Stefany Snyder
Private Math Tutor
About Me
I received my degree in Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego. Post graduation, I spent 10 years working in labs researching the possibility of islet cell replacement for diabetic patients, finding novel ways to produce therapeutic antibodies in microalgae and developing new methods for screening cancer targets. Feeling the need to explore more creative fields, I spent several years taking art and design courses, which led to positions in interior design project management and textile sales coordination. Along the way, as a parent, I found myself needing to learn how to teach math to my frustrated student. My science background gave me more than enough math knowledge, but I realized that knowing math does not mean one can teach math. I discovered the highly respected Making Math Real Institute and dove into their courses for educators where I gained extraordinary insight into the neurodevelopment involved in how a child learns, prescriptive methods for teaching math and why many students, even gifted students, often find math difficult. Teaching
my own student and watching his eyes light up as he made the connections and quickly moved through the levels after struggling for so long was inspiring. After witnessing the power of Making Math Real strategies first-hand, I opened up my time to teaching other students.
-Completed nearly 700 hours of Making Math Real Institute courses for educators.
-Experienced with homeschoolers, 2e and gifted learners, and students with learning differences.
-Currently focused on elementary math through algebra.
Marin County: San Rafael, San Anselmo, Fairfax, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Corte Madera, Larkspur, Tiburon, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Novato * I am currently teaching remotely via Zoom so students can be located anywhere. *
Testimonials
"Our family had a great experience working with Stefany. From the beginning, Stefany was very intentional in her approach to teaching our son. She listened carefully as we explained his challenges and strengths around math. Hearing about her history in teaching students with learning challenges, we knew we’d landed in perfect hands.
Stefany worked with our child, identifying gaps in his math skills and teaching in a way that allowed my son to finally learn his multiplication facts, and to learn more systematic approaches to algebraic equations. Our child made steady progress with Stefany and enjoyed their classes. I would often times hear laughter as I overheard their communication. I wish we had found Stefany earlier in our math journey!" - MU, Parent
"Stefany devoted the first session to administering a dynamic, interactive assessment to get a sense of where my daughter was mathematically. My daughter, surprisingly, engaged with Stefany to answer the problems where she could and didn't feel bad when she came across problems she couldn't solve because of the way Stefany framed the questions. My daughter's attitude towards math noticeably changed starting with the first tutoring session - she stayed focused and on topic during the sessions, proactively completed and uploaded homework, eagerly told us about what she learned or worked on.
Within a week or two of starting sessions with Stefany, my daughter talked about numbers, looked for opportunities to calculate things, add up prices of groceries and compare it with the cashier's result, calculate sales tax, numbers and percentages in news stories. She started to enjoy discussing math, learning new math concepts, and now gets excited about math! It's an amazing transformation, and one that we're convinced will impact her for many years to come! Our only regret is that we didn't find Stefany earlier!" - MS, Parent