Hi, my name is Licita and I'm eager and happy to work with you as a team to come up with a plan for your child to help improve his or her grades, and to promote self-esteem. With encouragement, sensitive feedback and interesting and fun lessons, students can become self-motivated, productive and competent citizens.
Is your child on the verge of being retained because reading and writing skills are not up to the standards? Call me! I have a system of teaching beginning readers phonics and phonemic awareness, as well as vocabulary-building. I come at this from a variety of strategies worksheets and flash cards) that depend on repetition until your child has internalized the elements of reading necessary to become a great reader. I focus on phonics first (the sounds each letter makes), then I progress to phonemic awareness (where the sounds are found in a word). We work on CVC words, blends,the final e rule, digraphs, then vocabulary building. It's been proven that if a child has not mastered reading by the third grade, no more emphasis is put on teaching reading after that, and your child may fall behind, lasting through high school and beyond. That may be the reason for so many high school drop-outs.
I was lucky while teaching in the public school system to have a writing coach who came into each classroom twice weekly to teach students how to approach writing. I learned so much from her and can pass this knowledge on to your struggling writer. Whether your child needs help in the genres of personal narrative, persuasive essays, factual reports, business and personal letters, I have the answers. I'm also very conscious of what a complete sentence is, and how to convey that to a student. Punctuation, where to capitalize, how to indent at the beginning of each paragraph, what paragraphs are, how to write dialogue, spelling, how to include metaphors and similes to make their work more powerful, and so on; I have that covered!
Math at the early level is one of my specialties, too. Youngsters not only need to internalize their basic math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and later, division), which can only be done by repetition, and they need to understand the basics of fractions and algebra. The very young student can be taught using manipulates. Algebra is now being taught at very young ages, and I include that in my math sessions after the basic facts are memorized. Fourth and fifth grades are where more complex math is taught. I'm more comfortable with teaching math up to fourth grade.
I just retired as a primary school teacher of third through fifth grades. Before becoming a certificated teacher, I taught art through non-profits funded by grants. Some of the proposals were written by others, some by me. I taught art to preschool through senior citizens. But the majority of my pupils were in elementary, middle and high school. I bring teaching art up for two reasons: 1) I have worked with young people for years, and 2) I wrote several successful grant proposals, a testimony to my ability as a writer. In fact, I've never been turned down for a grant!
I enjoy the company of children and love to see them light up at the discovery of something new or when they complete an assignment done well that at first seemed impossible. I feel the same way about helping older students. I would like to see all my students as shining stars.
Although I worked with children as a certificated teacher, as a tutor I welcome all ages. My first client was a 72-year-old man. I'm proficient in many subjects that the older student, including adults, may need help with, too.
To repeat myself: My greatest proficiencies are in teaching beginning readers phonemic awareness, the patterns of consonants and vowels and correct spelling. I'm also proficient in teaching writing at any level: how to structure a written assignment, the proper usage of grammar and syntax, and how to edit a written piece. As for math, arithmetic comes first. Young students must learn their basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in order to proceed with long division, multiplication with multi-digit multipliers, operations with fractions, adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers, pre-algebra and algebra, function tables and graphing equations, and so on.
Regardless of age or tutoring needs, I am very dedicated to giving my all in preparation for a tutoring session so that I come well prepared, organized and with a positive attitude. I'm always prompt. I also make the lessons fun, and have devised games for some of my clients that motivate them to learn. If a "tutee" works hard during our session together, I give him/her a small toy as an incentive. I know that personality also plays into how a person asking for help reacts to me. If the fit is right, that's great. If not, no problem. There are many other tutors out there. But I hope you think of me first.
I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a grade point average of 3.75. I was on the Dean's List both at UC San Diego and again at UC Berkeley, where I graduated Phi Beta Kappa. I'm sure I would have earned a 4.0 grade point average if I hadn't had a husband and two children while attending university. I continued my education to receive a teaching credential at the elementary school level, and taught multiple subjects in the public school system for a little over 12 years. My teaching credential is still current.
I'm hoping you choose me for your child's tutoring needs.
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