Hello potential students and their families!
My name is Kelsey P., and I have just finished my second year of my undergraduate at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. I am studying English education, and I hope to be standing at the front of a high school English classroom in the very near future. I love English, but teaching is my real passion. It does not matter so much what subject or age group I teach as long as I am teaching. This might sound a little greeting-card-cliche, but the students make all the hard work worth it. Sometimes after a particularly challenging day of volunteering in a classroom, I question my major. But it's when I see understanding dawn on a student I've been helping; it's when a student feels comfortable enough to approach me and ask me for help; it's even when a younger student shows me the dead moth he found in the hallway that I know I'm going into the right career for me. Teaching can be difficult, but I think it is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences I have ever had.
Largely due to the education program at CSU, I have a great deal of unpaid teaching experience. This past spring of 2012, I volunteered in an eighth grade history classroom at Preston Middle School; I also worked one-on-one with sixth graders with learning and developmental disabilities in a learning strategies class. In the fall of 2011, I worked both in a sixth/seventh grade science classroom at Blevins Middle School and in a fifth grade class at Putnam Valley Elementary School. Since 2008, I have regularly volunteered as a teacher in my church's Sunday school program, working with children ages 3 to 10. When I was still in high school in 2010, I tutored some of my peers in essay writing, and I worked as a counselor in Jefferson County's Outdoor Education Laboratory School for sixth graders (I taught forestry).
I believe that patience and passion make a good teacher, and I believe that creativity and an open mind are essential to successful teaching. I flatter myself that I bring all these elements to my teaching. I love what I do, and I am willing to work to do it right. I know the same approach is not effective for all students, so I strive to find different ways to teach so as to meet my student's needs. I love thinking up creative new ways to approach a topic. I believe learning can be fun if the teaching is right, even for students who struggle with the subject. As a tutor, I will do my best to teach in an effective and enjoyable way.
I hope to hear from you soon!
Kelsey
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