Biorn M.
Cambridge, MA
Ivy League Trained Tutor
Harvard
HistoryJohns Hopkins - SAIS
Master'sColumbia College Columbia University
PhDAbout Biorn
I am an experienced teacher in the social sciences, politics and government, history, geography, English, writing, and English as a Second Language. I tutor students from the primary school level to advanced graduate students. Although I am a published scholar, I am approachable, easy-going, and adaptable. My job is to help my students help
Policies
Cancellation
24 hours notice requiredI am open to reasonable discussion, but this is my standard rate.
Travel Radius
Travels within 15 miles of Cambridge, MA 02138Biorn offers online lessons
Biorn is approved to conduct lessons through Wyzant Online. Wyzant Online allows students and tutors to work remotely via video, audio, and collaborative whiteboard tools. For more information about how online tutoring works, check out Wyzant Online.
If you’re interested in online lessons, message Biorn to get started.
"Knowledgeable tutor"
- Anna, Waltham, MA on 9/28/16Great tutor, very patient and perfectly fluent in Portuguese. Great for conversation or specific assignment help. Would definitely recommend.
"Fantastic Portuguese Instructor!"
- Joe, Boston, MA on 5/17/16Biorn is a very friendly and knowledgeable Portuguese teacher. He adapts to my pace and style of learning the language, and also mixes in cultural and Brazilian history. It has been a great experience so far, and I look forward to more lessons in the coming months!
"This guy is Super Super Good."
- Matt, Cambridge, MA on 5/26/15Biorn has been awesome. You won't find a more knowledgeable tutor for Brazil/Portuguese/History (and probably a lot of other subjects) He is incredibly qualified and super good at distilling important and interesting information into mini lessons. Would HIGHLY recommend him, in fact if you're looking into him as a tutor, shoot me a note and I'd be more than willing to talk more.
"Incredible Tutor!"
- Lauren, Brookline, MA on 2/22/14I was very nervous about a presentation for my graduate seminar class, browsed WyzAnt, and stumbled across Biorn's profile. He was nice enough to call me to discuss my goals for our tutoring session (a 20 minute phone conversation) before we Skyped later that evening. During our session, Biorn was incredibly enthusiastic, engaging, humorous and well-informed. He totally put me at ease and helped me write a VERY detailed outline for my presentation and several thoughtful questions to pose to my classmates. Early in our session I could tell that Biorn was as invested in my presentation being a success as I was. I would absolutely use Biorn for another tutoring session and would recommend him to others without hesitation. I wish he taught at my local university! Thanks, Biorn!!
"EXCELLENT LESSON !"
- Bill, Malden, MA on 2/23/13I have some basic background in Portuguese. Attempting other programs, with disappointment, Biorn jumped right in to access my background knowledge, engaged us in Portuguese conversation and made an exciting lesson. I feel my goals to communicate in Portuguese will be reached in minimum time. He knows how to stay focused on the lesson and keeps it interesting. I look forward to our next class and highly recommend him.
Approved subjects are in bold.
Approved subjects
In most cases, tutors gain approval in a subject by passing a proficiency exam. For some subject areas, like music and art, tutors submit written requests to demonstrate their proficiency to potential students. If a tutor is interested but not yet approved in a subject, the subject will appear in non-bold font. Tutors need to be approved in a subject prior to beginning lessons.
American History
I graduated in history from Harvard College and have social sciences degrees from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MA, international relations) and Columbia University (Ph.D., comparative politics). All of my scholarly and teaching work has been closely related to history. I've been a teacher and professor for over 20 years. I have written on the histories of people all over the world, including the USA. My special strength is to help students understand the importance of history, how it relates to their lives, and how to organize the sometimes overwhelming amount of details involved in historical study. For me, memorization is not the key. Understanding and finding the logic to history is the most worthwhile approach because this makes it much more interesting and fun to learn.
English
Whether you are needing work on your writing, sentence structures, grammar, or vocabulary, I can help you improve your English skills. I am an experienced teacher as well as a published writer. Developing your skills requires some work, but having a strong English foundation will serve you well both in school and in professional life. I will tailor your tutorial so that we can together attain your goals efficiently and quickly while having fun in the process.
ESL/ESOL
I have taught ESL/ESOL for over 20 years. I have a multi-cultural background myself, and am conversant in 5 languages, so I am familiar with the challenges of learning languages. I always tailor my tutorials to the specific needs of my students and aim to help them learn quickly, efficiently and in an interesting way. Language learning requires some work, but it should also be fun and inspiring as it opens up doors to new people, ideas, experiences, and places.
Geography
The world made more sense to me after I studied geography. Why were certain areas colonized by people from the outside? Why did cities come into being in certain places and not others? Why do large areas remain uninhabited while others have high concentrations of people? The relationship between our natural world, its geography, its climate and human society has never been more important to understand as we all face climate change and its multiple impacts. I take a multi-disciplinary approach to geography, helping my students make sense of it in an intuitive, logical way. When students realize the important relationships between geography and humankind, it is much easier to understand and enjoy learning about it. In my tutorials on geography, my goal is to help my students understand its logic: something important for us all.
Government & Politics
With a Ph.D. in comparative politics from Columbia University, a Masters from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in international relations and economics, as well as experience teaching and researching in the USA, South America, and Africa, I have the background to help students, at any level, achieve their goals: from the primary school level to advanced graduate students. I like to work with students to find the best ways to help themselves in working through government and politics questions. The goal is to assist students to become intuitive, insightful, and to focus on that which is most important. Then study of politics becomes interesting and fun as well as clearly related to other aspects of the student's life and studies.
Portuguese
Although I am a US citizen, I am a specialist in Brazilian studies and the Portuguese language. I have taught in the Brazilian University system, at six different universities, and have lived in Brazil for over 10 years. All of my teaching, while in Brazil, was in Portuguese. I publish in Portuguese. Here, in the Boston area, I teach elementary and intermediate Portuguese. I also teach advanced conversational Portuguese. I am also a highly skilled translator from Portuguese to English and can help any student interested in creating Portuguese to English translations.
World History
I have been an enthusiastic student of world history since my grandmother read me history books as a child! Since then, I have lived abroad for many years and acquired a strong curiosity about what has made the current world in which we live. This led to my becoming a history major at Harvard and a student of international relations and politics at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (MA) and a student of world politics at Columbia University's political science department (Ph.D.). I read about and publish on contemporary world history and am familiar with many of the important history debates. It is always a pleasure to teach world history to help students understand the past as a vibrant world which is the foundation of our present.
Writing
I have taught writing for over 20 years. I have also published books and articles and edited the work of my peers in colleges. Writing is among the most important skills that a student may develop, not only to pass his or her courses but to become a professional in virtually every field. When tutoring my students, I adapt and tailor my teaching to the student's particular needs. Writing well is challenging. Yet there are essential approaches to written expression that truly allow writers succeed at their task. These approaches are what I help my students to master.
College applications are also an area where I can help students put their best foot forward, going over their writing, organizing their thoughts, and making the best essays possible.
I am open to students wanting to work on their writing who are at any level: from primary school to graduate school.
Other Cambridge, MA Tutors
Biorn M.
Cambridge, MA
Ivy League Trained Tutor
Social Studies
My education is all about social studies: history major as an undergraduate (AB at Harvard), international relations and economics major as a Masters student (at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies), and comparative politics major as a Ph.D. student (at Columbia University, with expertise in Latin American and Middle Eastern politics). I tutor social studies knowing the interaction between history, politics, economics, and culture. My tutorials are designed to attend to my students' goals while orienting them toward the interdisciplinary world of the social sciences. I work with students of all ages and levels. Though social studies can be challenging, I am successful with my students because I help them to understand social studies as interesting, relevant, intuitive, and fun to study.