PULLMAN, Wash. – College students who aspire to teach mathematics are a pretty small subset. Among secondary education majors at Washington State University, Nicole Fukuhara might even be an “N” of one. She wants to be a tutor, not a classroom teacher.
Not that she wouldn’t do a great job instructing a classroom full of students. She absolutely shone in her secondary teaching methods course, said instructor Francene Watson.
A ‘with-it’ teacher presence
A veteran teacher, Watson recently wrote a letter of support as part of Fukuhara’s application for a General John A. Wickham Scholarship. In it, she recounted the first lesson that Fukuhara gave in the methods course.
“She was incredibly professional, poised, attentive and interested in how her ‘students’ (peers) were learning. She possessed a kind of ‘with-it’ teacher presence,” Watson wrote.
She is nudging Fukuhara to consider a classroom career. She’s considering that, but remains attracted to tutoring.
“In the one-on-one setting, I can really tell if someone understands the lesson,” she said. “I really like those ‘light bulb’ moments.”
Started tutoring before college
Fukuhara got her first tutoring experience with a much younger student.
“One of my mom’s friends asked if I would tutor her daughter, and I did that off and on for three or four years,” she said. “After graduation, I got a job helping out in summer school as a teacher’s aide. I’d walk around and help students with their work.”
These days, she tutors college students in math at WSU’s Academic Enrichment Center.
After arriving in Pullman to study math, she contacted a tutoring company to ask what kind of credentials she’d need to work for there. That’s when she decided to pursue the degree in secondary education.
Watson is sure Fukuhara will succeed in whatever career path she takes – just as she succeeded in landing that $2,000 Wickham scholarship.