Juan G
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University of Havana, Master’s Degree in Physical Studies
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Love Learning Tutors: Mathematics, Sciences, Spanish
Common Entrance: Mathematics, Science
GCSE: Mathematics, Physics, Spanish
A-Level: Mathematics, Physics
University: Physics, Mathematics
My teaching experience spans over 10 years as a Professor at the University of Havana in Cuba, teaching all subjects of General Physics and Advanced Maths. During this time I also worked as a private tutor for A-level and university students. After relocating to London, I work as a Physics, Mathematics, and Spanish tutor at Love Learning Tutors.
SKILLS AND INTERESTS
As a graduated physicist, my main skills lay in the field of scientific research hand-in-hand with teaching as I split my time between these two activities. I enjoy facing complex scientific challenges and unsolved problems. I consider myself a proficient programmer and feel very rewarded when I can translate my work into instructions that can be followed by a computer.
I am a big fan of sports although I am not very good at them. I play almost anything while being extremely competitive at it. My favourites are football, basketball, and baseball. I can expend hours listening to good music, especially classic rock, heavy metal, and Latin music. Online gaming is another long-lasting hobby since my adolescence, especially real-time strategy games. Last but not least, I enjoy literature, being addicted to sci-fi and fantasy novels.
WORK EXPERIENCE
I worked from September of 2012 to December of 2021 as an Assistant Professor at the Physics Faculty of the University of Havana in Cuba. During this period, I have conducted my research in the fields of Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Physics earning my Master’s degree in the former. I performed a 5 months research stay at the Polytechnic Institute of Turin while applying methods from statistical physics to expand our understanding of biological systems.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
I had my first contact with tutoring during my bachelor studies. Students would struggle to get past Physics and Math, the core subjects of my studies. Most of my tutees required assistance with their final exams, intensive preparation to acquire the basic problem-solving skills required to pass the tests. This form of tutoring imposes enormous pressure on the tutor, as it demands results after an extremely short training period. I empathised with my students feeling their successes and failures as my own. This first contact also convinced me that tutoring is much more than this. A tutor’s duty from my perspective is to form abilities on the tutee while they enjoy the subject, lessons cannot be seen as a burden but as an opportunity to polish the rough edges of the student’s understanding. Individualised treatment, tailored class plans that best suit their personalities and skills, and an empathetic relation between the tutor and the tutee are musts.
As a physicist, I have always dreamt of achieving a life-changing discovery. For a long time, I thought the success of my career was inextricably linked to my research results. It was not long after completing my Bachelor's degree that I realised how wrong I was. I started teaching right after graduating from the University of Havana. What I expected to be an undesirable add-on to my academic career ended up becoming one of my greatest passions. The challenges have been tremendous, students often see Physics as a painful duty, a subject they have to sort to reach their final objective. My goal has been to change their minds by pointing out its beauty and ubiquity, there is not a single branch of sciences where physics does not play a crucial role. It is at this point that my tutoring experience revealed itself as an invaluable asset. Students needed a more personal approach to their learning often in opposition with the more massive methods of the classroom. Tutoring helped me focus on my students' strengths and weaknesses, prepare multiple class plans to tackle their various needs and step away from many teaching dogmas to ease the learning process. I believe that my 10 years of teaching experience are a perfect complement for the tutoring process.
As a student, I trained for 2 years to participate in International Physics Olympiads. I spent many hours facing complex problems from all branches of Physics. I learned to think outside the box, looking for creative paths of solution as a key requirement to problem-solving. This period of my life shaped my thinking more than any other and I am hopeful I can translate these experiences to my tutees. I base my tutoring method on fomenting the student’s ability to form a clear picture of the problem and sketch a solution even without writing a single word or equation. Not knowing a formula or a principle is easily solvable, the skill required to tackle problems is much more difficult to acquire. I try to apply the same principle when tutoring Mathematics, my other favourite subject. As I see it, it is of vital importance to fill the student with confidence while keeping him grounded and aware of his real capabilities. Such a thing is only possible if he (she) is provided with the right tools to think, analyse, and process information. That would be my central task as a tutor regardless of the particular subject or age group. At the same time, I aim to establish a close companionship with my tutee so that he (she) feels that we share a common goal at all times, making the tutoring process smooth and enhancing their learning capabilities while expending quality time together.