About
I have been tutoring students for the past 20 years, through all the grades between Kindergarten and graduate school. I love it - every student I tutor is different and I do my best to learn their rhythm and ability. I tutor math up to Algebra 1. I tutor every aspect of English: vocabulary, grammar, Reading Comprehension, writing, and Language Arts, all aspects of Social Studies, History, and certain subjects in Science. I am also an excellent writing tutor and editor I have been tutoring writing skills for about 24 years. Teaching children to write is a really fun activity.
I am proud to be named one of 10 of the best math tutors in all of So King Country
I was a tutor in the english and math labs at SSCC. In math, I assess the student’s current ability. I start there, it is important to start there so that the student starts where they feel successful. It is often just picking up the calculation that the student didn't understand. If a student is struggling, then next computations or steps will become more difficult. Once I help the student work out a few of the kinks like that, the student gets it and we can work on getting caught up. It is such a thrill to see a student's eyes light up when it all becomes clear. It is my joy to help each of my student’s grow and gain self-esteem as they learn.
I also tutor:
ACT
SAT -reading and writing
GED
TOEFL
And other students from different countries around the world.
I have been and hope to continue next year as the Freshman tutor for an international program at a local high school. Many don't speak English and between their core classes and tutor, they pick up our language relatively fast.
I enjoy every part of it, otherwise I wouldn't still be doing it after 20 years.
I love the following things:
** the light of understanding in a student's eyes
** watching the excitement and self confidence grow in a student
** the noticeable relaxation in a student when they realize they are not incapable, just haven't learned how to do it
** when a student knows that I am on their side. I am not the teacher in the school, I am the teacher after school whose total attention will be on your student's capabilities and success
Highlights
Photos and videos
Reviews
Roberta W.
Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
To earn their trust and the student knows I am on their side.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
Yes, $45 an hour. If there are siblings, I decrease the fee by $5 for each child.
#1 child $45
#2 sibling $40
#3 sibling $35
and so on.
How did you get started teaching?
I have been teaching children to read since I first did my student teaching in college. I was assigned to work with an insecure, shy boy. It was my joy to teach him how to read. He was in 2nd grade and was not able to read past early first grade. Within the first quarter, he read in second grade books. And his self-confidence had visibility had grown.
That experience taught me the value of providing a place of safety and security for a student to learn at their own pace. Trust is the key to being able to tutor any student. The growth in this child’s newly found self-esteem, was also obvious to his classmates The kids started to invite him to play with them. They no longer cast him as a loser. It safe to say that all he needed was to have one teacher all to himself. All of his grades started to improve too. And I learned that I was a more effective at teaching one student than a whole classroom. It helped me to follow this path professionally. Then, while taking some classes at the local Community College, I became a tutor in the Writing Lab and Math Lab. I was also a private tutor for students in other subjects. Because of the influx of ESL Students, I became adept at teaching them to pass the classes they were taking. Over the past two years, before Covid closed all schools, I was the Freshman Tutor for an International Department, which catered to Asian students at a local High School. I hope to return to that position next fall.
After I graduated from the UW, I went to work at a local hospital. However, I missed tutoring. So I began to tutor community college students again....in Math, Writing, Language Arts, Reading/Reading Composition, Psychology, and the Sciences. Then, I branched out and started tutoring high school students for their preparation of the PSAT, SAT, and ACT exams. I, also, went on to teach university students how to write, this included one woman who had earned her Masters from an online school. I have the skills to proofread and edit their papers.
Along the way, I started noticing a common thread. As the younger students were learning to read, when they didn’t recognize or know a word, they would just skip it. This continued in the ongoing grades, that it had become a habit. It became a habit. This carried over into skipping words on standardized test. The word they had skipped was typically the lynchpin to the questions in the reading comprehension section. It was at that point,I made it my mission to help children understand every word. So that in the future, High School students would not repeat habit. This, hopefully, increased their college entrance exams scores.
I have been a self contractor for 6 tutoring companies. I learned from experience, and from educational statistics, that the most successful tutoring schedule is an hour and half, twice a week.
It takes a child about 15 minutes to warm up while we reestablish where we left off. Then one hour of teaching, leaving the last 10 or 15 minutes to talk about their progress with the parent, so that they will continue to bolster and support the child. Whether young or in college, this is also the time I assign homework.