Experience Summary
Writing & Public Speaking are my niche. As a tutor, I have helped students at all academic levels (K-12, and beginner undergrad) I've recently discovered a joy for helping others learn and am currently a substitute teacher in Henrico County Public Schools. My current students are primarily at elementary, middle school and high school levels. Throughout my sessions I teach and emphasize the mechanics of writing. I also assist students in test preparation. Many parents want to prepare their children/students for the college or specialty center of their choice. So Essay Writing and Reading Comprehension are subject matters that I work on with students to help achieve those goals.
Teaching Style
In Writing...
I generally give my students a mild assessment to see how I can best help them. I also conduct all of my own lesson planning. However, I am certainly accustomed to helping students with current academic work they may already have from their current classes.
The first thing that I typically help students do is get pass the creativity block (if needed). Even I, like all writers have suffered from the inability to start my essay because I didn't know what to write about or how to collect ideas for my topic. So the first thing I do for my student writers is help them employ a couple brainstorming techniques to get their ideas going.
The second thing I show my writers is what I call the Order of an Essay. This involves arranging and writing the ideas in the order that constructs a well-written essay. This is usually the biggest thing that most student writers struggle with. But there is a structure that all essay readers and graders typically look for in a well written essay. Once students learn the structure, they will usually find writing to be a lot easier and their grades will almost always increase in score. When broken down and explained, the structure is pretty simple. Since this is the main thing that student writers struggle to do, this is usually the step that most excites me to show them.
Grammar and Spelling are another area in which I enjoy helping students improve. Spacing, punctuation, spelling are part of the writing process and not just part of the proof reading process. So I help students incorporate these skills into their writing so that proofreading becomes easier. I help students catch and eliminate run-on sentences, help them know where and how to use commas, indentations, quotation marks and much more.
My Hobbies
Some of my hobbies include guess what??? Creative Writing, Writing/Performing Spoken Word Poetry & Music. There are many more but this gets us started.
Other Comments
Public Speaking
I also enjoy helping students learn to construct and deliver speeches/presentations. Public Speaking is another area in which I enjoy helping students learn. There are many of the same concepts used in Public Speaking that are also used in writing an essay. I coach students in the writing and the vocal delivery (eye- contact, pauses, timing etc) of the presentation. (Presentations including programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint.)
My bachelor's of science is in Mass Media Communication. This involves all levels of writing. (E.g. Research documents, Essays, Writing for media, Writing for Print, Writing for screen, and proficiency in Microsoft Word, Publisher, and Adobe InDesign.)
I am also continuing to learn avenues, perspectives, and techniques in my own personal writing (poetry, novel, screen writing, and essay) So learning never stops! Which makes it fun.
I look forward to hearing from future readers, writers, and speakers of all levels k-12 and beginning college.