And I changed my profession... (Part 4)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I actually got a query regarding tuition. We (the student's mother and I) decided to have a trial period because we wanted to see if the said girl was comfortable with me and my teaching. So she started coming for Mathematics only tuition. We set the timing as 7 in the evening as I was working then.

So my routine was - come back from the office by 6 PM, freshen up, cook dinner and then start the class at 7 PM. The class used to end by 8:15 - 8:30. Then we used to have dinner and many a times by 9:30 PM I used to login to my office's laptop to complete my office work.

After almost 15 days of trial, both of us felt comfortable and confident that we can continue the class. Till then I did not allow my daughter to attend the class, as I wanted to build rapport with the girl.

If you do not understand the concepts of Mathematics, you cannot solve the problems. And when you cannot solve the problems, you immediately get to know (because in Mathematics, you can either be right or wrong) and your confidence gets shaken up. (I understand that it is applicable to all the subjects, but as my focus was/is Mathematics, writing about it in particular.) The girl had the similar problem. As the concepts were not clear, she was not able to perform. As she was not able to perform, her confidence was low. And as her confidence was low, she was not able to concentrate and understand the concepts. So it as a vicious circle.

Hence my job was to teach Mathematics to both the girls (my daughter and the girl) and work on their confidence as well. For them the exercise was to get their academic performance on track and for me to help them to let it happen. So we started our journey together. As it was 7th standard's syllabus, having a brief look at the topics was sufficient for me before teaching. (But there were some topics which needed extra time to be spent, for better understanding.) Along with textbook, to have more practice I took help of an online tuition site (with a paid subscription).

They completed 7th standard with slightly improved performance and significantly more improved confidence. I was lucky that the girl's parents were very considerate and practical and did not expect drastic change in her performance.

It took almost another term (academic half year) to fine tune our performances. I say 'our performances' because even I needed to adjust my teaching techniques.

And the half yearly exam of class 8 results showed improvement of almost 30 - 40%.

To be continued...