I consider math to be one of my strong suits. Math has been my favorite subject for as long as I can remember. I love how its absoluteness challenges students to think critically and I love the satisfaction that comes with solving a very challenging sum. That is why we started the tutoring club and took it up as a CAS Project so that like-minded students could come together and help each other achieve confidence and the same satisfaction. Having been successfully completed IGCSE Additional Mathematics course me along with three of my friends; Palak, Pranav, and Divij created this club to help our juniors cope up with their curriculum and to provide them extra help using our first-hand experience. The classes took place before school hours on pre-decided days for about 2 months. We made sure that our classes were planned beforehand so that no time is wasted. To make sure that they get enough practice we even prepared worksheets and tests. A spreadsheet was created to stay organized. It included everything from class wise plan to test papers and attendance sheet.

(Spreadsheet-https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wnb7UrinK3OkTluhUtNAzwjXXqz9oRyYALh5fa-gacc/edit?usp=sharing)

Learning Outcomes Achieved:-

• LO1- Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth. It can’t be true that all four of us would have perfected each and every concept and chapter. We identified our strengths and weaknesses and divided our tasks accordingly. For example, I personally don’t like trigonometry and I am not very good at it either so instead of me teaching it to the class I let the others do it and I spent my time doing something else like checking their papers or planning for the next chapter.

• LO2-Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. Catering to the doubts of the students was a challenge. Doubts can be unpredictable and so we had to be thorough with all our concepts so that we are prepared when caught off guard.  One other challenge we faced was the lack of motivation. Early morning classes often led to low attendance. We had to constantly keep reminding them to not skip class. To overcome this issue we created a hangouts group for reminders, not only for classes but also for upcoming tests, to share useful resources and other prompts. Once the students realized that our sole purpose was to help them and that we were really working hard, they started to attend the classes by themselves. We developed extensive communication skills in the process.

• LO3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. To actually begin with the early morning sessions, we required permissions from a lot of people. The process of obtaining these approvals included endless visits to the senior school coordinator and the transport department. Also, the classes took place in a very formal and well-organized manner. The syllabus was planned according to their IGCSE curriculum. We double checked the new and revised syllabus guide so that no concept is missed or unnecessarily taught. While doing so, we made sure that we consider what they are currently studying in the school so that we maintain the same pace. To ensure that we move along the pace of their school classes we also collaborated with their additional math subject teacher to learn what they are currently studying. The teacher also helped us in understanding each student better by sharing with us their performance in class.

• LO4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences. As we conducted these lessons early in the morning, we had to be committed to wake up early and come to school. At times it got really difficult for us too because we were simultaneously juggling our own curriculum with it because IB is very demanding but still we managed to stay motivated. We were all very passionate about the subject and so we were able to teach with great dedication.

• LO5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively. As we were four people, we divided the tasks amongst ourselves. We broke down the whole task into 6 smaller tasks: Making syllabus, tutoring, teaching graphing on GDC, finding worksheets, test papers, and logistics. We appointed in-charges for each of these tasks and because of this, we were able to carry out the whole process with ease.

• LO7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions. If there is one thing that Fountainhead has taught us it’s academic honesty. We used a lot of questions from past year papers, different IGCSE websites, textbooks and other resources. We made sure that we gave credits to its rightful owner/creator.

This overall experience was not only helpful for the students but also for us as it helped us revise our concepts for Math HL. We developed many skills in the process including teaching skills, extensive communication skills, logical and critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills.