Experience Summary
Two things sent me back to college for a teaching degree: a belief that good reading and writing skills are a survival skill for children in today's world, and a desire to personally do something about it. It was my reading comprehension skills that enabled me to succeed in high-tech businesses without an engineering background, and it was my command of clear, persuasive writing that set me apart, time after time, from other candidates when I applied for promotions. I tutored for many years on a volunteer basis (reading, writing, and SAT.) For the last two years, I taught in typical Los Angeles public schools: overcrowded, noisy, underfunded, many struggling students, many foreign-born students. I learned more about how to teach English and writing in those two years than I would have thought possible.
Teaching Style
I have high expectations for all of my students. They know it, and when we're done, they're proud of what they've accomplished. I teach SAT, for example, and expect all of my students to earn at least a 9 out of 12 on the essay portion. I coach each one on employing his or her strengths to produce a good essay. With beginners, I focus on organizing the presentation, clear declarative sentences, and effective use of transitions to keep things moving. Then we progress to varying sentence types and common vocabulary (for example, don't say "very" all the time; use "extremely", "powerfully", "excessively", "dramatically". Same with "nice", "bad", and the perennial favorite "awesome.") Analyzing other students' essays provides a model and some metacognition (without the jargon) for students. Everything is scaffolded, and advanced students can move up the steps rapidly. But every student knows he WILL improve, and that his improvement will be a direct result of his own effort.