Need to brush up on your math skills from elementary school? Here are some places that can help you do that!
Helpful Websites
FreeRice
FreeRice is a website with gamified learning. They have categories in English, Math, and more to make refreshing on these concepts fun. The best part is playing games on FreeRice result in donations to the World Food Programme, so you can do something good for the world while you learn!
Kahn Academy
Kahn Academy is a great place with free videos to help you refresh on different concepts. Their math section is broken down by grade level and you can go straight to the concepts you want to focus on and ignore the rest.
Math is Fun
Math is Fun is a website that has math guides for several math concepts that can serve as a quick resource for volunteers to quickly refresh their math knowledge. One great guide they have is for long division, which is commonly cited as one of the more difficult math concepts to remember by volunteers, probably due to how seldom long division is needed in everyday life.
Reading Rocket
Reading Rocket is a website that has a lot of resources that cover how to get students to read/write. We highly recommend browsing through their resources if you’d like to learn more about how to encourage and empower our students to read and write. A good place to start is their Helping All Readers section.
Carson Dellosa Education YouTube Channel
Carson Dellosa Education makes workbooks for students catered to their grade and specific subjects. Their YouTube channel has several playlists with videos that cover educational topics for a specific grade level. We know that some subjects can be hard to remember after being out of school for many years. Below are a few very short videos on topics we think may be particularly beneficial.
“>5th Grade: Order of Operations - 5th Grade: Multiplying Decimals
- 5th Grade: Dividing Fractions
- 6th Grade: Multiplying Fractions and Mixed Whole Numbers
- 6th Grade: Solve Problems with Variables
- 6th Grade: Exponents and Scientific Notation
Inspirational Stories
In times when you don’t feel motivated or you feel like you can’t make a difference, here are some stories of regular people who did just that to inspire you to keep going.
General Tips/Tricks
Below you will find an accumulation of tips and tricks from our volunteers and board members on what they’ve found works well for keeping tutoring sessions efficient.
Ask Questions
Encourage students to ask questions when they don’t understand something, which can help prevent knowledge gaps.
Create a Positive Environment
A positive attitude can help tutors connect with students and encourage them to perform better. It can also help students feel comfortable sharing issues they’re facing.
Be Patient
Everyone learns at different paces, so it’s important to be patient and make sure students don’t feel rushed or left behind.
Give Feedback
Feedback can help students feel like the tutor is willing to help them, and it can also build trust and encourage students to ask more questions.
Build Relationships
Tutors can build strong relationships with students by showing genuine interest in them, learning about their preferences and goals, and earning their trust and respect.
Choose Teaching Strategies
Tutors can use interactive activities, discussions, visual aids, and other techniques to keep students engaged.
Incorporate Student Interests
Tutors can motivate students by incorporating their interests into the curriculum, such as allowing them to choose topics for projects or for example including their interests in math word problems.
Be Flexible
If one Method doesn’t seem to work, try another. If they need to get up and walk around for a minute, do it! They can read the signs in the hallway while you are walking or you can drill math facts orally.
How to Respond to to “I don’t know” or Silence
Some approaches and phrases to use when students are not engaging or are responding with “silence” or “I don’t know” to your questions to engage them.
1. Making it Fun
- Tutor: “I can see this isn’t your favorite part. How about we tackle it in a way that might be more fun?”
- Student: (Silence)
- Tutor: “Let’s see if we can turn this math problem into a game. How about we pretend we’re shopping for toys and we need to use these numbers to check if we have enough money? Let’s give it a try together.”
2. Taking a Break
- Tutor: “Let’s take a quick break. Do you want to talk about what’s bugging you?” Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “That’s perfectly okay. How about we do some stretches? Sometimes moving around a bit can make us feel better.”
3. Seeking Input
- Tutor: “It seems like you’re not really into this right now. What would make it better for you?”
- Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “That’s okay! Let’s read a story instead for a few minutes. You can pick the book—something that might make us laugh. What do you say?”
4. Teamwork
- Tutor: “I know this can be tough. How about we try to get through this writing task together as a team?”
- Student: (Silence)
- Tutor: “I’ll write the first sentence, and then you can tell me the next one, even if it’s just one word. We’ll make up a story about a space adventure!”
5. Listening
- Tutor: “Is there something else on your mind today? Sometimes sharing can make the load feel lighter.”
- Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “That’s alright. We don’t have to talk about it. Let’s draw something that makes us happy instead, and then maybe write a sentence about it. You can start whenever you feel ready.”
6. Change of Scenery
- Tutor: “Let’s mix it up a bit—how about we do this activity standing up or in a different spot?”
- Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “Let’s just stand up and try solving this math problem on the whiteboard. It’s like being a teacher! You can draw or write anything you want first.”
7. Engaging Curiosity
- Tutor: “Tell me, what’s one thing that could make this lesson more interesting for you?” Student: (Silence)
- Tutor: “What if we make up a story using our spelling words? I’ll start with ‘Once upon a time,’ and then you can add anything you want after that!”
8. Setting Goals
- Tutor: “I value your time and effort. What’s one goal you really want to achieve today?”
- Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “Let’s think about something small, like solving one math problem or reading one page. Which one sounds good to you? You choose, and we’ll do it together.”
9. Short Tasks
- Tutor: “Everyone has off days. Do you want to set a timer and see how much we can do in five minutes?”
- Student: “I don’t know.”
- Tutor: “Let’s try just five minutes of reading this story together. I’ll read most of it, and you can help with the words you like.”
10. Switching Topics
- Tutor: “Let’s put a pin in this for now and switch to something else. What topic would you like to explore?”
- Student: (Silence)
- Tutor: “I’ll choose one for now—how about we look at some animal pictures and you can tell me which animal you’d like to learn about? Then we can write a few sentences about it.”