My BA is in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and I've got a year of doctoral work in theoretical linguistics and nearly half the coursework toward an MPA in emergency management. I taught linguistics to undergraduates as a grad student. Since then, I've spent five years as a member of the full-time faculty at an accredited business institute in midtown. I'm licensed by New York State to teach ESL, management, and general academics to adults. I passed the LAST and secondary ATS-W teaching exams with perfect scores in several subareas including the professional environment and scientific and mathematical processes on my first and only attempt. Once on the SAT at age 17, once on the paper GRE at age 22, and once on the computerized GRE at age 34 a few years ago, I achieved standardized verbal scores at the 99th percentile. The math score on my more recent GRE was just a hair better than the center of the bell curve for college seniors and non-enrolled college graduates considering grad school. It was higher than the average for examinees considering business school or life sciences.
I enjoy the profession I was trained in and have a great gift for it. Students with dyslexia, speech disorders, anxiety, and short attention spans might feel especially comfortable with me, but I could adapt easily to the needs of the gifted and talented. I grew up in the gifted and talented system in the local schools myself before leaving at 13, first for a brief stint at A.S. Neill's Summerhill School in Leiston, England, and then back home, where I did homeschooling instead of high school. I see the gifted and talented as the other side of the same coin.
I like to give overviews to present the big picture of English grammar. You can expect to learn the parts of speech and the parts of a sentence to start. I'll guide you in analyzing the grammar of academic texts in subjects that interest you, and the grammar of your own writing and of clearly articulated song lyrics. A good understanding of grammar will help you feel more in control when reading about anything.
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