Frances: Sunnyvale tutor

Certified Tutor

What drives me in teaching is that the English language arts writing, speaking, reading are the icing on the cake of anyone's education. A person can have all the specialized knowledge s/he needs but without being able to articulate it in writing or in speaking, his/her career can stall because s/he cannot communicate with the wide variety of people s/he will interact with in adult life. Customers and bosses prefer the employee who can articulate their needs, projects, problems, and ideas in clear and quick responses. I want all of my students to have the discipline of the language arts solidly sewn into their daily habits as head start on their coming competition.

I've worked with a wide variety of students, from Cornell undergraduates to apprentice electricians who came into my classes thinking English was "stoopid" to international students from Europe and the Middle East. I learned a lot from them and was able to impress the importance and the fun of my curriculums.

I have Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Montana and a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University. I'll confess something right now: I'm a terrible speller; I've had to look up spellings in this very essay. But I respect my dictionary, the revision process, and note-taking for exactly that reason. It also means that I understand and respect progress more than perfection.

I'm available to tutor A.P. English, college testing preparation, creative writing, reading comprehension, general writing, public speaking, and literature for high school students. My favorite subject is teaching literature because it's a magical door to a million other worlds. However, in practical terms, literature is not the most important subject for juniors and seniors. High school students should be thinking about A.P. English, their upcoming ACTs and SATs, and what college writing or after-high-school work will be expected of them.

As I said earlier, progress (and an open mind) is more important than perfection so it's important to keep track of what a student has accomplished. It's akin to losing weight: does it matter if you lose it quickly or slowly if you attain your weight goal in the end? Does speed increase or impair learning?

Learning, like weight loss, is specific to the individual, but hard work does pay off. If I assign homework, I expect students to be prepared because I use the Socratic method (look that up! I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it's on your ACTs), asking questions and leading students to make their own discoveries, rather than lecturing. I explain new material but after that, I want my students to think through a problem or to be able ask intelligent questions of their own. I also teach and emphasize note-taking and outlining, so that we can move on quickly.

The best thing you should anticipate about me is that I am unable to suppress my sense of humor while teaching. I want learning to be fun.