Our Tutors

Janette J

Teaching Style

I firmly believe in Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences. Each and every child has the ability to excel, but the most gains can be made if a teacher is aware of each individual child's learning style. I always strive to find the way in which each child learns best and then develop my plan of action to deliver instruction in the way they will benefit most.

Experience Summary

As a graduate of the University of New Mexico I hold both a B.S in Elementary Education with an endorsement in Language Arts and a M.A in Elementary Education. I have been employed in the capacity of classroom teacher for the past 8 years. I have taught both Kindergarten and 3rd Grade. My endorsement area is language arts. I hold a level II K-8 teaching license.

Andrea A

Teaching Style

I have a passion for learning, both as a teacher and a student. As a mother of a blended family of seven children, I am also very well versed in the uniqueness of children. Coupled with my diverse background, experience and training, I tailor my efforts to fit the specific needs of each individual child. I also believe that everyone has a preferred learning style and I work to discover those strengths within my students to ensure greater success. I also make a concerted effort to provide interactive lessons that engage the child's imagination in meaningful ways so that their progress is long-lasting. I believe that mistakes are natural, and that they often offer the most significant learning opportunities. With this in mind, my students and I form a warm working relationship in which we learn from one another. I believe every person is an "expert" in something and it is my goal to uncover that for my students and to foster self-confidence and independence as a learner for life. I am passionate about children and about learning, and I consider it an honor to have the opportunity to make a different in a child's life through education and inspiration.

Experience Summary

I love education and I believe it shows in my training. Having first obtained a BA in Studio Art and Psychology, I then went on to attain a Masters degree in social work. I worked with families and children for close to 10 years in this capacity. Through this, my respect for diversity and its effect on learning was deepened. Over time, my desire to inspire children more directly "on the front line" led me to go into teaching. I achieved my Masters degree in Early Childhood Education and worked with preschoolers, special needs students and as a 2nd and 3rd grade classroom teacher. When the first of my four children were born, the many joyful hours I spent reading to them led to my pursuit of certification as a reading specialist. As my family grew, I worked as a substitute reading teacher, and volunteered as a reading assistant in my local schools, from which I was able to hone my assessment skills as well. In this, I also gained insight into the critical importance of reading across the curriculum. Thus, my focus as a tutor switched to reading over the past two years. I also conduct workshops for preschool parents and teachers on developing prereading skills through play. I have been able to use self-created materials to help parents and teachers work with diverse populations. My writing and editing skills have been extended through 15 years (and ongoing) of at-home work as a medical transcriptionist/editor for the leading pediatric hospital in Boston.

Katherine K

Teaching Style

Throughout my teaching experience I have encountered students of all ages and abilities, from high school students with learning differences to adult learners of ESL. I believe each student is unique and brings their own set of experiences and strengths to the material to be learned, necessitating an adaptable teaching style. I am experienced in the communicative approach and believe each students learns best through discovery and by utilizing their particular intelligence. I am patient, relaxed and treat each student with respect. I think students learn best when they are having fun and have a trusting relationship with their teacher.

Experience Summary

While working towards my bachelors degree in English (with a minor in Political Science), I worked as a substitute teacher in the public school system for a year and a half, in order to ascertain my affinity for many different levels and subjects. My writing and grammatical skills are excellent; in 2004 I was awarded First Place in Undergraduate Writing at the University of North Florida. My first professional teaching experience complemented my areas of expertise perfectly: I taught English as a Foreign Language to business professionals in Argentina for six months, using the communicative approach. During this time I learned much about South American politics and culture, as well as the Spanish language. Upon return I taught English to high school students for one year at a private school for students with learning disabilities and emotional/ behavioral problems. This summer, I have again taught international students at a Berlitz ESL program, ELS Language Center. Throughout the years I have also tutored and worked with students one on one many times, specifically with rudimentary reading and writing.

Redha R

Teaching Style

I teach by example and I am methodical. I show a student how to solve a problem by going very slowly and by following a sequence of steps. I make sure that the student follows understands each step before moving on to the next one. I then ask the student to solve almost the exact same problem (with a slight change in numbers for example)so that the student learns the method and how to solve the problem by herself/himself. I am very patient but expect the student to be willing to learn. I tell students that learning a subject matter is more important than getting an A in a class - this is because 1. if you learn, chances are you won't forget (at least for a long while) and 2. you will get a good grade as a result.

Experience Summary

I have been employed by the IBM corporation for the last 27 years. I held numerous positions in hardware development, software development, telecommunication network development, project management, solution architecture, performance analysis, and others. As much as I enjoy my job, I have passion in Mathematics. I develop new ideas related to my work and expand them into U.S. patents and external technical papers. I informally tutor family and friends attending high school or college. I was a Mathematics teaching assistant at the Univ. of Pittsburgh for 2 years and at the Univ. of Michigan at Ann Arbor for 3 years. I love teaching and sharing my knowledge with others. I have published numerous technical papers and hold numerous U.S. patents as well.

Ali A

Teaching Style

I enjoy class discussion and participation when I am teaching in classroom. I would recommend my students to review the course ahead of time. Once I explain the subject, it will clarify any ambiguity. The other strategy that I use is to ask the students to pretend that they are the teacher and have them explain it back to me. This has been one of the best methods that help students realize whether they have understood the concept.

Experience Summary

I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. I began teaching organic chemistry, shortly after my graduation, as a Teaching Assistant (TA). In that capacity, I held discussion sections in which I reviewed the subject in detail and worked with students in the laboratory. I worked with groups of twenty students in secondary discussion sections and laboratory experiments. At the same time, I worked as a tutor in science courses such as physics, chemistry, biology and math. As a premed student, I have been teaching MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) courses in biology, organic chemistry and general chemistry. I am very enthusiastic about teaching and feel privileged to be able to help others.

Boris B

Teaching Style

I believe that excellence in teaching comes from the teacher's adaptation to student's specific needs. In particular, for some students, visualization may be the essential component for them to understand a certain concept or an idea in mathematics, and by furnishing examples and various proofs with pictures enables the student to learn the concept, whereas for other students it may be the algebraic equation that allows them to see a certain idea. In the first couple of sessions, I probe for the specific needs of the student and then am able to connect with that student so that he/she feels comfortable with the subject. I am a patient teacher and believe that all students are able to grasp the subject. I teach in a disciplined manner, so that the topic presented is coherent and follows a logical flow. I make sure that the theoretical concepts are internalized in a concrete example for the student. Above all, I carry a positive disposition wherever I go and encourage students to enjoy math.

Experience Summary

I am a graduate of GaTech, with a Math and Psychology BA degrees. Aside from my two majors I have minors in Philosophy and Cognitive Science. During my years of high school and college, I have tutored students in Mathematics -- be it in calculus or statistics, or the math portion of the SAT. At the moment I work part-time at the Korean after school program, called Daekyo America Inc., as a math instructor for both high school and middle school. I have participated in various Mathematical Competitions, and have won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize Winner in USAMTS (United States Mathematical Talent Search).

Jason J

Teaching Style

I truly enjoy teaching and watching a student’s growth both academically and personally with my assistance. I can not say that I have only one teaching style. The art of teaching is finding out what is the best way for my students to learn. Each and every student has a different way of learning; may it be lecture, demonstration, or question and answer. The great thing about teaching is that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of expressing the material. Many times you have to use multiple methods of teaching to help the students gain a more thorough understanding. Having some professional experience in the Chemistry field is a great tool for both gaining the student’s attention and relating what is done in the classroom to real life scenarios. I gain great satisfaction from helping students obtain the goals they have set.

Experience Summary

I graduated from King's College in Pennsylvania in May of 2002 with my BS in Chemistry. I decided to return to school for another semester to do my student teaching and become certified in secondary education. I spent twelve weeks teaching 10th through 12th grade students in Chemistry and eight weeks teaching Advanced Chemistry. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and look forward to one day having my own classroom and becoming a teacher and mentor to younger children. After graduating, I decided that I needed to gain some real life experience that I could apply and have students relate to before entering the classroom. So for the past 5 years I have worked in a variety of laboratory settings. Currently I am working as an Analytical Chemist for a Cosmetic / Pharmaceutical company on Long Island. I have tutored a few students over the past two years in Chemistry, Physics, and Math with great success.

Shannon S

Teaching Style

My teaching style is very adaptive and enthusiastic, stemming from a genuine love of the material. I enjoy getting students excited about science and the endless potentials that may be found within the sciences, looking at the world around them in new and exciting manners. I believe that each person has their own way of learning and understanding material and it is the responsibility of the instructor or tutor to strive to find what works best for each individual student. An efficient and astute teacher continually strives to modify material, to expand their way of thinking and to challenge their methods of instruction to adapt to the ever-changing world around us.

Experience Summary

I have a wide variety of experience and an innate desire to learn more about the world around me. I began my undergraduate degree in Political Science, but after taking a Biology course in California, became rather excited about the sciences. I have worked in a variety of laboratory settings, as well as in the field, applying the science that I have learned to real life situations and truly gaining a better understanding of the dynamic nature of the sciences. This is what I love. From reading the latest National Geographic to listening to Science Friday on NPR, the never-ending potential of science today excites me and certainly makes me a more dynamic, animated instructor.