Linda Esquivel

I am a native speaker of Spanish. I am from Colombia and I am fluent in English. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Education with Specializations in the Humanities and the Spanish Language, and I have experience with teaching children, teenagers, and adults.

During high-school, I tutored struggling students in grades 7-9 to improve their scores in Spanish and English. When I was a Teacher's Assistant for 3rd grade Spanish, I developed a reading and writing project.

Later, I taught Spanish at three institutes that help students with socioeconomic difficulties to achieve high-school equivalency. I instructed my students in grammar, literature, textual analysis, and reading comprehension, to help them pass the Spanish portion of a national exam: ICFES (which grants students access to college).

I worked as a grader with the only Colombian Institute authorized to evaluate all of the national exams. I graded the reading comprehension portion of the PISA exam (Program for International Student Assessment) and I graded the essay portion of the ECAES national exam for college students (for graduation).

Ever since I arrived in the U.S., I have educated people. I was a tutor in an elementary and middle school tutoring program at a hispanic nonprofit organization, and I coordinated and ran the program for 2 years, eventually rebuilding it and creating better learning pathways for students. My tutors and I helped children to complete their homework, and to improve their reading and math grades. I showed parents how to address their children's academic needs, and I helped them communicate more effectively with the school system.

I have taught Spanish to students of different nationalities, and I have tutored individuals with particular needs, such as grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading, and the use of language in their college and work environment.

Each person learns in a different way and needs individual attention. I love to modify my teaching approach in order to better accommodate each student’s unique learning style. It gives me the opportunity to bring new activities, resources, ideas, and explanations to their educational experience. I enjoy helping people to access knowledge, because I can see them become more secure and motivated in pursuit of their goals.

I am happy when students tell me that they passed an exam, or when parents tell me how excited they are about their child's success. I am really proud to know that my students have strengthened their command of Spanish with me and used it in their day-to-day lives.

I learned English by using resources such as online activities, videos, literature, workbooks, and by exposing myself to social contexts requiring English usage. I know how rich an experience it can be to familiarize oneself with a new language, and I believe it to be worth the frustrations and challenges. I really love to share my passion with people who are interested in the bounty of my culture, and that of the entire Spanish-speaking world.