Sarah: Gastonia tutor

Certified Tutor

I recently graduated from Rice University in Houston, TX, with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Asian Studies.

I have been tutoring since January 2012. I enjoy working one-on-one with students, developing a connection with them and encouraging them to be the best they can be.

My most commonly tutored subject is math, particularly Algebra 1. I have been tutoring math consistently during the school year for the past two years; my work has encompassed both homework coaching and exam review.

So much of grade school math is learning to see connections between concepts and build on earlier work. When I help students with math, I guide them towards making connections and ensure that they understand how concepts are interrelated - the Pythagorean theorem and the distance formula, for instance. I believe that the best way to make sure a student remembers a theorem or formula is to teach them how and why it works. Therefore, whenever it is both possible and practical, I like to walk students through demonstrations of proofs to deepen their understanding and their ability to apply the theorem or formula in question.

My second most commonly tutored subject is English, particularly grammar. As a linguistics major, I have a nuanced understanding of how grammar works and, further, of how to conceptualize it and explain it in terms that a student will understand. When a student is having difficulty with a grammatical concept, I begin by explaining it with reference to concepts that they do understand; I then guide them through creating example sentences with the concept until I am confident that they understand the concept and can identify and use it in all of the contexts in which it might appear.

I also have experience tutoring writing, biology, ISEE vocabulary, general vocabulary, and French vocabulary and grammar (through the early intermediate level).

In addition to this experience, I have a strong background in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, and in AP courses and tests relating to social studies. I earned a 5 on the AP exams in American Government, European History, Human Geography, US History, and World History, and I have insights on essay-writing techniques for these exams and their associated classes. Furthermore, while I have never tutored it, I have been certified as having Advanced Low proficiency in Hindi on the OPI scale, and I would be happy to tutor beginning Hindi, including the Devanagari script in which it is written.

When I am not tutoring, I enjoy reading fiction, cooking, and playing board games.