Pamela: Clarkstown tutor

Certified Tutor

Fourteen years of teaching in various countries has taught me that learning is a reciprocal process with teachers and students both contributing necessary and invaluable input. I left a financial career to pursue one in education because I sought a more communicative, interactive, and rewarding way to positively impact society. Using my own student experience as a guide, a primary goal of mine is to share my passion for learning and knowledge to help others reach their potential.
My career change from finance to education, language, and literature is precisely what distinguishes my background and broadens my knowledge base with which to tutor. My undergraduate major in Accounting provided a technical base largely focused on logic, problem-solving, and factual concepts. Complementing this quantitative foundation with a graduate liberal arts degree in English also relied on logic, but qualitatively enhanced my ability to synthesize and express information with more insight and clarity.
Therefore, my two academic areas converge into a holistic view of education which I consider integral to my language teaching ability. Language supports other subjects in any number of ways: visually by words or image, aurally, or kinesthetically in our efforts to comprehend or communicate information. In teaching English language acquisition, reading, writing, and test preparation, I saw that these subjects overlap and correlate rather than exist as isolated categories possessing separate skill-sets. My teaching experience in Asia, North and South America has been enhanced by an exposure to different perspectives on teaching, learning, and socio-cultural dynamics. Encountering learning styles and customs from China, Mexico, the Middle East, and the U.S. encouraged both my communication and teaching styles to become flexible, student-centered, and responsive.
Traveling widely during my time abroad also deepened my belief that active, personalized, hands-on examples or experiential learning provide the most beneficial aspects of education. Most subjects overlap within the knowledge acquisition process so a critical thinking approach to any subject will enhance overall learning capacity. I believe that my broad and varied academic, professional, and personal history enables the creative, innovative, and multifaceted approach to learning that our contemporary environment demands for students to succeed in their preparation for the future.