Tutoring

So my department has an unfortunate rule, which is basically that you can take more than five years to get your PhD, but if you do, you are on your own for the sixth year and beyond. As this is my sixth (and final!) year, I was forced to find funding elsewhere. After completely striking out while trying to apply for teaching positions at Community Colleges, my friend (and fellow mathematician) Rupert suggested I look for tutoring jobs on Craig's List. Lo and behold, after I few tries, I was able to find a company who was desperate enough for a math teacher. Thus began my tutoring career.

When I got the job, I figured this would be something I would suffer through but would keep me employed for the year. Surprisingly, however, I actually enjoy it. Explaining math, even trivial SAT math to high schoolers, is highly enjoyable. And the time really does fly by, at least most of the time.

The only negative to it is the "babysitting" aspect. What I mean is, although high schoolers can converse at a reasonable level from time to time, they still require constant supervision to make sure they don't try to sneak their cell phones or ipods, and to make sure they do the work. So I have to constantly remind them to do homework, and sometimes have to get strict when they won't listen. But, that aside, this is still better than any other job an unqualified graduate student could get.

Like today, I had to work for 4 hours, but 2.5 of that was one on one tutoring, which is much easier to deal with than a class. And the SAT class had only 4 people, so it stayed under control. And, before I knew it, I was done. My schtick is to act all enthusiastic when solving problems, and truth be told, it is not an act. I genuinely am excited to do math. It is times like this that assure me I am going into the right profession.