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Experienced Science Teacher & Published Writer - Individualized - Warm
Stephanie Jo B.

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Hourly Rate: $45
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About Stephanie Jo

Bio

I'm a semi-retired classroom teacher with over thirty years of experience who has discovered a talent for online tutoring. I graduated from college in Virginia with a BS in Art, a minor in Biology, and a K-12 teaching certificate. After several years teaching interdisciplinary high school Art and growing patience while homeschooling my own son with ADHD, I returned to the public school classroom in Arizona for five years as a certified middle and high school Biology and Earth Science teacher....

I'm a semi-retired classroom teacher with over thirty years of experience who has discovered a talent for online tutoring. I graduated from college in Virginia with a BS in Art, a minor in Biology, and a K-12 teaching certificate. After several years teaching interdisciplinary high school Art and growing patience while homeschooling my own son with ADHD, I returned to the public school classroom in Arizona for five years as a certified middle and high school Biology and Earth Science teacher. When a wider world called, I joined an international nonprofit as their educational director. I spent a decade leading adults and kids in real conservation science in forests and oceans in Ecuador, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Barbuda. That work led to a grant to design, write, and implement the NGSS-based Biodiversity PEEK STEAM curricula, found online. Those experiences, plus eight years writing and doing science aboard a sailboat in Mexico, gave me a second language, the perspective to work with people from widely diverse cultures and backgrounds, and the empathy to support ESL students.

I began online tutoring in September 2025 and discovered the deep satisfaction of working one-on-one with students. My approach is to set students at ease — reassuring them that what we call "mistakes" are simply events that open us to learning. I encourage my clients to make new and illuminating mistakes, whether they are kids in 5th–10th grade science, adult creative and essay writers, students of Art and Art History, or learners wrestling with the rich complexities of American Literature. I learn what makes each student light up and use that to create individualized lessons that captivate. Sometimes that means playing basketball to learn chemistry, digging up Irish folktales to find evidence for plate tectonics, designing and building water features to attract birds to a home in a difficult neighborhood, or leaning into my native Southern accent to bring Faulkner alive for a Mexican-American student struggling to graduate high school.

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Education

James Madison University
Art

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $45
  • Rate details: I'm happy to work with you on an affordable small group rate or multiple hour lessons - Just ask!
  • Lesson cancellation: 24 hours notice required

  • Background check passed on 5/29/2026

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

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Approved Subjects

Biology

Biology

I am a semi-retired K–12 certified Biology teacher who has spent years learning this subject the way it was meant to be learned — in the field. I have lived aboard a sailboat conducting biodiversity research along the coasts of Mexico, worked with scientists in Ecuador, Vietnam, and the Caribbean, and designed the Biodiversity PEEK STEAM Curriculum — an NGSS-aligned program now used by teachers and families internationally. In the classroom and one-on-one, I specialize in making Biology tangible and alive for middle school and early high school students, with particular strength in ecology, biodiversity, genetics, cell theory, and natural selection/evolution. I have a special gift for hands-on learners, ADHD students, and ESL students — and I believe the best Biology lesson is one that reveals how you are an integral part of this living planet.
Creative Writing

Creative Writing

I am a semi-retired K–12 teacher, a published writer, and the creator of an internationally used STEAM curriculum — which means I bring science, art, nature, culture, and storytelling into writing instruction the way other teachers bring textbooks. My students have written personal essays rooted in the meaning of their own names, braided Arabic poetry with the mathematics of honeycombs, and discovered that Faulkner's most tangled sentences have something true to say about their own lives. I work comfortably across creative nonfiction, personal narrative, essay writing, and nature writing, and I have a particular gift for helping students who struggle with complex texts find their own powerful written voice. Whether your student needs to unlock a first draft, deepen their ideas, or learn to write sentences that actually sing — I meet every writer exactly where they are
Drawing

Drawing

I am a semi-retired K–12 certified art teacher, a working illustrator, and a field artist whose sketchbook has traveled from the Sea of Cortez to Vietnam to New Zealand — which means I teach drawing as a way of moving through the world with open eyes and mind. My core belief is that learning to draw is really about learning to truly see something for the first time, as if it has never existed before . I also believe that every student's limitations are the secret door to their unique style — the wobble in a line, the way a hand naturally moves, the subjects that make someone lean forward — these are not problems to fix but a personality waiting to be set free. Whether your student is a complete beginner or someone who has been told they cannot draw, I will meet them exactly where their hand and eye meet the paper and help them find what only they can create.
Earth Science

Earth Science

I am a semi-retired K–12 certified Earth Science teacher who has spent years learning this subject the way it was meant to be learned — in the field. I have lived aboard a sailboat conducting biodiversity research along the coasts of Mexico, worked with scientists in Ecuador, Vietnam, and the Caribbean, and designed the Biodiversity PEEK STEAM Curriculum — an NGSS-aligned program now used by teachers and families internationally. In the classroom and one-on-one, I specialize in making Earth Science tangible and alive for middle school and early high school students, with particular strength in ecology, biodiversity, earth systems, and the endlessly fascinating motion of planets, moons, and the wider universe beyond our atmosphere. I have a special gift for hands-on learners, ADHD students, and ESL students — and I believe the best Earth Science lesson is one that connects the world under your feet to the sky above your head and everything in between.
Art History
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Hourly Rate: $45
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