(Progress report)

My family didn’t put me in school because of the poor treatment of our culture in formal schooling

Also, my grammar is somewhat good because I use a neat app called Grammarly; it’s helped me a lot to express what I’m trying to say, as my vocabulary is limited due to no formal schooling

Your Feedback or advice is much appreciated, even if it comes off as constructive criticism. I don’t take offense and am open to answering your questions.

Since my last report, I’ve had two more lessons with Lily on Wyzant virtually. 10/16/23, then today, 10/18/23

We’ve noticed that I fully grasped increasing numbers With addition, multiplication, exponents,

But was lacking the knowledge of subtraction and division. My Tutor, Lily, noticed this, so she pulled up a GED test question about negative numbers. This test question would be the goal while we work on my subtraction, division, and negative numbers.

Lily worked with my learning style and taught method how it’ll be easy for me to subtract by breaking apart the numbers

Example

solve the math equation 339–45

= (300+39)-45

= (200+100)+39–45

= 200+50+50+39–45

= 200+50+39+(50–45)

= 200+50+39+5

= 250+39+5

= 294

You may ask, “Why?” Breaking it down simplified it for me as before not knowing this method, my brain would be scrambled by trying several different ways to get the equation correct and would’ve most likely given up and tried to take a guess. It may not be the quickest way to subtract, but it’s more important that I get the equation correct as I practice and use this simplified teaching Method of breaking apart numbers that Lily taught me. I find my brain is naturally subtracting numbers just by a single glance.

Yes, I did pat my own back in the last sentence. I’ve never boasted about my accomplishments prior, But starting my formal educational journey, I’m surprised how quickly I can pick up on things I once thought would be impossible to learn and thought I was too far gone. Now that I can comprehend something that looked/sounded like gibberish, I feel very proud of myself

I will stop talking about my Confidence now and continue with my progress report lol.

Lily taught me how to do long division, which was daunting as I only had self-taught basics and an understanding of division. I didn’t express that during the lesson as I wanted to remain optimistic, and it seemed like Lily was confident that I would be ready for the task.

Lily started by walking me through the steps and ensuring I followed along. And drew this Example ⬇️

Lily recorded the lesson so that I could look back at it and follow the steps just in case I forgot how to follow the steps

She also taught me how to express it in a pre-algebra format.

A= dividend

B = Divisor

C= Ouotient

D= remainder

remainder has to be less than the divisor*

Above is a helpful note that lily provided. Especially the fact that the remainder has to be less then the divisor

Lily provided me with division homework; later that night while I was face-to-face looking at the assignment, I felt mortified because I didn’t even know where to start. I collected my thoughts, said a prayer, and repeated this affirmation that helped me get through any educational difficulty. I have a “Harvard student brain.” this allows me to channel inner wisdom and have confidence.

Because a Harvard education is something I deeply desire and secretly always wanted.

Now, very publicly lol.

Sharing my goals and hearing people’s goals is one of my favorite conversation topics. However, I never expressed my wish to be a Harvard student. After all, I feared the reaction I would get because I have no formal education and how they would explain how hard it is to get into. Funny enough, I solely chose my tutor, Lily, because she graduated from Harvard. I told her in our introduction how cool I thought it was that she attended Harvard; we’ve got messed up in communication, and she thought I said I wanted to participate in Harvard. Before having Lily as a tutor, I planned to attend a local community college. Fast forward to the end of my first lesson, Lily was road mapping my educational needs surrounding my goals; she included Harvard, and I started laughing and said

“NO, I Don’t Want to go to Harvard. I said that I thought it was cool that you went, but it’s something I always wanted, but I don’t think I’m smart enough”

I fully expected her to agree, but instead, she laughed at me; this was a unique reaction because she didn’t laugh or think it was somewhat funny that I’m 23 years old, and it took me a minute to understand what 5*4 equals to.

She laughed at the fact that I thought I couldn’t get into Harvard, which confirmed that my goal was possible.

Back to my homework: Saying my affirmation: I have a Harvard student mindset. Along with my prayer to my Lord and Savior, lol, and thinking back to the steps Lily taught me in the lesson earlier, I gained some knowledge of how to follow the steps and get the equation correctly.

I got 3/4 of the answers correctly to the division homework that Lily provided ⬇️

As you can quickly see, I’m a bit sloppy with the place values.

I’ve felt excellent about the long division , so I gave myself nine random long division drills

9/9 correct equation

The Red ink is from Lily in today’s lesson, demonstrating how to align the numbers correctly.

I didn’t fact-check if I got these correctly – the night before, I was doing my homework before bed.

Lily was checking my drills in today’s lesson, which was impressive to me because she didn’t need a calculator to check if I got the answers correct; she was able to do it within her mind. That quickly sparked a question, so I asked Lily what made her want to be a math teacher. She explained that it started when she was four years old; her grandmother used to ask her questions while they were at the market, like “number of servings then cost per pound of meat. “ or count “how many milligrams of medication she takes a day “ Lily mentioned that it was a lot of medicine due to her age. Her story made me reflect on my upbringing and the skills my elders taught me.

Lily’s story inspired me to try and use math daily because I’d like to say, “I’ve never used math in my daily life.” that’s probably false for me to say because I must’ve Used some math in my life; but to the point where I don’t even notice that I have done it. Not only did Lily’s story inspire me to use math in my daily life her story made me can’t wait to use this teaching method on my children that I don’t have yet.

To end the lesson, I requested Lily to give me an assignment that I could use math in real-life scenarios.

Within the lesson, I also asked for some help with my handwriting skills; doing long division and long multiplication is embarrassing for me to look at, let alone letting other people see it. I have perfectionist tendencies , which I like and hate about myself.

Lily found this neat website that allows you to create free custom handwriting prints that you can then upload on jamboard or print out and trace on paper. Mostly everything I do is either on my iPad or computer and I feel it’s better to have everything in one place so I’m going to practice using my iPad. I’ll show you an example

Here’s a before and after of just one day practicing my numbers

Before ⬆️

After ⬇️

Not amazing, but it’s progress, and I must report.

If you’re going for your SAT Admissions test, ACT Admissions test, or any exam you need help passing, I’m confident that Lily could assist you with most of your educational needs.

Lily advanced me from a 3rd-grade education level to pre-algebra in literal days. Great teaching methods that I was able to comprehend easily. Coming from no education at all.

She’s literally a wizard

With Wyzant, you can get $40 credit if you sign up with this link ➡️ Wyzant