I have always loved watching a student's face when things finally click for them and they begin to understand something that has been confusing them. I worked part-time tutoring home schooled relatives, one of whom had a reading disability, while in high school and discovered I was patient and found creative ways to explain things. I started tutoring regularly in college, when I worked for the LA Baptist Children's Home for 2.5 years as a study leader for children K-12 in all subjects. Many of my students at the children's home were very behind in school and needed remedial work to catch up, and learning issues like ADD/ADHD or reading disorders were common, as well. I am proud to say that many of my struggling students, with a little hard work, were able to make honor roll with consistent A's and B's after they caught up and learned study skills so that they weren't always dependent on a tutor. I later worked as a writing consultant for college students in my senior year at the LSU Shreveport University Writing Center.
I spent two semesters teaching ESL as a student teacher in Bangalore, India, and 3 years teaching ESL to adults and 4th and 5th grades in Ankara, Turkey. I have worked full-time for an intensive English program for the past 7 years, first as an instructor, and later as a program administrator. Our program focuses on academic English for university bound students, so preparing students for college level work is a specialty. I was part of my company's committee to develop a GRE and GMAT preparation course for ESL students, and have taught the GRE Prep course on many occasions, focusing on the verbal portion of the test, though I'm comfortable with teaching the language specific portions of the quantitative portion of the test (math vocabulary and key words in the word problems). I also regularly teach students general standardized test taking skills, score well on standardized tests myself, and worked for 2 years as an iBT TOEFL speaking rater.
As a program administrator, I don't always get to teach as often as I'd like nowadays, so I would love to tutor again, and am open to any subject K-6, English/literature/writing or social sciences 7-12, English/literature/writing at the college level, and any level or age of ESL, formal or informal. I am excellent with accent reduction/correction; I have taken a professional and academic interest in phonology.
I am also fluently bilingual; my second language is Turkish and my level is near-native. I have taught spoken and written Turkish to a professor and would love to teach Turkish to a non-native speaker, or to teach Turkish literacy to a native speaking child.
I recently completed a Master's in Education with an ESL concentration. About half of my courses are specifically focused on ESL, the other half come from general K-12 education.
Please contact me if I can assist you or your child with your English or Turkish, preparing for an exam, or catching up/getting ahead in school.
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