms of grade or raw score including interim ones i.e. SA1 for all subjects. Write it out large and clear on paper or print it out in colour on an A4 sheet of paper. Paste it using Blu-Tack or glue in front of study table so that every time the student studies, he will be able to see the goals right in front of him.
3. Next, analyse in detail previous two major exam papers to identify any trends in the marks scored per section and answering techniques used. E.g. high score in MCQ but low score in Open-Ended. Combine analysis with reasons identified earlier in point 1 and try to come to a conclusion on how to improve.
4. Come up with a relatively detailed lesson plan that maps out every lesson to be covered according to the conclusion made and source for proper lesson materials. Exploration of teaching styles in the first few lessons could be made too to see which works best for the student based on judgements made in point 1.
5. Make sure that enough practice is completed and corrections in particular are to be clarified and gone through. In fact , to a certain extent the total amount of time spent to prepare for a subject is proportional to the final attained raw score (grade) of that subject. Remember, practice, practice and practice is important!
6. If required, it is advisable to help the student set a timetable to manage time well in order to ensure sufficient preparation before the PSLE. Stick to it and be diligent!

Last but not least, ask a ConsultAtutor Personal Home Tutor for Homework Help in order to clear any doubts fast, encourage the student to think deep in order to fully understand the topic and keep learning from mistakes made in practices!

As the saying goes, “good preparation is equivalent to half the battle won”. Be prepared and any student could fulfil their potential and do well in PSLE!