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Effective, Student-Centered English Tutor
Stephen B.

5.0 (150 ratings)

910 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
Hourly Rate: $55
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Response time: 1 hour

About Stephen

Bio

Greetings! I proudly educate as a tutor, teacher, and school administrator with state credentials.

I am a UC Berkeley grad with my BA in English and my MA in Educational Leadership (Principal Leadership Institute). I earned my teaching credential with Tulane University.

Even though I retired early to write, I keep tutoring. For 22 years I successfully: taught and tutored English, study skills, reading, writing, and Academic Decathlon; led schools' tutoring and English/ESL departments;...

Greetings! I proudly educate as a tutor, teacher, and school administrator with state credentials.

I am a UC Berkeley grad with my BA in English and my MA in Educational Leadership (Principal Leadership Institute). I earned my teaching credential with Tulane University.

Even though I retired early to write, I keep tutoring. For 22 years I successfully: taught and tutored English, study skills, reading, writing, and Academic Decathlon; led schools' tutoring and English/ESL departments; and served students, parents, colleagues, and school communities as a vice principal and principal in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I facilitate learning through inquiry. We discover our interests, develop opinions, and create arguments, details, and structure. Our main and subordinate clauses in complex sentences serve our plans, our theses. We author drafts. Nothing need be perfect, so we gain confidence to grow and better our work. We read and think critically, analyze our content and mechanics, and edit and proofread. I tailor tutoring to each student’s individual needs, known as differentiating. One size simply cannot fit all. When students know educators are consistently there for them, students succeed.

I look forward to working with you.

Best Regards,

Stephen

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Education

U C Berkeley
English
U C Berkeley: Educational Administration & Administrative Credential
Masters
Tulane University: Single Subject Teaching Credential: English (valid in CA & LA)
Other
  • Licensed teacher

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Approved Subjects

ACT Reading

ACT Reading

I served students for 9 years as a high school English teacher (grades 8-12). I prepared my students for ACT reading, SAT reading, and multiple other high-stakes tests. I served students for 13 years as an instructional leader (principal and vice principal) of middle and high schools. I facilitated best reading and writing practices and professional development and training with: Reading and Writing across the Curriculum; all honors and Advanced Placement courses including English; Lucy Calkin’s reading and writing curricula; the Bay Area Writing Project; Robert Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching; literacy; rigor; intervention; differentiated instruction; and collaboration.
ADHD

ADHD

As a successful classroom teacher, principal, and vice principal, I effectively differentiate instruction with my students with ADHD. We enjoyed learning with research-based strategies including but not limited to: seating; self-regulated timing; a buddy system; being a teacher’s aide; differentiated instruction; extra credit; annotations; highlighting; charts; cloze; study guides; worksheets; high-interest texts; rewards systems; breaks; physical activity. We also learn organizational skills with backpacks, Cornell note-taking, and subject-specific binders.
ASVAB

ASVAB

As a teacher and school administrator, I taught, tutored, and directed tutoring programs for English and math test prep. Also as a teacher and school administrator, I wrote, administered, and evaluated multiple school-based assessments including testing and related materials. As an educational and corporate trainer, I tutored many people to prepare for formal examinations such as the ASVAB testing similar skill sets and knowledge. As an employer, I designed, facilitated, administered, and evaluated many related assessments.
Bible Studies

Bible Studies

I have taught the Bible as Literature at the high school level for eight years. I have taught the books of Genesis, Exodus, Song of Songs, Gospel of St. Matthew, and the Revelation of St. John. I have taken English coursework at UC Berkeley while studying English including the Bible as Literature. I relate much of Western literature as a high school teacher to two sources: the Bible and classical (ancient) literature and mythology.
Career Development

Career Development

As a principal and vice principal I successfully directed the instructional design of and skills-building within the following college and career high school pathways: engineering; culinary; health; general education; Early Childhood Education; law; performing arts; communication arts; and technology. I facilitated eight graduating classes of high school students into: colleges and universities; the military (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard); and pre-journey/entry-level trades (carpentry, culinary, construction, education, electrical, IT, labor). I directed CTE sequences of study and partnered with ROP on: woodworking, art, engineering, communication arts, robotics, and police cadet programs and personnel.
CBEST

CBEST

I took and passed CBEST. I served as the instructional leader of 8 school sites, ensuring all teachers hired had appropriate math/English skills and appropriate degrees and credentials including passage of CBEST. As a mentor teacher and a mentor administrator, I mentored dozens of first-year teachers and student teachers in 8 middle and high schools for 22 years. As a mentor teacher and a mentor administrator, I encouraged dozens of potential teacher candidates (volunteers) considering employment in 8 middle and high schools for 22 years.
Chess

Chess

As an educator, I have formally taught chess in my high school and middle school classes as both a teacher and an administrator. I have tutored students extensively in after-school programs in chess as the tutoring programs teacher and teacher leader. I have played chess since I was six years old.
Classics

Classics

I taught classics (ancient literature) at the high school level for 9 years: Hesiod; Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; works of Plato/Socrates; Sappho; Ovid; Virgil; Terence; and multiple other classical authors and works. I studied the classics (Greek and Roman literature) extensively at UC Berkeley while studying English. As a high school teacher, with my students I ensured we connected the classics (ancient classical literature) with Western Literature by linking culture, philosophy, politics, mythology, literary devices, plot, figurative language, allusions, symbols, and more.
Elementary Math

Elementary Math

As the instructional leader (principal) of middle and high schools, I directed and collaborated with all mathematics and all academic programs, departments, and teachers. I directed all math pedagogy, curricula, professional development, data analyses, and relevant site-based decision-making including: College Prep Mathematics, Common Core State Standards, and Professional Learning Communities. I directed all math departments' foci on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM); International Baccalaureate; Robert Marzano's Art & Science of Teaching; Project Lead the Way; and AVID. I directed all math training and program development with differentiation including with: 504s; Special Education; alternative education; English Learners; independent study; mentoring; homeless & foster youth; distance learning; rigor; and intervention programs.
English

English

I have served students with teaching English for 9 years, as well as Academic Decathlon, Strategies for Success, reading, writing, debate, and test-taking strategies. I also served 6th - 12th grade students, parents, colleagues, and school communities for 13 years as a principal, a vice principal, and a program manager. My work included teaching and tutoring students who were in one or more of the following programs: tutoring before and after school, classes during the school day, gifted/GATE, athletics, extracurriculars, pathways, science, mathematics, robotics, ASB, writing, reading, English, History-Social Science, English learners, newcomers, interventions, differentiation, RSP, SDC, TDS, 504s, independent study, and/or university/college distance learning.
ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL

I taught English learners and led English learner school programs for 21 years, ensuring we provided the proper teaching and tutoring to meet state testing and job skills needs in middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and New Orleans. I served English learners as the English/ESL department chair for 3 years with Balboa High School in San Francisco, meeting and exceeding English Language California Content Standards. I volunteered for 1 year with English learners at Galileo High School in San Francisco, teaching reading and writing with 9th grade students.
Reading

Reading

I taught English for 9 years, grades 8-12, specifically focusing upon successfully teaching our students strategies with reading and writing. I was also an administrator (principal, vice principal) for 13 years overseeing middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (9-12) English departments. As principal and vice principal, I directed several after-school tutoring programs in these schools, which largely focused on math and English.
Religion

Religion

I taught comparative religions as literature at the secondary (high school) junior and senior level for eight years. I taught for example the Tao Te Ching, Siddhartha, and the following five books of the Bible, all of the works solely as Literature: Genesis, Exodus, the Song of Songs, The Gospel of St. Matthew, and The Revelation of St. John. I have taken English coursework at UC Berkeley while studying English including the Bible as Literature and Comparative Religion. I related much of Western Literature as responding and interacting with the Bible. Notable Biblical allusions, poetry, prose, symbols, figurative language, and stories work significantly in these works as examples: Paradise Lost; multiple works, Shakespeare; The Inferno; Dante Alighieri; A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens; Don Quixote, Cervantes; Faust, Goethe; multiple works, Dostoevsky; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriett Beecher Stowe; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass; The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien; Dracula, Stoker; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison. I likewise related much of Western Literature as responding and interacting with Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. Notable references occur in these few randomly-selected works: The I Ching or Book of Changes, Anonymous; The Art of War, Sun Tzu; Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse, The Tao of Pooh, Hoff; The Te of Piglet, Hoff; A-Ma Alchemy of Love, Nataša Nuit Pantović; The Tao of Parenting: The Ageless Wisdom of Taoism and the Art of Raising Children, Greta K. Nagel; The Dharma Bums, Kerouac. Similar lists can be made for Traditional African, Islamic, and atheistic literature.
SAT Reading

SAT Reading

I have taught English for nine years total, all of it at the high school level, much of it based upon learning best reading strategies with and prepping for the SAT. I served as chair of my English Department in San Francisco’s Balboa High School where I taught for eight of the nine years. I have also been a principal and vice principal successfully directing English departments in several schools in the Bay Area, two of which were very high-performing. I have two degrees from UC Berkeley: a BA in English and a MA in Educational Leadership. I earned my teaching credential in English with Tulane University in New Orleans.
SAT Writing

SAT Writing

As a high school English teacher for 9 years, grades 8-12, I taught expository and creative writing through writers’ workshops, Peter Elbow methodology, Frederick Crews methodology, timed (SAT, ACT) writing upon demand, and overall multiple drafting and revision processes. As a high school and middle school instructional leader (principal and vice principal) for 13 years, I directed all programs and professional development centering upon writing. These included but were not limited to: all AP training, Independent Study; meeting or exceeding all state English Language Arts standards; Spanish-English Bilingual Immersion program; Newcomer program; Deaf and Hard of Hearing program; Lucy Calkins Writing professional development; Robert Marzano professional development; and implementation of the International Baccalaureate. As a trainer and manager in private industry, I authored training and operational manuals and ensured employees learned the English language including writing and reading English.
Writing

Writing

I have written and published poetry and short stories. I am currently working on two books, one fiction and one nonfiction. I have taught academic and creative writing for nine years as an English teacher with San Francisco's Balboa High School and New Orelans' Brother Martin High School. As we learned writing together, many of my students have expressed much greater confidence overall, and have happily earned improved scores with the SAT, ACT, and other high-stakes testing as well as success with college essays.
ACT English
American History
Art History
Art Theory
European History
GED
General Computer
Geometry
GMAT
Government & Politics
Grammar
Literature
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Political Science
Proofreading
Spelling
SSAT
Vocabulary
World History

Examples of Expertise

Stephen has provided examples of their subject expertise by answering 6 questions submitted by students on Wyzant’s Ask an Expert.

See all of Stephen ’s answers ›
Stephen B.'s Photo

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Response time: 1 hour

Ratings and Reviews

Rating

5.0 (150 ratings)
5 star
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Reviews

A 10!

Stephen is a "10!" We feel so fortunate to have found him to work with our freshman student across the board in many of his subjects. Stephen is patient and skilled.

Abra, 50 lessons with Stephen

A 10!

Stephen is a "10!" We feel so fortunate to have found him to work with our freshman student across the board in many of his subjects. Stephen is patient and skilled.

Abra, 50 lessons with Stephen

What a fortunate find

We feel so fortunate to have found Stephen as a tutor. He's so well prepared and engaging. I suspect he will be very effective with boosting my son's "Language Arts" skills.

Abra, 50 lessons with Stephen

College Essay Assistance

Stephen provided exceptional support in guiding my niece with her college essay. His advice enhanced the quality of her work, and she now feels confident and proud of her essay. His thoughtful approach improved her writing and boosted her enthusiasm for the application process.

Anthony, 2 lessons with Stephen

Knowledgeable and patient teacher

Steve has lot of experience in the educational field, he could patiently listen to me, could identify the shortcomings and start working on it. Steve is very dynamic to understand the situation and suggest the possible drill to overcome the fear in presentation. Steve was able to help me on a last minute preparation of a talk.

Byju, 8 lessons with Stephen

Kind and patient

Was extremely patient and flexible, answered all of our questions and concerns. Got a productive start on the college essay process. Thanks! Booking again soon.

Malaya, 2 lessons with Stephen

A Great Teacher!

Stephen is incredibly responsive to our desires and well prepared for the lessons with our kids. We have him working with both our kids on different subjects and they are engaged!

Sonia, 12 lessons with Stephen

Highly Recommend

Stephen helped with the essay and analysis of the subject, but also took the time to teach about poetry, writing mechanics. My son feels much more confident in his understanding. Excellent tutor.

Kelly, 3 lessons with Stephen

Experienced Tutor

Stephen has done a great job connecting with my son who is quiet and reserved. He’s helped him to improve his grade in English through his lesson plans. The way he presents information is engaging and goes deeper than what my son is learning in class making the sessions worthwhile!

Regina, 4 lessons with Stephen

knowledgeable and fun tutor

Stephen is a very knowledgeable and fun tutor. He taught Ada how to write with more advanced grammar, and how to choose more complex vocabulary. Ada loves Stephen, and so do we. Thank you Stephen.

Lei, 2 lessons with Stephen
Hourly Rate: $55
Response time: 1 hour
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