LoginBogdan - Coventry tutor
Information About Bogdan:
Personal Description:
I am a 27 year old soon-to-become Dr. in Aerospace Engineering who is also a Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering in Coventry University.
I am open minded, easy to talk to, and I also work as a part time close up magician. Needless to say, there are only a few things in life I love more than teaching.
I became passionate about Mathematics and Physics in my early days of high school which I did back home in Romania. This allowed me to start winning various prizes in national and international Olympiads and competitions. Afterwards, I was accepted at University of Southampton in order to study an MEng programme (Master in Engineering) in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Not only did I finish it with a first class degree, but I also obtained Dean's Award for the "Best Final Year MEng Student". I then started doing a PhD at University of Southampton (due to finish at the end of this year), during which I also worked with Rolls-Royce plc.
I am a very sociable person as a direct consequence of the people I worked with and also due to my hobby of performing close up magic as well as being in the University's table tennis team.
Teaching Experience:
Overall, I have done over 850 teaching hours.
My motto with regards to teaching is "If you don't love it don't touch it." The reason is that in most cases, the students' attitude towards a certain subject is heavily influenced by whoever taught them or introduced them to the subject in the first place. It has not been uncommon to meet students who show dislike towards Maths and Physics, which are core subjects for a large number of University degrees. This is without a doubt unfortunate because not only are those two subjects essential, but also beautiful in the way they allow us to see the real world in a different light.
It was around my last year of high school that I discovered how rewarding teaching can be. The Romanian Baccalaureate exam which everyone needs to take at the end of high school involves a Mathematics and a Physics test. Many of my peers would ask me for help in those topics, so often after class, I would organize and informal lecture in which they would ask me questions, and I would try to explain them to the best of my abilities. The biggest compliment I received from them was how "they wish the class lecturer would explain things as well as myself". From that point onward I started looking for any teaching opportunities that I could find.
Those informal teaching sessions continued in University as well. Occasionally, with a group of peers, we would book a lecture room , where I would clarify ideas from the lectures that people found hard to grasp. I was also having regular teaching sessions with a few people who were struggling with some modules. In the end their marks skyrocketed from barely 3rd class (40%) to 1st (70%). Of course this did not happen overnight, and was the result of effort on both semesters both from myself who was guiding them in what I believed to be the right direction, as well as from them who were diligently following my guidance.
During my PhD, I was finally able to hold official teaching sessions with undergraduate students. Those included tutorial sessions, lab demonstrations as well as 1-on-1 sessions. The Mathematics module at University of Southampton is one of the unique ones in the sense that there are no lectures from it. It is entirely self paced, and the students are expected to learn the subjects themselves after which they take weekly tests that are marked in front of them. This let me delve deep into the issues that the students had, and was also quite reminiscent of the informal teaching sessions I used to do in my undergraduate course. During the academic year, a "fan club" was slowly formed which consisted of 15-20 specific students who were always asking me to mark their tests, as they enjoyed how I was working with them.
In addition to all that, I am working as a Lecturer in Coventry University teaching students a plethora of Physics and Maths based subjects. I received outstanding praise both from students and other staff members who realized how good my teaching style is. As a result of the experience I gathered over the years, I am fully confident that I can get anyone willing to learn to understand those topics.
Tutoring Approach:
I believe patience to be one of the key traits when it comes to teaching. Besides that, my trump card is the fact that I can distil complex ideas in order to make them trivial to be understood by people of various knowledge levels.
My tutoring style is a highly interactive one, and I rely greatly on asking questions on the topic that I am trying to teach. In my opinion, this is one of the most effective techniques because it keeps the students on their toes as they try to actively think of what is being taught, and it also helps me assess their knowledge level. The tutoring session would consist of the students asking me whatever they do not understand, and instead of me giving them the answer straightaway, I would let them discover it by slowly guiding them. One of the reasons I am confident in this teaching style is because I also share my students' perspective: the most memorable lecturers and tutors I had during my undergraduate degree were the ones turning the lectures into an interactive environment.
I am aware that everyone is different, and my teaching style takes this into account very well. In my opinion, one of the crucial aspects which some teachers can't explain too well is the "why". More specifically, I am referring to the reason why students have to learn a large variety of theorems and equations. My philosophy is that once they understand the way in which maths and physics concepts can be applied in a real life scenario, their perspective will change and will be able to assimilate the ideas more efficiently. I am confident I am able to convey the practicality of maths and physics for a simple reason: I have been doing 8 years of engineering, and engineering is THE main real life application of maths and physics.
Considering my technical background, my people skills as well as my willingness to share my knowledge with eager minds would make a suitable tutor. Do not hesitate to contact me!
Subjects Taught:
Qualifications:
- Doctorate in Computational Engineering
- Masters in Aerospace Engineering
Further Information:
| Availability: | Weekends / Weekdays (evenings) |
| Types of Tutoring: | Travels to you / From their home / Online |
| References Supplied? | Yes |
| Additional Languages Spoken: | Romanian |
