AP & SAT Math/Science Tutor — M.Ed., 20 Years' Exp, Dept. Head

Michelle M.

For more than twenty years, in classrooms across three countries, I have watched the same quiet moment happen again and again: the instant a student who was sure they were "bad at math" suddenly sees how it works. Chasing that moment is why I teach, and it is what I bring to every tutoring session.
My path began with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology, concentrated in neurobiology, from Michigan State University, and deepened with a Master of Education in Curriculum Design focused on mathematics and environmental science from Concordia University. Along the way I became a certified classroom teacher and earned certifications in SAT preparation and AP Environmental Science, with further training in instructional design. Those years qualify me to tutor mathematics from pre-algebra through Algebra 2, Precalculus, Trigonometry, and AP Calculus and Statistics, as well as biology, anatomy, and AP and IB Environmental Science.
I have taught full-time in middle and high school classrooms, led a science department, and tutored one-on-one since 2010. My students have ranged from about ten to eighteen years old, from middle schoolers to teens tackling advanced coursework, including English-language learners and students at international schools. I have worked in classrooms, small-group intervention, private sessions, and after-school and volunteer programs, so very few kinds of learners are unfamiliar to me.
What I have learned is that no two students arrive the same way. I start with gentle, diagnostic questions to find where the confusion really lives, then rebuild the idea step by step, using real-world examples and more than one way of seeing it. I meet the pace of the student in front of me, give honest and encouraging feedback, and keep the focus on growth. Grades and test scores matter, but my real aim is for a student to walk away believing they can figure things out on their own.