The Tutor's Briefcase: The Right Tools for the Mission
You've seen it in the movies: the grizzled action hero walks into a room, places a well-worn black briefcase on a table, and with a series of precise clicks, opens it to reveal a custom-built arsenal. Specialized pistols, silent knives, and miniature gadgets—each tool has a specific purpose for the mission ahead. Every time I step into an in-person session with one of my students and open up my briefcase, I am faced with a similar assortment of gadgets for taking down challenging math, physics, or chemistry problems, and I need to know when to use each one. Step in, dear reader, and let me show you some of my sweet gear…
The Tutor’s Arsenal
To start with, this carefully curated collection of calculators contains…
TI-30X IIS Calculator: This is the workhorse, my go-to for most sessions. She's solar-powered and reliable, perfect for everyday calculations without any fuss. Like the classic, trusty handgun, she’s always ready and never lets you down (unless your youngest son steals it off of your desk and uses it for his pretend cell phone). She fits nicely in the hand, and I always feel like a part of me is missing if I don’t have her within reach. I guess that’s what comes of our long history together; she got me through some wild scrapes back in college!
TI-84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator: This is my special ops tool. It’s the graphing powerhouse, full color for visualizing multiple functions, and capable of doing regression analysis or finding the mean and standard deviation of large data sets. I keep this baby charged and ready to loan to students whose calculators are either MIA or dead, though for the latter group, they can always plug in with my charger and be good to go for the next week or so.
Canon F-7925GA Solar Calculator: This is the tactical backup and wow gadget. It's a fantastic, solar-powered calculator that specializes in some key functions. I especially appreciate its handling of radicals, which isn’t usually allowed for most classroom calculators. Mostly it’s just there for showing off, but sometimes we have to bring this puppy out as a backup for the backup (in the rare case my TI-84 is dead).
Mechanical Pencils: Clarity is key in picture-drawing and graphing, and a reliable mechanical pencil is a tutor’s best friend. And I carry 0.7 mm reloads, naturally.
Graph Paper, Protractor, and Compass: These are my precision instruments. You wouldn't go into a hostage situation without a floor plan, and I don't go into a geometry or physics session without the tools to visualize angles, find resultant vectors, or construct perpendicular bisectors.
Straight-edge/ruler: This all-purpose item is useful for introducing the imperial system or metric prefixes as well as drawing neatly. Metal, not cheap, breakable plastic.
Pencil sharpener: Students sometimes show up with shoddy equipment: pencils worn to nubs, erasers that are just scraping the lead off the page, etc. I do what I can to keep things in good repair, and a little can go a long way.
Eraser: You need to erase the last three pages of questions that you just realized you did wrong? No problem. This hardy hunk of rubber is one of my favorites, good for erasing children’s scribbles from walls, too. God willing, this giant thing will last me the rest of my life.
Growing up a good boy scout, I learned the value of being prepared. I want to have the right solution for any problem and to be a trusted partner in a student's academic journey. This gear facilitates students’ conquering everything from tricky physics problems to intimidating calculus questions. For me, seeing that moment of mastery and independence is the real "mission accomplished."
Are you ready to gear up and become a master of your own? I'll show you how to properly use the tools, train you in the arcane arts of problem-solving, and together, we'll take down the roughest, toughest math, chemistry, and physics problems. Contact me for a briefing on this mission, should you choose to accept it.