Making Math Marvelous

Resident math tutor helps students find the solution!

BY RESIDENT AND JUNIOR WRITER FIA CARDAMONE THIS FEATURE SPONSORED BY VILLA MONTESSORI STONE RIDGE

Grace Suh, or Ms. Grace to her students, is a very helpful tutor and math teacher who lives in the Willowsford Greens. Ms. Grace moved from Korea when she was in 5th grade and soon fell in love with math. At first, it was hard for her to communicate but she liked math because she was able to do it better than the other kids. “I was the first one to complete any math assignment so I gained confidence in mathematics,” Ms. Grace said. Ms. Grace started understanding math when she lived in Korea. “I began learning math concepts at home before I began kindergarten with counting and number sense. This is why I am pretty good with mental math,” she said. She first started teaching in Fairfax County in 1987 before she went back to school to receive a master’s degree.

Ms. Grace majored in elementary education and taught 4th grade but decided to also get a middle school math certification around 10 years ago because she loved teaching math. After living in Kentucky, Ms. Grace and her family moved back to Virginia in 2019 right before the pandemic.

When she moved back, Ms. Grace started substitute teaching to test out and see if she wanted to go back to public school teaching. To her surprise, Ms. Grace started getting many tutoring requests because students were struggling with math, and she has been tutoring ever since! Ms. Grace shares, “Tutoring is a perfect combination of my love of mathematics and teaching without discipline issues as it would be in a classroom.” Her favorite part about teaching is when, in Ms. Grace’s words, “the light bulbs go on ‘’ and the students GET the subject. She likes to teach because of those “Aha” moments. Ms. Grace’s favorite math course is Algebra 1 and her favorite topics are solving equations and factoring. She has been teaching for six years after working in public schools and as a director of a youth ministry. When asked if she could be in any other profession, Ms. Grace answered, “I would choose a field in computers (IT) because everything uses computers.” Ms. Grace is loved and appreciated by many families and scholars in the community because of her outreach and impact on many students.