How to Tutor Math Online on Mac and Write Equations Clearly

A student shares a photo of their homework. Question 4 is a quadratic they got wrong, and you can see exactly where: a sign flipped in the second line. In a room you would circle it, write the correct line underneath and let them try the next step. On a video call, you are typing "the minus in line 2" into the chat and hoping they look at the right minus.

That gap is the whole problem with online math tutoring. The explaining is the same. The writing is not.

This guide is for one-on-one and small-group math tutors working from a Mac: a teacher earning extra on a tutoring platform, a university student helping younger students with algebra, or a parent tutor running weekly calculus sessions. It covers the free tools that come with your Mac and when a screen annotation app is worth adding.

Quick Takeaway

Math tutoring online works best when you can write by hand on the same screen the student sees. On a Mac, the cleanest setup is an iPad with an Apple Pencil connected through Sidecar, so the pencil writes on your Mac screen. For a blank page, Apple's free Freeform app or your call app's whiteboard is enough. To write directly over a worksheet, PDF, graph or the student's own homework photo, without uploading it anywhere first, Presentify draws over any app on your screen and switches to a whiteboard with one key. It costs $14.99 once on the Mac App Store. If you only ever teach on Zoom's own whiteboard, you may not need it.

Why Math Is Harder to Tutor Online Than Most Subjects

Tutoring works. A large review of experimental studies, The Impressive Effects of Tutoring on PreK-12 Learning by Nickow, Oreopoulos and Quan, found consistent positive effects on learning, and reported that math tutoring tends to show larger effects in later grades. The catch is that most of what makes math tutoring work is visual and step by step:

• Notation doesn't type well. Fractions, exponents, square roots and integrals are slow to type in a chat box and easy to misread.
• The mistake is usually one symbol. You need to point at one character in one line, not "somewhere in the middle".
• Students learn from watching steps appear. A finished, typed solution skips the order in which you'd write it, which is the part they need to see.
• Materials come from everywhere. A PDF worksheet, a textbook photo, a graph in Desmos, a past exam paper, a screenshot the student sent five minutes ago.
• Mouse handwriting is unreadable. Drawing "x²" with a trackpad is possible; drawing a whole derivation that way is tiring and messy.

So the job is to make handwriting easy, put it on top of whatever material you're using, and keep the screen tidy enough that the student can follow.

Pick Your Writing Surface

An iPad and Apple Pencil (best). With Sidecar, an iPad can extend or mirror your Mac display, and Apple Pencil works as a pointer and drawing tool on Mac windows shown on the iPad. Your handwriting goes into Mac apps, so it appears in your screen share without sharing a second device. Check Apple's Sidecar system requirements first; both devices need to be signed in to the same Apple Account, and a USB cable keeps the iPad charged during long sessions.

A drawing tablet. A USB pen tablet works with any Mac and costs less than an iPad. It takes some practice because you write on the tablet while looking at the screen.

A trackpad or mouse. Fine for circling, underlining and arrows. Not great for writing full lines of working.

The Free Built-In Workflow

You can tutor well without buying anything:

1. Share one window, not the whole screen, in Zoom, Google Meet or Teams. It keeps notifications and other tabs private.
2. Use a blank board for working. Apple's Freeform is free on the Mac and accepts Apple Pencil input through Sidecar. Many tutors keep one board per student and add to it each week, so last week's work is still there.
3. Use your call app's own tools for markup. Zoom includes annotation tools (text, drawing, arrows, a vanishing "spotlight" pen) and a whiteboard during screen sharing, as university IT guides describe.
4. Graph in Desmos. The free Desmos graphing calculator runs in a browser and is a quick way to show what changing a coefficient does.
5. Save the board. Export or screenshot the final working and send it after the session as notes.

The limits show up quickly. Call-app annotations only work inside that app, so if a student prefers Meet or a platform's built-in classroom, your tools change. Freeform needs you to import the worksheet before you can write on it. And switching between "write on the PDF" and "blank page for working" means juggling windows mid-explanation.

A Practical Mac Workflow With Presentify

Presentify is a menu bar app that draws over anything on your Mac screen, so it works the same whether the session runs on Zoom, Meet, Teams, or a tutoring platform in the browser. It is made by Softal, the company behind Apps.Deals. These are the features that matter for math, as described on its keyboard shortcuts page and getting started guide:

1. Open the material, then annotate it in place. Open the worksheet PDF, the textbook photo or the student's homework screenshot in Preview, then press Control-A to start annotating. Free Hand (F) is for working, Arrow (A) points at a line, Circle (C) and Rectangle (R) mark a term, and Highlighter (H) shades a step without hiding it.
2. Write with the iPad. Presentify's FAQ confirms you can draw with an iPad paired through Sidecar, Astropad, Duet or similar software, so Apple Pencil handwriting lands directly on top of the worksheet.
3. Switch to a blank page with one key. Press W for the whiteboard when you need space to work a problem from scratch, then go back to the worksheet.
4. Use colours with meaning. Number keys 1 to 5 pick your favourite colours. A simple system helps students: black for the original problem, blue for your working, red only for mistakes.
5. Keep lines and shapes neat. Hold Shift for straight lines, squares and circles, handy for axes, number lines and geometry.
6. Type what shouldn't be handwritten. The Text tool (T) adds labels such as "Step 2: factor" that stay readable.
7. Fix and clear. Command-Z undoes the last stroke, Command lets you select and delete one item, and Delete clears the screen for the next question. Auto-erase can make marks fade on their own when you're only pointing at things.
8. Save the working. Press S to save a screenshot of the annotated screen and send it to the student after class.
9. Click without closing your drawings. Hold fn to interact with the app underneath, for example to scroll the PDF or move a slider in Desmos, then keep drawing.

Highlight Cursor (Control-S) and Zoom (Control-Z) are useful too: a halo helps the student follow your pointer on a busy page, and zoom enlarges a small exponent or subscript on a dense exam paper.

When You Don't Need Presentify

• You only teach on Zoom and like its whiteboard. Zoom's built-in annotation and whiteboard cover most of the same ground there.
• You do everything on the iPad. If you share your iPad screen and write in an iPad notes app, a Mac annotation app adds little.
• You want a shared board the student also writes on. Presentify draws on your screen only. For two-way writing, use a collaborative board (a shared Freeform board or your call app's whiteboard).
• You're on an older Mac. Presentify needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.

Worked Example: A Weekly Algebra Session

Maya tutors a ninth-grader in algebra for an hour every Tuesday on Google Meet.

• Before the call: she opens this week's worksheet PDF and the photo of last week's homework in Preview, and connects her iPad with Sidecar.
• Warm-up (10 minutes): she shares the homework photo, presses Control-A and circles the two mistakes in red. She asks the student to say what went wrong before she writes the fix.
• New topic (25 minutes): she presses W for the whiteboard and works through factoring step by step in blue, writing each line as she says it. When the student asks "why does the 6 split into 2 and 3?", she highlights that line instead of rewriting it.
• Practice (20 minutes): back on the worksheet, the student solves problems aloud while Maya marks each step with a tick or an arrow.
• Wrap-up (5 minutes): she saves the whiteboard and the marked-up worksheet with S and sends both in the chat.

Worked Example: Exam Prep on a Past Paper

Daniel helps university students prepare for a calculus final. He opens the past paper PDF, uses Zoom (Control-Z) to enlarge a tightly typeset integral, then draws over it to split it into parts. When a student needs a graph, he holds fn, switches to Desmos, adjusts a parameter, and draws the tangent line over the plot. At the end, the annotated pages become the student's revision notes.

Final Verdict

Online math tutoring needs three things: easy handwriting, a place to write on the material itself, and a tidy screen. An iPad with Apple Pencil through Sidecar solves the handwriting. Freeform, Desmos and your call app's whiteboard are free and good enough for many tutors. Presentify is worth adding when you want to write over any worksheet, photo or graph, in any call app, and jump to a whiteboard and back without changing tools. It's a one-time purchase, and you can try it first through Setapp, which offers a 7-day free trial.

For more ways to keep students engaged on calls, see how to make online classes more interactive on Mac.

Catch these apps on sale: many paid Mac apps, including screen annotation apps, run discounts at least once a year, most often around Black Friday. Subscribe to the Apps.Deals newsletter to hear when the deals arrive.

Note: Features and prices are current as of October 2026 and can change; verify them on each official site before buying.

Disclosure: Presentify is made by Softal, the same company behind Apps.Deals. This post also contains affiliate links; if you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.