Information About James - Cork tutor -

(13 reviews)

Personal Description:

Hi,
With almost 40 years teaching experience, I offer online grinds in Leaving Cert Maths & Physics.
My qualifications are B.Sc.HDipEd and MEd(Sc) with First Class Honours.
Just recently retired, having taught physics, maths & science full-time all my life - in a secondary school in Cork, Ireland. I enjoy teaching, and I have a friendly approach, which helps to form a positive relationship with the student from the beginning and build their confidence. My students have always achieved excellent results in their exams, achieving results consistently well above the national average.

I am currently a registered member of the Teaching Council of Ireland and Garda vetted re Túsla (Child Protection).
I can promise a patient, supportive professional approach. Listening to the student's needs, I explain the theory of a topic and work through specific examples and problems based on the theory.

In Maths, and Physics, I normally follow the market leader textbook, but I can use whatever other textbook that is used by the student in class if they prefer. Using my own resources, I use a combination of laptop and writing on a tablet: PowerPoints, handouts etc, I cover thorough explanation of all areas: theory, experiments, & problem-solving.

★ I believe that good communication is vital for online tuition. To that end, I endeavour to keep parents informed at all times in relation to lesson arrangements made & also in relation to homework/notes/resources which I send to the student.

Fees for 1st Yr University students €75 per hour
Leaving Cert and all senior cycle students are €75 per hour.
Junior Cycle students €75 per hour

Tutoring Experience:

Teaching has been my life's work: almost 40 years experience - teaching Physics, Maths & Science in a secondary school. I have also university tutoring experience, having tutored 1st Year Physics students in UCC.

Approach to Grinds:

Both laptop and a tablet for writing are used. For Physics, each session is normally a mix of teaching theory, including experiments working through examples of solved problems & past exam questions. This can vary according to the needs of the student. Memory work is examined, and the assigned homework always corrected. Past Exam questions are covered also. Any problems or difficulties with the homework are explained until the student is happy to proceed.

For maths I teach LC (OL) some teaching of new techniques in a topic followed by lots of working through problems to see that the student has grasped fully the material which has been taught. Past exam questions worked through also.

For all lessons at University & Senior Cycle, I can include learning aids (e.g. summaries/video clips/ PowerPoints/animations/charts, etc.) if appropriate, to help understanding of the topic.

During lessons, I work using a combination of laptop for showing my own PowerPoint presentations, using online textbooks and I write and solve problems on a tablet. All the resources I use during the class are sent to the student afterwards, so they can use them offline themselves. These include all learning aids, handouts, worked examples, summaries/video clips/ PowerPoints/animations/charts, etc.) These all help to give concrete understanding of the topics covered.
Also, if you would like, - and I think it is helpful to do this - I can designate homework to the student as practice for the following grind.

***In general, I don’t think it's a good idea to use the lesson as a session where I just complete school homework assignments/projects/tests for the student. This amounts to cheating, and can be quite damaging to the student, in the long run and hampers his/her progress. We can go through the school homework after solutions have been officially given, if the student is still unsure about the material.