Math Help en Español

Need help in math en Español? Smarthinking, the live online tutoring service, is now offering math help in Spanish. While other companies provide online tutoring in Spanish, Smarthinking is the first to offer such services in math, with bilingual tutors available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during the academic year, according to the company.

The math tutors can communicate in Spanish whenever necessary to ensure students' comprehension of math lessons, serving as a safety net for English-language learners.

This is Smarthinking's (www.smarthinking.com) first Spanish-language tutoring program, soon to be followed by a new tutorial option, a critiquing service for students who write essays in Spanish. Whether there will be other Spanish-language offerings depends on feedback from Smarthinking's customers, which include many schools and libraries that serve a high percentage of English-language learners.

Shana Heikes, a client manager for Smarthinking, says, "We recognize that students must demonstrate subject mastery in English and that supplemental instruction in Spanish can be extremely helpful." Interactions between students and tutors can be saved and reviewed. And math problems can even be pasted into an interactive whiteboard. (On the site, click on "Math in Spanish Demo." )