I enjoyed 16 years of teaching school in various Texas towns --- Arlington, Dallas, Lewisville, Caldwell and Marlin. All through those years, I also did one on one tutoring when I could work it into my schedule. Why do I love tutoring with one student at a time? I like to make learning fun and I like to play games with my students. Did you know that math can be more fun than any other subjects? Lots of students don't like math if they haven't been taught to enjoy it. Another subject that I...
I enjoyed 16 years of teaching school in various Texas towns --- Arlington, Dallas, Lewisville, Caldwell and Marlin. All through those years, I also did one on one tutoring when I could work it into my schedule. Why do I love tutoring with one student at a time? I like to make learning fun and I like to play games with my students. Did you know that math can be more fun than any other subjects? Lots of students don't like math if they haven't been taught to enjoy it. Another subject that I can make you enjoy is writing. You can be as creative as you want and think of describing words. For example, which of the following sentences is more interesting to read? 1.) He had on jeans and a shirt. 2.) He had a really cool pair of jeans with slits in them and a shirt that was blue, yellow, and red stripes. I bet you enjoyed sentence number 2 because you could see in your mind exactly what he was wearing. Right??? You can learn to write those describing sentences too!
I tutored individually a second grader a few years ago. He could not read so I went back to the basics of reading. Every letter makes a sound so he learned the sounds, then he learned the letter that go together like bl in blue or pl in the word play. Working one on one in less than a month, he was putting letters together to make words. Then we learned the sight words like simple words: the, of, for, in, out and many more which are in lots of sentences. By the end of the second month, I decided it was time to read a short book. We went through each page slowly as he sounded out the words. When he finished the 8 page book, he looked up at me and said, "I read a book" with a big smile on his face with those 2 missing front teeth. We gave each other a "high five" and from that day on, he couldn't wait to read another book! That is why I love tutoring ... we were both excited. What a rewarding experience for us both. We were really good friends and smiled big smiles when we saw each other and always gave each other a "high five"!
It is a real privilege to be born into a family who speaks the English language properly. However, everyone does not have that chance if they had parents who were not taught to speak our language correctly. The younger you get grammar tutoring, the easier it is to correct and sometimes you even help your parents learn some of the grammar they didn't have the chance to learn. In my opinion, grammar is not taught enough anymore, so we have lots of people who need tutoring to put words together to make proper sentences. When you grow up and go to get a job, the person who speaks incorrect grammar is not likely to get the best job.
My 16 years of teaching in elementary school, I taught all subjects. Therefore, when I get a student to tutor, I have experience in all of the subjects. So if a student is having trouble in any subject, I am prepared to give them one on one instruction for any of the subjects. I also work with their classroom teachers so that we are working in sync.
I am a pianist & musician in general. Lots of people don't know that math and music complement one another. I always liked math when I was in school and made good grades. It seemed that the subject my friends had the most trouble with was math ... it scares people. I didn't fully understand it until I got older that I learned the combination of music and math made math easier. So when I was tutoring, I would ask my student what kind of pick up food they liked: grapes, cheese, m&m's (on special occasions), goldfish, etc. I would put out 10 grapes and ask the child how many grapes were on the plate. He/she would count and say there were 10. They ate 1 and said, "You had 10, you ate 1, so how many are left?" Those kinds of games worked wonders and there are lots of math games on the market.
I may be old-fashioned, but I firmly believe that phonics are the basis for a strong foundation to be a good reader. If a child can't read, it causes them problems in every subject. My youngest son had a Kindergarten teacher (many years ago) who I spoke with before school started to see what her philosophy was in teaching Kindergarten. She quickly said that she taught social skills. I commented that he already had social skills and that I wanted him to learn to read because he had watched Sesame Street, we watch "The Wheel of Fortune" together, I read to him regularly and he knew his letters. He just needed to learn to put the letters and their sounds together to form words and then eventually make sentences. She taught social skills and he didn't learn what I wanted him to learn and in 2nd grade, we had a big problem. His first grade teacher seemed to make up for some of the difference from the lost Kindergarten year and I thought things were ok. When the standardized test results came out in 2nd grade, I was horrified. Fortunately, I was a teacher and recognized the scores were not acceptable ... 2th grade 3 months when he was in 2nd grade 8 months. I immediately got a tutor who started with his weak foundation of reading. After about 2 years, the problem was solved, but if I were not a teacher who knew how to read those results of standardized tests, he may have never caught up! Fortunately, now he is a very successful businessman in Austin, Texas .... I am so grateful that I caught it when I did! Happy ending!!!
I would be honored to tutor you if you feel that you are struggling with a particular subject. I have been successful with all of the children I have helped through the years. I have a good sense of humor, will give it my all to get you past a "bump in the road" so that you will feel confident about the progress you make. I am a positive thinker and I do not ever make my students feel as if they cannot accomplish what they are working on. I like to have fun with my students ... unfortunately some teachers don't know how to have fun and learn at the same time.
I invite you to contact me and we can meet with your parents and discuss what you want to conquer! You can do anything you want to do ... and I will be with you every step of the way!!!
