Amelia Z

Your learner asked lots of good questions throughout, and it definitely seemed like he came away from the session with a better understanding not just of how to work with ellipses, but why ellipses work the way they do. Answering that "why" can be very difficult (and frustrating) as a teacher, but you did a good job of it. I know that this was a long session, but if you get a chance in the future, I might try to add in one or two problems at the end, just to give your learner a chance to get more firsthand practice with the material.

Tutor · 7 mo. ago

Good

Learner · 8 mo. ago

You certainly demonstrated a comprehensive grasp of the material - all of your definitions were clear and accurate. Additionally: good job writing out words for your learner; that's a really crucial part sometimes, especially when the learner isn't as familiar with English. Your learner seemed to struggle with the idea of an ellipse being defined by its foci. I know that this is one of the trickier concepts to explain (the idea that the sum of the two distances can be a constant seems a little bizarre at first). One strategy which I've known can really help people is explaining the concept of an ellipse with a string tied between two nails: you can move the string out to an infinite set of points (forming an ellipse), but the length of the string never changes. Sometimes just having a visual representation like this can help! Good job being persistent in explaining the eccentricity; you did well in giving multiple explanations, until one finally clicked.

Tutor · 7 mo. ago

Thank you

Learner · 8 mo. ago