I teach and tutor because I enjoy working with children. There is nothing more rewarding than having a former student, a Yale graduate who now reports for the Huffington Post, contact me to thank him for being the teacher who truly taught him how to write back in middle school; or another, now an Army Ranger, track me down just to thank me for helping him in general.
A middle school English teacher by vocation, I have tutored children from elementary through college and have much experience with a range of ages from my experiences as a tutor, coach, or summer camp assistant director.
English is my specialty, though I have found that my skills and background have helped pupils in all content areas, including Science and Math, through at least middle school.
In my classroom, I have endeavored to provide a confidence-building yet challenging environment for my students whereby each child enjoyably learns to the best of her or his abilities.
Through those efforts, I have been fortunate to receive accolades from administrators, colleagues, parents, students, and Fulbright-Hays and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships during two recent summers, to Morocco and South Africa.
My tutoring methods are as follows:
1) Since we all have different styles of learning, to provide a plethora of strategies in order to find the one that works best for the individual pupil, and
2) To render myself obsolete, such that while I may be helping a pupil on an individual assignment, I am teaching skills for the student to keep and use in the future. For example, if I am helping to write a college application essay, the student will hopefully be able to write better class essays without assistance.
In seven of my last eight years teaching, one of my students has been honored in the Library of Congress' Letters about Literature Contest, at odds of about 1:250.
References are available upon request and feel free to send along any questions.
I look forward to working with you and your child.
Jake
back to top