Frank Ho

There were a few cases in my over 10 years of tutoring math that I just could not boost my student’s math marks higher and I have spent some time to observe them and compared why some of my students could pull their marks higher in a few months of tutoring but not others. I concluded that there are some conditions with those students who could not get their marks higher and if they improve on these conditions then they perhaps could also enjoy higher math marks.

The traditional way of teaching fractions addition is to tell children that if the denominators of two fractions are different then they must be converted to the same denominator by using LCD. Sometimes two diagrams of pie charts are drawn to show the reason why. It teaches the concept by drawing diagrams to show the reason and then the procedure is taught to children on how to do it. Why most students still get confused by this way of teaching fractions?

After teaching and tutoring math for over 15 years, my own experience shows that it is important to realize that after 4 hours of instruction and if the students show no sign of improvement then it is time to consider changing your tutor.

Many articles and research reports have been published on the importance of mental math for children. Many educators also advocate not let children use calculator until after grade 7. Many theories and methods teach children do fast calculation and call those calculation tips mental math. So just how much mental math do children need to acquire so they will not be at disadvantage? I have been closely watching my private students on how they do calculations and at what points they seem to be at d

There are lots of myths around the issue of "Chinese are good at math" and it somewhat implies that the statement is genetic based. I decide to share my observations and experiences in tutoring math for over 15 years at Ho Math and Chess Learning Centre, Vancouver, Canada on why some (Canadian) Chinese students are good at math.

Ho Math is a special concept and game-based math teaching method especially designed for elementary students (from kindergarten to grade 7). It was invented in Canada by a Canadian math teacher Frank Ho.

This article is about comparing the MATHCOUNTS results of students whom I coached in 1999 and 2000, with different methods in a private learning centre - Ho Math and Chess. I feel the main reason of improvements was due to different coaching methods used in these two years. Students want to participate BC MATHCOUNTS as individuals may find this paper resourceful since individual participation is allowed in 2002/2003 in BC, Canada .

有的在何數棋參加奧數班的學生並沒有去PIMS (Canada, UBC小學數學競賽)比賽，但是許多參加奧數班學生告訴我們，他們真正是在享受做數學的樂趣，爲什麽呢？因為何數棋的奧數班與眾不同，有其獨特之處。

What makes it special to be a math tutor in Vancouver? This question can be answered by asking How to Find a Good Beijing Math Tutor of being an expatriated Canadian family in China? So the qualifications of being a good math tutor vary when the location of tutoring is changed. Obviously it takes some extra considerations of being a good math tutor in a city like Vancouver of having such a diversified culture heritage.

Yesterday I was teaching a grade one girl and she had some trouble to figure out the answers with questions such as ? + 5 = 11 but when given the question 6 + 5 to her, she could do it with ease. So clearly the reverse thinking presents a bit difficulty to her. She does not have any learning disability and is eager to learn question. In 2-hour lesson she sit in front of me, she never asked for any breaks but continually asked me for more problems to work on. At the same time I was thinking about