Meet Edmond Johnsen: Math and Science Tutor and Scuba Diver
July 1, 2008 – 11:11 am by KellyThere are so many highly skilled and talented tutors on GlobalScholar, it can be a daunting task to choose just one. So, why not try them all?! Well, in case you don’t want to spend every hour of the rest of your life tutoring, I have another option. I’m going to introduce you to our tutoring community…one by one.
Edmond Johnsen: Explorer of Oceans and the Worlds of Math and Science
Edmond Johnsen recently obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Colorado State University and offers courses in both Physics and Calculus for high school and college students. In college, he was the one that his friends ran to for help in math and science which made him realize that he had a gift for teaching. His GlobalScholar students agree: one student wrote in his course review, “This guy knows his Calculus!”.
Here’s what Edmond told us about himself and his tutoring experiences:
Kelly: What was your favorite subject when you were a student? Why?
Edmond: Ever since elementary school, I have loved math because I was good at it. My father helped me to master the basics when I was very young so I was able to shine in school, even skipping grades and tutoring other students as early as 4th grade. My next love was science. I wasn’t really exposed to much of it until high school, but since I had a solid mathematical background my mind was free to absorb the rational thought patterns inherent in scientific study. Math provided me with some powerful tools and science let me build some really cool stuff.
Kelly: What motivated you to begin teaching/tutoring?
Edmond: Knowledge is power, and the more people we empower with knowledge, the more powerful we can be as a species. There is a clear sense of satisfaction when a student has an “aha” moment and I had something to do with it. So many people think that they can’t do math or science…so, they can’t. Helping students see how good they really can be is amazingly rewarding.
Kelly: Was there any particular teacher or class that really influenced you?
Edmond: Growing up with an inherently rational father hard-wired my mind for scientific thought. In school, I got a lot of positive feedback from all of my teachers which kept me interested and successful. At the collegiate level, I had a chance to learn from many brilliant professors that were able to push me to the next level and show me just how much mankind has learned about the world around us. Calculus opened my mind more than any other single course I took until Quantum Mechanics. It wasn’t just the tools that calculus offered; somehow, my mind changed once I’d absorbed those tools. Before calculus, my mind worked like a manual transmission, shifting gears and moving ahead, but always in steps. Calculus turned my brain into a continuously variable transmission, allowing an infinite number of speeds that were tailored for each situation.
Kelly: What do you think are the challenges of teaching/tutoring?
Edmond: It’s challenging to demystify a subject that a student has already given up on and helping them to realize that they can do it.
Once the mental blocks are out of the way, all I have to do is review a couple of rules, throw in a shortcut here and there, and we’ve got another “A” student for life.
Kelly: What do you like best about tutoring online?
Edmond: When students send me a “Homework Help Request” I am able to dedicate a lot of time to generating in-depth, clear responses to each question. I find that this extra time on my end allows me to elucidate more about the subject matter at hand than would be revealed by an answer to the question alone.
The flexibility of this online tutoring system has allowed me to help many different kinds of people from around the world while I was traveling around the country myself.
Kelly: What do you think makes you a successful tutor? What are some important qualities of an online tutor?
Edmond: I go out of my way to ensure that I am an expert on each problem that is sent my way. Even though I have always tried to be my best, I find that I go another extra mile when someone else’s grade is on the line. As in any tutoring venue, caring about the success of your students is the most important piece. After that, well, you need to know what you’re talking about, and you need to know how to listen to your students.
Kelly: Anything else you want to share about yourself and your experiences?
Edmond: A few years ago I found that I was scared to the point of uncontrollable shaking while swimming in the ocean. This was totally unacceptable to me, so I dedicated myself to overcoming the fear. Now I am SCUBA certified and have gone on diving trips off the coast of Italy and all over the big island of Hawaii. The beauty of the underwater world was a great reward for all my hard work. I feel the same way about conquering a subject that intimidates you. I assure students that a whole new world can be theirs, once they have taken control of math and science.
Thanks, Edmond! I hope that you are able to help many students to see the beauty in Science and Math.
