PrepNow Tutor - James G.
“Teach every child as if you were teaching your own child,” says retired mathematics teacher James. He is well qualified for both positions as he is a proud great-grandfather who taught high school for nearly four decades. James earned his bachelor’s in mathematics education at University of South Florida. He spent ten years working for corporate America before realizing how much happier he was teaching. He worked at a local high school as well as its virtual counterpart for thirty-eight years. In that time, he spent the majority of his summers teaching summer school as well. James also served as head coach for the girls cross country team and the girls track and field team. His experience as a tutor is split between private tutoring and volunteering for school programs to help struggling students.
During his tenure, James taught all levels of mathematics from math 1 to pre-calculus. He specialized in algebra 2 and trigonometry. He also taught a few science courses—primarily earth and space science. He also taught a number of SAT and ACT prep courses. As a teacher, he was honored as the high school’s teacher of the year, the county mathematics teacher of the year, and best science/math teacher for west central Florida—an area covering twelve counties!
Despite receiving thousands of hours of training in teaching techniques and philosophies, James believes he should teach each child as if they were his own. He says that tutoring individually is particularly rewarding because you get to see the “the look in the student’s eyes when a concept they were struggling with suddenly becomes clear to them.” In his years as a teacher, James always “committed to a practice of trying to end every lesson on a win.” He never wanted any of his students to leave a lesson feeling unsuccessful—“even if that meant spending extra time with them to assure they left feeling like they were a winner.”
In his early years, James was a high school football player and wrestler. These days he is far more committed to gardening. In 2015, James became a pescatarian and he primarily grows vegetables to eat. “It is a wonderful feeling to be able to sit down and enjoy the fruits of your work at your dinner table.” James is in a power wheelchair so he maintains a container garden that allows him to reach the plants. He has over fifty containers! James is an avid puzzle solver who spends his time solving number puzzles like Sudoku and Nerdle, word scrabble puzzles, and Wordle.
