Meet George: UPchieve's Volunteer Math Tutor Extraordinaire
It's always a special occasion when we get to recognize one of our outstanding volunteer tutors!
Meet George Caplan, an UPchieve volunteer math tutor who recently broke over 1,000 hours of tutoring on our platform! For the past three years, George has been a proactive, dedicated, and favored tutor. He’s certified in all math-related subjects all the way through Calculus AB! During his time with UPchieve, he’s helped more than 850 high school students reach their academic goals!
He's a tutor with a niche for assisting students to succeed in subjects ranging from Physics to Trigonometry and he's got some awesome testimonials from students to prove it:
“I have seen such an amazing tutor, he is literally the best human being alive. I really loved working with him and he made me understand the topic and much more”
“George made his examples clear and straightforward to the point. He kept on explaining whenever I misunderstood something. I feel much better about algebra.”
“I would love to be able to request George again because he is the best teacher/tutor I've ever had. I would pay him for his time. He took his time and took me over things step-by-step. He was AMAZING*infinity!!!!! Thanks again for your service.”
I got to chat with George about his experience on UPchieve, and learn more about his passion for tutoring!
Tell me about yourself!
My name is George Caplan. I live in Acton, MA, which is very close to the famous towns of Concord and Lexington. Acton is also next to Maynard, MA, which was the headquarters of Digital Equipment Corporation, once the second-largest computer company in the world.
When did you become an UPchieve coach?
I joined UPchieve in December 2019. I am not sure when I had my first coaching session. In those days, UPchieve had only a few customers. UPchieve convinced me to carry my cellphone with me. When it rang with an UPchieve request, that was a surprise. And I had to learn how to answer the cellphone! Prior to UPchieve, I used it only to call AAA when the car broke down.
Why did you want to be a volunteer at UPchieve?
From 1971 to 2000, I worked as an engineer. From 2000 to 2018, I taught physics labs. When I retired in 2018, I wanted to help high school students, preferably online. I found UPchieve on the web, and it was the ideal choice. As I have told the UPchieve team, I might have tried to invent something like it if I had not found something like UPchieve. When Covid came along, UPchieve became (for me) an even better choice.
What's your most memorable experience on the platform?
At about 11:30 PM one night, I was helping a student who I knew pretty well. The student had an assignment due at midnight, so I was giving more explicit help than I normally would. Normally, I would have tried to slowly guide the student toward finding the answer.
Eventually, I realized that it was 12:15 AM. I asked the student what had happened. Wasn’t the assignment due at midnight? The student told me that it was only 9:15 PM. That is when I learned to ask students which time zone they are in. This student was on the West Coast and I was on the East Coast!
What has volunteering with UPchieve taught you about yourself?
I have learned that I like doing this kind of coaching. Through coaching, I have also learned to go through things in a controlled, step-by-step fashion; then I (and the student) are more likely to get the right answer.
I am trying to follow this procedure when I do “back of the envelope” calculations on my own. I have also learned that high school math and physics problems can be quite challenging and interesting, especially if I try to understand them at a deeper level than the student does.
What was high school like for you?
I’d describe it like this, in the words of Kurt Vonnnegut: “High school is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of.” And, “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
What's your advice for high school students?
My advice for math and physics students is to practice, practice, practice. I used to feel that some introductory math and physics problems might be a bit dull. Then I realized two things. First, real problems in science and engineering are complicated. They cannot easily be posed for beginners.
Second, athletes and musicians do not start “at the top.” Musicians practice, practice, practice. Even the best play scales and do many exercises. On the first day of practice, athletes (even professional athletes) do not play a full game. They do wind sprints, push-ups, etc. Many of the best athletes do constant weight training and watch their diets.
Again: Practice, practice, practice.
What's your hope for the future of education?
First, I hope that American middle schools and high schools become better integrated into their communities and use the resources of professionals, retirees, artists, etc. in the community.
UPchieve is a good start at something like that, but schools have a long way to go. Second, we need much more research on how students learn and how best to teach them. We also need to do much better at communicating to teachers what is already known about how students learn and how to teach them (especially in science).
Final Thoughts
Interested in becoming a volunteer on our platform? Sign up and start helping students on their high school journey today! Looking to connect with more tutors like George? Sign-up and get matched with an academic coach today!