Hi, I'm Joshua! I have a master's degree in mathematics and five years of classroom-based teaching experience in math at two community colleges and one university. My teaching experience consists of Prealgebra, Core Competency Mathematics, Basic Statistics, College Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus I, II, and III (aka Multivariable Calculus). In addition, I have six years of one-on-one tutoring experience between college and commercial tutoring centers.

I am a very patient tutor. I strive to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of my students so I can exploit the strengths to address the weaknesses. I also frequently work with students who feel they have no strengths at all in math, and if you feel this way, I’ll understand. I always want to connect math to the real world so that the student can put concrete concepts behind all of the mathematical symbols. When this approach isn't appropriate (e.g. when the student is learning how to factor a quadratic polynomial), I emphasize the process of experimenting with, and verifying the correctness of, possible solutions.

I also have a master's degree in computer science, one year of tutoring experience in that subject as a university teaching assistant, and professional experience as a frontend and backend Web developer. I can tutor students in introductory programming in languages such as C, C++, Java, and Python, and also in Web development with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL dialects. I always emphasize the concrete concepts behind the tools found in programming languages, but computer programming is all about step-by-step procedures whose results can be and must be verified time and again, and I also emphasize this practical and results-oriented approach.

As a teacher, my students have always been college-aged--typically they're young adults, but frequently they're middle-aged or older. As a math tutor, my students have typically been college-aged, but I've also worked with middle- and high-school students.