When doing senior projects at Woodland Regional, a lot of students decide to intern for a company or build something like a bench to present, but Ethan Valentino had a different idea: assisting a math teacher.

“In elementary school, I noticed that I was pretty good at [math], I really liked it,” said Valentino, senior at Woodland. “Even as I kind of stopped liking it as much, I still was still good at it.”

Valentino took advantage of his math knowledge and used it to help lift up other kids who don’t find mathematics easy.

“I started mine at the beginning of the school year,” said Valentino.

When he became an assistant for a math teacher, along with completing the forty hours of the senior project, he helped students who were struggling learning a math concept while being supervised by Mrs. Acabbo, the math teacher. Each class lasted eighty minutes and Valentino would help students for about a month, as his math teacher kept track of the time he spent assisting the students.

“I took a few students and helped them one-on-one and it was at times tricky for me because everyone understands things differently,” said Valentino. “Everyone needs to be taught differently.”

Some kids struggle to learn a topic being taught when a math teacher has to help all kids during the block. He has to come up with different ways to approach a topic to help a student better understand it.

“It can definitely be hard for individual students to keep up with a big class,” said Valentino.”

He recommends and suggests incoming seniors to do a project on something they are proficient in.

“I really enjoyed the senior project and I think it’d be a great idea for other people who excel at a certain topic,” said Valentino. “I think it’d be a good idea for them to move that to their senior project as well.”