Hello Students and Parents,
My name is Cybele and I am a former Adjunct Professor of college Literature, Writing, Poetry and Shakespeare, as well as high school English teacher from New York City. I am extending my teaching services to students and parents of WyzAnt. Most recently, I've been an Adjunct Instructor of English Literature, teaching classes in Shakespeare, poetry, short stories, and writing at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY and the NY Institute of Technology (NYIT) for the past five years since 2006. While there, I earned excellent teaching evaluations from faulty and students.
I have taught English and Writing at three high schools including a local high school and a fashion high school in 2004-2005.
I taught English and verbal SAT at two test prep schools and at two English as a Second Language (ESL) colleges. I taught ESL at the SF English Camp at Oikos University.
Some college classes I have had the good fortune of teaching are: The Art of Poetry, Introduction to Shakespeare, The Short Story, Non Fiction essay writing, The Art of Fiction/The Art of the Novel, Modern Poetry and Intermediate Literature, Poetry and Drama. Some favorite plays I have taught are Shakespeare’s Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
I teach high school and college students to read Shakespeare as a script, not as a text, reading the plays on their feet in small groups. The learning is active this way. I enjoyed teaching Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illych, and short stories by Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Edith Wharton, Orwell, Maupassant, Carver, Perkins-Gilman, Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan. I also enjoy teaching Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and teach an extensive analysis of Dr. King’s letter. I have enjoyed teaching Anzaldua, Emerson and De Beauvoir. In Poetry class, I teach a unit on what beauty is to the poets through out the ages, from Shakespeare to Langston Hughes.
In 2008, I received a Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study and research Shakespeare’s plays with professors and actors worldwide at the American Shakespeare Center.
Prior to teaching I earned a Master's Degree in secondary English education from Teachers College, Columbia University, graduating with a merit scholarship from the English department. I have a BA Degree in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. I spent my junior year at the University of Poiters, France, where I studied French literature by Giroudoux, Cocteau, Flaubert, Vian and Radiguez. In between my undergraduate and graduate studies, I spent many years as a writer, actress and dancer in New York City. I grew up studying ballet at the School of American Ballet in Manhattan and attending the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts.
My teaching philosophy is largely based on my studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. I believe in a student centered classroom and environment. My teaching encourages student participation and active involvement in the material. I like to be a facilitator of student learning. I use a variety of teaching methods to teach visual and auditory learners. I utilize small groups, working with a partner and group presentations. Sometimes I teach lecture style using my theater background using humor, characterization and drama to motivate my students. I often do a dramatic reading of the literature at hand with volunteers.
I'm now happy to teach you using the techniques I have learned and honed for the past eight years. I would love the opportunity to teach you essay writing and literature.
My goal is to motivate you to be the best student possible. I am encouraging and kind yet firm. You can get that A you always wanted. Let's get to work!
Sincerely,
Cybele
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