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Troy

Certified Tutor

I have always loved learning. I am passionate about education because education changes lives and helps people to improve the quality of their lives. My own education was a critical factor in helping me to achieve many of the goals that I had for my life. I received my Master of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of Central Arkansas. I have been a physical therapist for 23 years. During my career, I have practiced in multiple clinical settings and used my education and training to improve the lives of thousands of patient and clients. I have served as a Director of two physical therapist assistant programs and as an instructor in 2 physical therapist assistant programs and 1 physical therapy program. I have worked with hundreds of college students in both classroom and clinical settings and have seen firsthand how education has improved their lives. I also have 3 children of my own that I have helped with tutoring during their K-12 educational careers. My primary areas of tutoring are physical therapy and K-12 math (basic math and pre-Algebra).

My teaching "philosophy" is pretty simple. I believe that a motivated student can learn and that learning process can be facilitated by a competent and equally motivated teacher. I believe that a student needs at least 3 things to be successful: courage, learning skills, and confidence. "Failure" (and fear of failure) comes from an incorrect focus on perfection as a measure of success. As a teacher, one of the first things that I try to do is give a student "permission" to fail. Michael Jordan said, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Jordan used every temporary failure to propel him to his next success because he understood that the two concepts were different sides of the same coin. Once a student learns that it is okay to fail, then they are no longer afraid to try. Confidence comes from practice. A basketball player has to dribble or shoot a ball tens of thousands of times to develop skill mastery and confidence. How many math problems does the average student do in a week? Structured practice with frequent encouragement and detailed feedback are critical to developing mastery and confidence. "Learning skills" is a broad term used to refer to the skills used to gather, process, use, and communicate knowledge and includes such things as creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, information management, adaptability, curiosity, reflection, time management, reading comprehension, and study skills. Learning skills are developed across the life span, but a particular deficit in learning skills (reading comprehension, for example) can seriously affect a student's performance and can be hard to recognize. Put another way, if a student is having trouble with word problems in math class, does that student have trouble with math, reading comprehension, or both? A teacher can be helpful in identifying the real issue and making referral to an appropriate help resource. As a teacher, I focus on helping a student to developing courage and confidence while keeping an eye out for deficits in learning skills that might be holding the student back. When I work with a student (or a patient), I evaluate to determine their goals, their current level of function, and any factors that might be holding them from achieving their goals. I then try to tailor my tutoring to those factors and the student's preferred learning styles.

When I am not at work, I am usually busy with my youngest son's sports activities. When I do have free time, I enjoy playing / watching sports, exercising, gaming (RPGs), binge watching streaming TV / movies, and learning online.