I graduated with a B. A. in Math from Williams College in 1994. At Williams, I was hired by the Math Department to tutor students in quantitative reasoning and calculus. I was also selected to teach a short course on trigonometry to prepare students for Calculus I. From 1994-1996, I taught math middle- and high-school math, comprising topics in trigonometry, functions, algebra, and geometry, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon. From 1997-1998, I taught “Business Math” at the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston and served as a Teaching Assistant for “Multivariable Calculus” at the Harvard Extension School. I have also tutored high school students and adults privately in a variety of math courses. More recently, I have been writing math lessons for an online tutoring program.
Philosophy and Approach
I majored in math in college order to challenge myself, since math has always been my weakest subject area. In middle school, I had to ask my friends for help in math until I attended an all-girls school, at which point I suddenly became the person friends turned to for help. My confidence surged as I answered my classmates’ questions. Math is hard, and each topic takes time and practice to master. But anyone can master it. The real problem is that so many students label themselves as “bad” and that label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
My goal for my student is that he or she is not only able to solve the problems, but also able to understand the fundamental principals underlying the method used. Because I have tutored and taught from a wide range of textbooks, I have a variety of approaches at my fingertips. I try to find an approach that makes intuitive sense to the person I am tutoring. I encourage students to work through each step of a problem by figuring out the next logical move rather than memorizing a process. When I sense a student is just going through the motions, I’ll ask him to explain how he is approaching the problem or why he is performing a particular operation. Sometimes this emphasis on fundamentals entails covering a process that the student supposedly learned in previous classes, but it’s worth taking the time. Knowing the principals behind the methodology, of course, prevents the student from being thrown off if the problem is presented in a slightly different way or if a different question is asked, but the real payoff is the sense of pleasure that comes from true mastery—the moment when the student can explain it to someone else!
English
Experience
I scored a 5 on the A.P. English exam when I was in high school. More recently, I have taught British and American literature at the University of Virginia from 2002-2006 as well as courses specifically focused on college-level writing. I received my Ph.D. in English literature in 2007 from the University of Virginia. From 2006-2010, I taught English and Humanities courses at Centre College, in Danville, KY. My courses encompass a wide range of time periods, genres, and authors: Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, T.S. Eliot, Dickinson, Whitman, Pope, Bishop, Wharton, and many others.
Philosophy
Too many students think literature is “all subjective,” that a poem means whatever the reader think it does. Good interpretations are often creative, but they are also always grounded in the text. The first task is to attain a thorough understanding of the literal meaning of the text, which might entail looking up unknown words. After the student understands the work, he or she can begin to interpret it. The best interpretations emerge from a genuine question—why would a character in that situation make that particular choice? Or why did the poet choose an adjective that seems negative when describing a positive experience? Looking back over the work as a whole, a reader can begin to formulate an answer to the question. The next step is to gather the evidence that will make this interpretation compelling to others. The goal of an excellent interpretation is to discover something that others have not noticed about the literary work, which they too can see once it is pointed out.
Approach
My goal when teaching and tutoring is to help students appreciate the power of literature. To that end, I first make sure they understand the work on the literal level and then ask for their emotional response, even if that’s boredom or anger. After having the student summarize the story or poem, “how did you like it?” is often my first question. As they talk about what they found confusing, frustrating, or interesting, I ask questions designed to help them locate the cause of this emotional response in the text itself. This always entails rereading some parts of the work more carefully to better understand how the literature creates its meaning or emotional resonance.
Writing
Philosophy and Approach
Writing is a particularly complex activity because most of us develop our ideas as we write them out—leading to a fairly disastrous product! Often, as well, connections that are in our heads never make it to the page at all. To address these problems, I focus on the writing process. One key way to change a paper from a record of someone’s thinking, to an organized, comprehensible document is to teach the writer the attributes of a successful paper. Identifying and then correcting writing problems in the student’s own paper inevitably refines the ideas.
It’s also challenging to juggle the various elements of a paper. Students will waste time proofreading a paper that is still missing a thesis or topic sentences. I teach students the hierarchy of significance from the basic structure of a persuasive or informative paper to the finer aspects of style. This hierarchy corresponds to multiple stages of drafting; the most significant weakness in a paper should be identified and fixed before the writer focuses on an element lower in the hierarchy. As the student revises, the paper improves until the final stage of proofreading. People, of course, may have difficulty with one particular part of the writing task—organization, topic sentences, grammar, vocabulary, etc. When this is the case, I provide focused exercises and activities designed to strengthen the skill.
SAT/GRE Preparation
The hardest part of preparing for these standardized tests is to find the time to practice, which is why many large companies offer “courses” on them. The student can do much of the preparation work on his or her own. I have students do one or two sample tests available in workbooks. I then identify and address areas of weakness. Since the standardized tests are built around a limited number of core skills and concepts, it is easy to teach to the test; if you miss a certain kind of problem, I can write 10-20 questions of that type until solving them becomes second nature. After practicing, the student takes a few more sample tests to verify that the problem is solved. I also go over good strategies for taking standardized tests.
Tutoring in Standardized Tests, Literature, Writing, and Math
credentials
Math
Experience
I graduated with a B. A. in Math from Williams College in 1994. At Williams, I was hired by the Math Department to tutor students in quantitative reasoning and calculus. I was also selected to teach a short course on trigonometry to prepare students for Calculus I. From 1994-1996, I taught math middle- and high-school math, comprising topics in trigonometry, functions, algebra, and geometry, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon. From 1997-1998, I taught “Business Math” at the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston and served as a Teaching Assistant for “Multivariable Calculus” at the Harvard Extension School. I have also tutored high school students and adults privately in a variety of math courses. More recently, I have been writing math lessons for an online tutoring program.
Philosophy and Approach
I majored in math in college order to challenge myself, since math has always been my weakest subject area. In middle school, I had to ask my friends for help in math until I attended an all-girls school, at which point I suddenly became the person friends turned to for help. My confidence surged as I answered my classmates’ questions. Math is hard, and each topic takes time and practice to master. But anyone can master it. The real problem is that so many students label themselves as “bad” and that label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
My goal for my student is that he or she is not only able to solve the problems, but also able to understand the fundamental principals underlying the method used. Because I have tutored and taught from a wide range of textbooks, I have a variety of approaches at my fingertips. I try to find an approach that makes intuitive sense to the person I am tutoring. I encourage students to work through each step of a problem by figuring out the next logical move rather than memorizing a process. When I sense a student is just going through the motions, I’ll ask him to explain how he is approaching the problem or why he is performing a particular operation. Sometimes this emphasis on fundamentals entails covering a process that the student supposedly learned in previous classes, but it’s worth taking the time. Knowing the principals behind the methodology, of course, prevents the student from being thrown off if the problem is presented in a slightly different way or if a different question is asked, but the real payoff is the sense of pleasure that comes from true mastery—the moment when the student can explain it to someone else!
English
Experience
I scored a 5 on the A.P. English exam when I was in high school. More recently, I have taught British and American literature at the University of Virginia from 2002-2006 as well as courses specifically focused on college-level writing. I received my Ph.D. in English literature in 2007 from the University of Virginia. From 2006-2010, I taught English and Humanities courses at Centre College, in Danville, KY. My courses encompass a wide range of time periods, genres, and authors: Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, T.S. Eliot, Dickinson, Whitman, Pope, Bishop, Wharton, and many others.
Philosophy
Too many students think literature is “all subjective,” that a poem means whatever the reader think it does. Good interpretations are often creative, but they are also always grounded in the text. The first task is to attain a thorough understanding of the literal meaning of the text, which might entail looking up unknown words. After the student understands the work, he or she can begin to interpret it. The best interpretations emerge from a genuine question—why would a character in that situation make that particular choice? Or why did the poet choose an adjective that seems negative when describing a positive experience? Looking back over the work as a whole, a reader can begin to formulate an answer to the question. The next step is to gather the evidence that will make this interpretation compelling to others. The goal of an excellent interpretation is to discover something that others have not noticed about the literary work, which they too can see once it is pointed out.
Approach
My goal when teaching and tutoring is to help students appreciate the power of literature. To that end, I first make sure they understand the work on the literal level and then ask for their emotional response, even if that’s boredom or anger. After having the student summarize the story or poem, “how did you like it?” is often my first question. As they talk about what they found confusing, frustrating, or interesting, I ask questions designed to help them locate the cause of this emotional response in the text itself. This always entails rereading some parts of the work more carefully to better understand how the literature creates its meaning or emotional resonance.
Writing
Philosophy and Approach
Writing is a particularly complex activity because most of us develop our ideas as we write them out—leading to a fairly disastrous product! Often, as well, connections that are in our heads never make it to the page at all. To address these problems, I focus on the writing process. One key way to change a paper from a record of someone’s thinking, to an organized, comprehensible document is to teach the writer the attributes of a successful paper. Identifying and then correcting writing problems in the student’s own paper inevitably refines the ideas.
It’s also challenging to juggle the various elements of a paper. Students will waste time proofreading a paper that is still missing a thesis or topic sentences. I teach students the hierarchy of significance from the basic structure of a persuasive or informative paper to the finer aspects of style. This hierarchy corresponds to multiple stages of drafting; the most significant weakness in a paper should be identified and fixed before the writer focuses on an element lower in the hierarchy. As the student revises, the paper improves until the final stage of proofreading. People, of course, may have difficulty with one particular part of the writing task—organization, topic sentences, grammar, vocabulary, etc. When this is the case, I provide focused exercises and activities designed to strengthen the skill.
SAT/GRE Preparation
The hardest part of preparing for these standardized tests is to find the time to practice, which is why many large companies offer “courses” on them. The student can do much of the preparation work on his or her own. I have students do one or two sample tests available in workbooks. I then identify and address areas of weakness. Since the standardized tests are built around a limited number of core skills and concepts, it is easy to teach to the test; if you miss a certain kind of problem, I can write 10-20 questions of that type until solving them becomes second nature. After practicing, the student takes a few more sample tests to verify that the problem is solved. I also go over good strategies for taking standardized tests.