A Creative and Open-Ended Learning Tutor

Stacy J.

My undergraduate degree was a BA in Theater, and my graduate degree was a MA in Educational Technology and Media. The graduate work I did was centered around open-ended learning. Meaning the educator was a facilitator rather than teaching by memorization. This allowed students to understand new learning objectives in a discovery process.

After my graduate work, I became the Educational Computer Coordinator at a K-8 private school. I taught geometry, pre-algebra, and algebra on both PC and Mac computers. In addition, I collaborated with other educators in facilitating middle school writing workshops, planning and executing science projects, and illustrating historical facts on story boards. I spent many hours after school helping students learn new math concepts, using specific computer applications and reinforcing tactile learning techniques. I taught both in one-on-one settings and in small groups. One of my favorite learning tools was having students correspond with other students around the world through emails. It gave them the opportunity to work on their writing skills while learning about different cultures.

In addition to teaching at the private school, I have been teaching K-12 students online for a decade. Subjects include writing, reading, math, history, and art. I have primarily used instructional whiteboard applications and educational websites targeted to K-12 learning concepts. For example, my last student I worked with was a fifth grader needing writing instruction. He used the whiteboard application to write a daily journal entry. After every entry, we edited the piece by going over grammar, including sentence structure, punctuation, and vocabulary. I also used an educational website to introduce new writing concepts , and review older ones. Half of the session was devoted to editing his writing samples, and the other half to theory. By the end of the term he raised his grade from a C to an A.