All of
Brenda’s current tutoring subjects are listed at the left. You
can read more about
Brenda’s qualifications in specific subjects below.
ADD/ADHD
I am an experienced educator with a Masters degree in Special Education with 2 majors, one in learning disabilities and the second major in behavioral issues. I also have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. During over 15 years teaching, I have worked with both children and adults with ADD/ADHD. Depending on the pattern of behaviors an individual displays, we work on academic and/or career goals and learn techniques for staying focused, organized, and calm. I model productive behaviors and remain positive and the student can learn positive learning behaviors which, in turn, can help improve memory and processing functions opening pathways to make progress in learning.
Autism
I am an experienced certified educator with a Master's degree in Special Education. I completed two majors, one in Learning Disabilities and a second one in Behavior Issues. I also completed a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. I utilize the principles of applied behavioral analysis which is considered the most effective teaching strategy for teaching individuals with autism. I have worked with children and adults on the spectrum who are high functioning and highly intelligent, those who have learning disabilities, and others who are in the moderate to severely impaired range. Because each person with autism has a unique learning and behavioral profile, I find it most effective to develop individual plans of intervention with unique goals for each learning and behavior need area. I can also follow plans that may have been already developed by psychologists, teachers, speech, occupational, and physical therapists. Utilizing the ABA techniques and detailed data collection methods to keep track of progress, I have found that developing a daily routine, including routines within the tutoring sessions, works best for everyone associated with a person with autism. Consistency within daily routines and teaching strategies provides the high degree of structure needed for learning to take place. I also use behavior management techniques to replace interfering behaviors with positive behaviors. I find using these routines adds predictability which not only helps learning academic skills, but also manages anxiety and repetitive behaviors that are commonly displayed. And the really inspiring thing is that I have worked with students with autism in colleges proving that with strategies that work for them, they can go on to higher education and lead successful productive lives.
Computer Science
To summarize, I have over 20 years of extensive personal and professional experience with computer applications in word processing, web browsing, and gaming applications. I have a Masters degree in Education with over 20 years teaching. In addition, I have completed a college level 3 credit course in Computer Technology (final grade A) and many inservices and on-the-job training by certified computer personnel. As a supervisor and/or a teacher whose employees/students use computers in their daily tasks, I have trained employees/students in the previously described computer applications.
Dyslexia
I learned many valuable techniques in my Bachelor's degree program in Psychology and my Master's Special Education degree program with 2 majors in Learning Disabilities and Behavior Issues. I have helped many students with dyslexia learn reading, math, writing skills, and other school subjects. I individualize my techniques teaching to the strengths of the learner. I am familiar with the major multisensory approaches to teaching students with learning differences and systematically embed visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic cues for maximum learning and processing potential. A major component of helping someone with dyslexia is to identify their strengths and emphasize success. I am sensitive to the repeated failure and the erosion of confidence that usually exists by the time someone with dyslexia begins to receive help. I believe rebuilding confidence is equally important as teaching reading and writing skills. Therefore in my tutoring I emphasize the positive and use strategies that not only build skills and maximize success, but also restores confidence and a sense of accomplishment.
Elementary (K-6th)
I have a Masters degree in Special Education with 2 majors, one teaching students with learning disabilities and the other major in teaching students with behavioral issues. I possess a current professional level State of Maine certification for grades K - 12. I am an experienced educator with over 25 years of teaching experience.
My instructional focus with young children is to individualize reading, language arts/writing, and/or math instruction to accommodate each child's style of learning. We progress through building the sequential reading, language arts/writing and math skills for the early elementary level. I then progress into the application of these skills to the content areas of science, social studies, etc. at the upper elementary grade level, adding organization and study skills instruction.
Special Needs
I am an experienced certified educator and have a Master's degree in Special Education with two majors. I completed a major concentration of study in Learning Disabilities and a second concentration major in Behavior Issues. I also completed a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. I have taught students with a variety of special needs in a variety of settings. While working at a private day school for students with disabilities grades K-12, I was the supervising teacher for students with moderate to severe special needs in academics and behavioral management. I have also taught in a public school in a resource room setting for students with a variety of special needs ranging from learning and behavioral disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, health needs, physical disabilities, autism, and general developmental delays. I have also coordinated programs for infants and preschoolers with special needs, supervising teachers and therapists providing services to the children and their families. The common variable to all my experiences with children with special needs is that each child progresses with an individualized program developed by a dedicated team of skillful teachers and specialists who are knowledgeable about the impact of disabilities on growth and learning. We work together to individualize learning armed with techniques and strategies to promote success and enhance participation and integration within the school and community. I also have seen firsthand how students with special needs can be successful in college when I taught at a college. By the time they had reached my courses, they were students who knew how to manage and compensate for their "special needs". They were learning to become nurses, teachers, electricians, architects, engineers.... on their way to becoming productive working adults.
Study Skills
After over 20 years as a certified teacher of elementary, high school and college students, I have helped many students become successful learners. This involves being able to use effective study skills. This encompasses strategies for managing time to accomplish all that is required to be done within a given timeframe. Making good use of allotted time can be applied to short periods of time, such as doing homework, during a classroom test or other exams like the SAT, ACT, GED or ASVAB. Time management techniques are also useful when you have long term projects that can be days or weeks long.
Organizing your schedule and environment leads to positive studying habits. There are many study techniques, such as the SQ3R, that help maximize retention of information. These techniques use cognitive research results to help increase memory and ensure newly learned material is truly learned for the long term and not just for the moment. Memory tips surely come in handy when having to remember large amounts of information!
Test taking strategies can improve not only final test scores, but also can ease the stress of test taking. Knowing ahead of time what to expect and how to approach the task of taking that test helps to minimize test anxiety. This in turn paves the way for clear thinking and memory retrieval leading to positive test scores.
Strategies for increasing reading comprehension increases long term learning. There are many different types of reading required in our daily lives. Some work requires close reading for detail, while other reading requires reading for more global understanding. Knowing strategies for different types of reading and blending these with an individual's learning style can lead to greater levels of reading comprehension.
Lastly, notetaking skills enhance listening and reading comprehension, but also organizes information for later use, i.e., review and studying for tests.
As an experienced educator with a master's degree, I can help you combine all these study skills to increase your attention and focus during studying and therefore overall retention and long term learning.