John A.
Private tutor in Austin, TX
Education
Rice University - BA, Math; UC Berkeley - Ph. D., Mathematics (Algebraic Topology)
Experience
(Note1: if don't like free form text, incomplete sentences, not being careful with CAPITALIZATION, maybe an error or more ... stop now. you won't like this note or probably me. in math i'm a fanatic about being careful, logical thinking and computations. for a note like this...i'm pretty casual.) (Note 2: the profile says I will go 5 minutes to a student. the truth is I don't have a car readily available so students have to come to my house.) (Note 3: the fee is at $10/hour, but I don't charge anything and that is not a possible choice.) (Note 4: if, after reading notes 1-3, you continue, you are a brave person.) my father tutored numerous people at the coffee table in our house and I participated when I was very young (about 10). I tutored through college in volunteer work and helping other students with calculus, then long break; in he last two years I have had a student (15) in an advanced academic program who became disillusioned with math and lost her drive (junior; very smart; just needed help with focusing, motivation, and working with someone who loved math and wanted her to enjoy it too). now I have 3 groups: 2nd grader with ADHD who may be smarter than me and really just needs to know someone cares about how she does in math and that it is actually interested in her success; two children in one family who need motivation and concentration on their math; for the youngest one, who loves baseball, I told him he needed to learn how to compute batting averages. on the surface a simple division of integers, but what qualifies in baseball for the numerator (hits) and denominator (at bats) is not trivial. Finally, I am talking with a young man (21) who was in two car wrecks between 18 and 21. He had a scholarship to MIT and he lost a lot of his math skills. when we chat our conversations and studies cover a big range: interviewing, photography, math, statistics and today about Julius Irving inventing the dunk. (did I spell Irving correctly? maybe not.) as you can see, I like to have fun with everything I do...that includes trying to explain how much I love math and want other people to enjoy it and excel in it.) all of those tutoring engagements were pro bono, not $$$. my dad wouldn't approve of me charging to teach them something he and I both loved so much. i'll be 70 in September, I run/walk nearly every day, I am intense and dedicated to my students success. I not only was a tenured professor at UT Austin in the math department, but I was a well decorated salesman for IBM and ran my own business (programming and geographic information systems...really visualization of data) for 20+ years. Now i'm retired and working as hard as ever. About SAT scores (didn't take the AP), it was so long ago that I don't trust anything I would write down.
Availability
Weekdays at any time, Weekends at any time
Can Meet
Up to 5 minutes away for no additional charge
Hobbies
running; walking; talking to my neighbors; finding interesting items in the trash; birds; flowers; garden/plants; movies; master piece theater; books (but don't read as much as I used to; i'm working on that); Ken-Ken math puzzles (in the newspaper; I work them and color them; paste in a notebook along with my wife's crossword puzzles -- i'm not much good at XWord puzzles by myself); baseball (Oakland A's); basketball (San Antonio Spurs); some NFL football like this year's 2015 Super Bowl ... what a great game!; music (can play Christmas carols on -- in descending order of skill -- French horn, recorder and trumpet); good jokes; bad jokes; good food; interesting conversations about whatever the other person is interested in -- i'm pretty good at asking questions and i'll probably learn something; learning;
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