Hi, I'm Peter (my students call me "Mr. B"). I'm retired from a career in Instructional Design (adult training development) and middle school classroom teaching. I discovered after retirement that my desire to help learners succeed was as strong as it was before I retired. That desire led me to start substitute teaching in Sonoma schools starting in Nov 2025. My tutoring experience comes from my extensive classroom teaching experience, which naturally involved helping individual students...
Hi, I'm Peter (my students call me "Mr. B"). I'm retired from a career in Instructional Design (adult training development) and middle school classroom teaching. I discovered after retirement that my desire to help learners succeed was as strong as it was before I retired. That desire led me to start substitute teaching in Sonoma schools starting in Nov 2025. My tutoring experience comes from my extensive classroom teaching experience, which naturally involved helping individual students complete my classroom assignments.
I have a CA Single Subject teaching credential in Social Science, English, and French, as well as a Multiple Subjects credential for teaching K-6 students. I taught middle school self-contained classroom and Junior high school English and French in various Oakland public schools for 5 years, and West Marin School for 1 year. I also taught at a private continuation school in Orinda for 5 years.
I have extensive experience in the Discovery Method through working for a Berkeley non-profit called Project SEED. The Discovery Method relies on getting students to discover content through asking them questions rather than explaining or lecturing to them.
I was a community college instructor for 8 years in Adobe Illustrator and general computer graphics, and currently have online courses in these on the Udemy and Skillshare platforms.
I am an accomplished jazz pianist who has played in bands. I can teach reading written music and classical piano technique, but I especially like to teach students who want to learn to improvise. Because of my expertise in improvising on the piano (the primary instrument for learning harmony), I can teach music theory concepts that can be applied to improvising on any instrument.
I have a proven track record of professionalism throughout my different career experiences dealing both with children and adults. I am easy to reach and quick to respond. These have been honed during my experience substitute teaching, where these are so important.
