The World of Math is Open to Emiliano
By Chelsea Boniak | September 13, 2018
One-to-one math tutor helps a struggling student catch up to his fellow students
Like many of the students in our Path2Math and Succeeding by Reading intervention programs, Emiliano lacked confidence as he entered his 5th grade math class.
“They think they can’t do the work. In their mind they’re not as smart as the other kids,” Emiliano’s math tutor, Steve, said. In reality, though, they can do it—they just need someone to spend some time with them individually and take things a little slower.
For Emiliano, it wasn’t about “getting better grades.” His one-to-one math tutor Steve helped him understand basic math and catch up to his fellow students.
Steve remembers his tutoring sessions with Emiliano fondly. Beginning his sessions feeling discouraged, Emiliano quickly gained confidence in himself and his skills. When he understood something, Emiliano’s whole face would light up as he excitedly said, “Okay, I got this!” From there, he was able to finish the rest of the problems on his own. Steve recalls, “You can see the joy in these kids’ lives and their faces when they finally get it.”
“I am actually happy to be improving in math.”
This success, repeated again and again throughout the year, built Emiliano’s confidence. He stopped thinking he couldn’t do math—instead, he got excited about improving.
By coming alongside a struggling student, you give them the confidence to learn and succeed now and in the future.
Emiliano attributes much of his success to Steve, saying he is the best math tutor. Steve argues that he is not, in fact, the world’s best math tutor—he’s just there, he’s committed, and he cares. Emiliano had it in him all along, as do all of the students referred to our programs. The most important part of successful tutoring is the time spent and relationships built with each child, building up a foundation of trust so students like Emilio begin to believe they are capable and full of promise.
“I feel amazed at how I have improved,” Emiliano proudly reported. “This has been a real important thing for me because this has helped me improve in math a lot.” Emilio is excited about his future and finding ways that math is involved in his career goals to be an engineer or a mechanic.
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