When you are in elementary school, you have the opportunity to grow and learn both

academically and socially. I have been a part of some students’ academic growth throughout this

past semester. Since the beginning of September 2020, I have been volunteering and tutoring 3rd

graders twice a week. The students that I have had the pleasure of getting to know all attend Mill

Creek Elementary School. I want to take the opportunity to share my experiences with these

students that are around the age 8 or 9. Although there were a variety of topics discussed, we

mainly focused on addition and subtraction. There have been many amazing experiences.

One rewarding moment for me was when the student I was tutoring was struggling with a

concept. I was working with the student and she was showing some signs of confusion while

trying to fill in blanks of numbers 0-150. The online program would give her 5 numbers. Usually

at least one of the numbers was in its proper place, but this time all five numbers needed to be

put in the correct order. None of them had already been filled in correctly. In order to help her, I

gave her the prompts to count from the lowest number that she knows that is near the numbers on

the screen. For example, if the numbers were 66, 64, 67, 65, and 63 then, although she couldn’t

recognize which of those number was the lowest, she could recognize the 60 is lower then those.

We would then count up from 60 while she organized them in the correct order. This was a

successful tutoring session because, when faced with a similar problem later on, she remembered

how we had previously done it and was able to find the salutation! Through this experience, I

learned how just a little bit of clarification or guidance can help them grasp a concept.

Since the students were using an online program to learn their mathematics, dynamics

and relationships definitely changed. The technology has been a challenge a few times because

the computer itself had technical issues, or there were certain issues that arise because we were

meeting on an online platform. For example, I was once tutoring with a student that I had never
worked with before. The challenge occurred when the student wanted to play learning games

instead of going and continuing their lessons. Since I am not in-person, I’m not able to stop them

from playing learning games in the same way as I would be able to if I were there in the

classroom. I tried to remain as calm as possible. I focused on giving clear directions of what is

needed to be done and the positive repercussions if she listened to me. This experience taught me

that positive reinforcement is much more effective to decrease the occurrence of unwanted

behaviors than negative punishment.

Overall, I have had a great experience being a tutor! After learning more about the

student that I tutored with, I was able to recognize that often her strategies for solving equations

was guess and check and deductive reasoning. One important strategy that I have incorporated is

the Polya Principles. There have been many times where I have to ask questions to make sure the

student understands. Other techniques that I have used with my student are Guess and Check,

Use Visual Aids, and Eliminating Possibilities. I believe my student was most successful with

the technique of visual aids. This was great because the online program used a lot of visual aids.

I haven’t had to direct her to different strategies often because she’s quick to understand.

In conclusion, I have really enjoyed the time I spent tutoring! I have learned a great deal

about student needs and how I can help clarify concepts when needed. Before taking this class, I

did not have a clear understanding of how to teach addition or subtraction. I now understand the

visual ways that we can teach these concepts. As a tutor/student, I learned and have implemented

the concepts of repeated addition, the take-away model, and the missing addend. This has been a

great chance for me to improve in my understanding of the concepts and a improve in my ability

to explain these concepts in a conceptualized way. I am grateful for this experience and hope that

I have had a positive impact on these amazing students’ academic growth.