Emboldened English Tutoring
About
Hi there! My name is Krysta and I graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor's Degree in English. I have always been an avid reader and lover of the written language. Despite trying various majors, my endgame was always going to be English, no matter where I ended up. I never intended to go into education. Truthfully, I needed a job and a high school was the first one to call me back. Despite this strange beginning, I realized early on just how perfect of a fit teaching was for me and I worked diligently and excitedly to obtain my grades 9-12 English teaching certification. Teaching allowed my creative and analytical sides to flourish and I found that serving my students provided me with more satisfaction than any other job I'd ever had before.
I have designed nearly all of my own curriculum materials through careful planning, evaluation, and research. My primary form of teaching relies on the value of the relevance of the curriculum material. I try my best to ensure that anything I am teaching has a real-world connection that provides true use and value to the information being given.
I am certified and confident in various subjects surrounding English such as literary criticism and exploration, general reading and writing skills, vocabulary acquisition, and standardized test prep. In addition to actively teaching in the classroom, I have worked as a content writer for a major online test prep company creating subject guides and test prep materials. This has allowed me to be on the other side of education, crafting carefully designed assessments and evaluations and ensuring the curriculum is properly aligned with state standards.
When I first began teaching, my passion was for literature. I couldn't wait to share my knowledge and excitement for various types of literary works with my students. I learned early on though that not every student is prepared to learn the way that I wanted to teach.
Over time, I realized that the true passion of teaching lies in the relationship with the student. No exchange of information or knowledge can happen if the gate is not open on their side. So I learned to build a rapport, to build trust and eventually, interest. When my students realized they could trust that I wasn't going to upset them or ignore them, they were willing to see my passion for the subjects I taught. Seeing a student truly interested in my material and eager to finish an assignment or project was the most fulfilling aspect of teaching I'd ever experienced and that would never have happened if I hadn't learned to listen to and trust my students.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
In meeting a new student for the very first time, the most important thing to do is to establish a relationship and rapport. I like to talk to my student to find out how they're doing in school, what their grades look like, and what they enjoy about school. Learning what is working will ultimately help me decide how to approach the things that are not working. I enjoy learning about my student and their life and finding ways that we can enjoy discussing together.
In addition to discussing what they are struggling with, I like to create a plan of action with my new student. This is a document generated collaboratively by the both of us to address topics and concepts that are troublesome and determine a timeline in which to tackle them. This ensures that I am not moving any faster than my student is ready to go and creates a meaningful, tangible window to operate in.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have 6 years' experience teaching grades 9-12 in English and AP Literature as well as an additional 3 years' experience designing test prep and curriculum materials for middle and high school literature and AP Literature courses for the company Albert.io. My English courses were primarily focused on an introduction to literature, namely fiction, and World Literature and British Literature.
Daily instruction with vocabulary and etymology (root word) lessons and activities were essential to the foundation of my curriculum plans. Students were provided with weekly sets of root words and we worked together to apply relevant modern examples of words that use the roots. Roots were recycled throughout the semester and assessments were provided to ensure retention.
In my courses, each grade level received differentiated instruction on writing utilizing the organizational strategy, ACES. I also introduced digital literacy skills including basic research methods, plagiarism and copyright ethics, cybersecurity, information analysis, scope and reliability of sources, and proper citation methods. AP Literature received direct instruction in literary criticism, namely New Criticism, New Historicism, Reader Response Theory, etc. I have provided instruction in expositional, persuasive, argumentative, and critical writing styles.