Theresa: Wheeling tutor

Certified Tutor

I am a Secondary Education teacher specializing in English Language Arts. I earned my Masters of Arts of Teaching from The Citadel and Bachelors of English Literature from Clemson University. I graduated with honors from both institutions and was inducted into Kappa Delta Pi, an honors society for Education majors.

I have continued to learn by taking courses in Pima Community College's Post-Baccalaureate program. I have stayed up-to-date with online learning techniques by taking professional development courses with ASU's Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute.

I enjoy teaching and tutoring English Language Arts at the high school, college, and adult level. ELA covers a wide umbrella: I teach grammar, writing skills, composition, reading comprehension strategies, rhetoric, literature, and public speaking skills. I teach grammar with a practical approach, centering it around writing and grounding new lessons in students' prior knowledge. I have experience teaching High School English at the honors and remedial level. I had students with IEPs or 504 plans in my classes at every academic level. I pride myself in breaking down difficult texts (including Shakespeare and Beowulf) so that students find them approachable.

I enjoy being able to work one-on-one with students who benefit from specific strategies and extra instructional time, particularly due to dyslexia and/or ADHD. In my experience, encouragement can make a world of difference when students struggle with a subject, no matter what the reason. Often students who struggle with a learning disability want to do well, and are motivated to do the work when someone listens to them and offers concrete strategies that may help. It can be frustrating and discouraging when students keep trying harder on their own without seeing a result! My job is to make tailored suggestions so they can try things differently instead of just trying harder to no avail.

I help students prepare for the AP English Language and Composition Exam. I teach SAT Reading Prep classes. I help students with summer reading assignments and college essays. In the summers, I also teach Introduction to Japanese and Conversational French, one-on-one or in small groups.


I teach and tutor High School English, Composition, American Literature, British Literature, World Literature, and Japanese Literature. I am a former National Merit Scholar, and I help students prepare for the English, Reading, and Writing sections of the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. I am a two-time recipient of the Educational Testing Service's Recognition of Excellence for the PRAXIS Principles of Learning and Teaching: Grades 7-12 and PRAXIS English Language, Literature, and Composition: Content Knowledge.