Nationally Board Certified Educational Consultant, tutor Pre K - adult

Barbara I.

ADHD

I have worked with several students who have either had a medical diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) either with or without Hyperactivy as well as students whose parents or others suspected, but have not necessarily been diagnosed. I have found that by working closely with a child and respecting and understanding his or her attention abilities, we can not only have success with learning, but also build up attention stamina to be increasingly successful in school and at home.

Elementary (K-6th)

I am a K-5 public school teacher and have 13 years experience teaching students in all grades, K-5 in E, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. I am certified K-6 Elementary Education and Reading K-12. I have both a Bachelors and Masters in Education. I have worked with students who had been struggling in class and in school, and have been able help increase their proficiency and even qualify for Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) services after tutoring with me. . I am well versed in guided reading,phonics instruction, writing, scaffolding math instruction and using videos, experiments, and manipulatives, and pictures to help build academic proficiency.

Elementary Math

I am familiar with scaffolding Mathematics teaching and learning, beginning with hands-on concrete manipulatives, to drawing pictures to represent mathematical reasoning, to the abstract, using strictly written numbers to be able to determine the answer to a word problem or mathematical equation or representation. I can meet your student at his or her level of comfort and through support and practice build a level of mathematical proficiency that will help him or her in school and beyond.

ESL/ESOL

Does your family know or speak another language besides English? Let me make learning English as a Second Language (ESL) or English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) enjoyable and rewarding for you! I am an ESL teacher with Durham Public Schools and am North Carolina and Nationally Board Certified. I have also tutored and worked with students from Chapel Hill, Wake County and beyond. I will work with you and your family to help make your English language experience successful. Please contact me so we can get started.

Macintosh

I have an iPad which I got 3 years ago, and I purchased a MacBook Air this past year with their One to One training. I have logged in over 100 training sessions, with each session ranging from one - one and a half hours. I have experience with iPhoto, Apeture iMovie, Keynote and am learning Numbers. I have renewed my One to One membership a month and a half early, so I am able to continue my intensive Apple training. I have learned so much and used my Apple training so extensively, that trainers and other employees recognize and greet me even when I am not at the Apple store. If any question were to come up that I couldn't answer immediately, because there is a great breadth of learning that can be covered I should be able to find out the answer and be able to teach that aspect within the week. Even teachers should continually learn.

Phonics

I have taught phonemic awareness and phonics to K-5th grade students as a means toward enabling them to read and write proficiently. I have also participated in workshops at the Hill Center in Durham, NC, which explicitly demonstrated strategies particularly targeting successful phonics instruction.

Reading

I am certified as a North Carolina teacher of Reading, Kindergarten-12th grade. I have extensive experience in teaching phonemic awareness (letter/sound discrimination), phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension. I tie all of these together through both shared reading, word work and beginning through advanced writing. There is no better way for your child or student to improve in reading than through a balanced literacy approach. I have also been trained in Hill Center methodology for working with struggling readers. I can also explain strategies and methods to parents or guardians so that you can continue to work with your student even between lessons to maxiize growth. Please feel free to contact me to see how I can help.

Spanish

I have been communicating in Spanish for over 40 years. I studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain as both an undergraduate and as a graduate student, having received a scholarship from the Embassy of Spain. I also studied in Cuernavaca, Mexico, taught high school Spanish in both New York and North Carolina, and serve as a translator and teacher of English as a Second Language in Durham, North Carolina. I can help you learn and have fun communicating in Spanish.

Study Skills

As a certified teacher, I have worked to teach and instill the use of a variety of strong and successful study skills in the students I teach. Often students have the capacity for successfully learning and working; however, without an organized approach to learning, even the most gifted students may struggle to successfully demonstrate their ability to their teachers or others. By explicit teaching and embedding strategic use of study skills in content instruction, students can learn to manage their progress in school and at home.