About The Head-Start Sessions
For 15 years (and counting), we've been helping teens in the Bay Area turn their math struggles into confidence and As. Our head-start program allows your child to start their next math class with confidence. And maintain that confidence and stay on track, or even get ahead - while others struggle, lose confidence and fall behind.That's especially important when their class is covering the most challenging topics and concepts, when the teacher is not present, when your child misses school or when the class material is explained too fast or adequately.
Now, for the first time, we're offering head-start in free group sessions.
Why Are The Sessions Invite-Only?
These sessions are only for 8th-12th graders working toward the same goal - head-start for their next math class. We only select students who are working toward that goal.We also limit the attendance to max 11 students in order to be able to give each student individualized attention.
How We Will Help Your Teen
Start the class with confidence
We will cover 3 beginning topics so that your teen starts their class with confidence. Many times, the teachers don't assign any homework for the first few weeks. Then, suddenly they assign a lot and immediately announce a test the following week. That often leaves students in shock and cramming. We will help your teen avoid that situation, so they can start the class strong and confident.Stay confident and on track
Math classes start with easier concepts and the level builds up overtime. Even students who start with an A can often fall behind. Many teachers don't schedule tests well - they give the class the same amount of time between easy and hard tests. Some topics are known to be difficult and take much more time to understand but your child still has the same amount of time to prepare! That's why we're aiming to tackle the 3 hardest topics of the whole class. To make sure your teen is prepared and ahead while others start to stress out and fall behind.Address the gaps
Math classes are known to get harder over time. The math concepts for your child's next class will require the understanding of the concepts from the previous class.But did your child truly master them?
Even the students who aced the class often forget the concepts overtime, or don't learn them well enough to apply them at higher levels of math.
We will check, and address any gaps your teen might have developed last year.
How Do The Meetings Work
The sessions are based on solving. We will first introduce the topic, using a simple problem - with analysis, step by step breakdown and questions from students. Then, we will build your child's understanding, confidence and self-reliance through solving problems, identifying, analyzing and correcting mistakes. They will get some time to solve problems independently, and ask questions.If they get a correct answer, great! If they don't - we will help them trouble-shoot, understand their mistakes, correct them and solve more problems of the same type to solidify it.
How We Promote The Growth Mindset
The growth mindset we teach our students is that no one is born with math knowledge. The challenges and mistakes are the building blocks of learning. We shouldn't avoid and be afraid of challenges and mistakes.We have to seek out challenges - and thus - be ready for mistakes. The key thing is to not simply make the mistakes but correct them and learn from them. Hence, our goal for every student attending these sessions is to make mistakes or get stuck - at least 4-5 times per session.