Francine Mcglaughlin

I am excited to be joining the Well-Trained Mind Academy! I received my BS in Mathematics from Penn State University in 2001, after which I taught mathematics in public high school for a decade. Along with this, I have spent thousands of hours tutoring for the SATs in one-on-one and classroom formats. I enjoy giving students the confidence to succeed in math.

I have been a homeschooling parent for over a decade, and I have read and reread The Well Trained Mind every year! I love learning along with my children, and it gives me joy to see how homeschooling develops their interests.

When not teaching, I enjoy reading, cooking, and spending time with my family. I have a particular regard for the work of Flannery O’Connor, along with the great Russian Masters.

On teaching: My teaching style focuses on problem-solving and is skill-based. When I teach a new topic, I try to draw out conceptual knowledge from practical, problem-solving ability. Once students have developed conceptual knowledge, I like to explore the different ways that students will see the concept, coming at it from different angles. I use a combination of tests, quizzes and homework to assess student progress. I believe students should be given the opportunity to fix work and retry assignments until they can fully understand the concept being learned. Like poetry or art, mathematics is meant to be pondered, explored, and played with.