While my emphasis is on high school math, I work with students of all ages and abilities (including elementary, college and returning adults). 

The fact that I have been doing this tutoring thing for over ten years in the Lamorinda area does give me a few specific advangtages when it comes to tutoring kids from around here. The most important of these is that I am pretty familiar with the expectations and styles many of the individual math teachers working at Miramonte, Campolindo and Acalanes, as well as some of the private schools like Bentley.  

I do have a good track record when it comes to turning math into a non-trauma for students (and their parents).  For example:

A big problem that kids run into, especially in the more difficult classes, is test questions that go beyond the homework and require quick, creative thinking under pressure.  Over the years I've gotten pretty good at anticipating what the test questions might be for a given course.  Once I've made certain that a student is up to speed with the homework, we start working on likely test questions.  Many kids have reported to me that this has been a life saver.

Another problem is that in many classes key concepts are presented too quickly, too abstractly or without enough explanation (with the teacher sometimes just repeating what's in the book). Sometimes the book isn't much help either, since it will provide examples of how to solve the easier problems, but give no examples of how to approach the harder ones. I have found that if I go over the concepts before they come up in the classroom, it allows the student to better absorb the material as it is presented by the teacher, and relieves a common source of anxiety. 

Many students have reported to me over the years that their teachers just don't seem to get it that the basic common-sense logic behind some of the complicated-sounding ideas or theorems in math can seem extremely non-obvious to somebody seeing them for the first time. 

As one kid described her math teacher's attitude:  "Maybe it was never hard for her, or she just learned this stuff so long ago that she doesn't remember what it was like to not understand it."  One advantage I have as a teacher, is that while I get a big kick out of math, it has not always been easy for me, and I definitely do remember what it was like to not understand things that seem to me today to be beyond obvious.

Please feel free to call or e-mail me with any questions.