Danielia: Skokie tutor

Certified Tutor

I am an experienced teacher with experiences teaching High School Spanish and ESL. I taught four years in Baltimore City at the Academy for College and Career Exploration Charter School and then transitioned to Washington, DC where I worked three years for District of Columbia Public Schools as a Spanish teacher at Luke C. Moore High School. I spent the school year 2013-2014 as an ESL Teacher at Shane English School in Ningbo, China. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Cornell University, a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Translation from New York University (NYU) and a Master of Arts in Teaching from American University. I am currently working on becoming a New York City certified teacher in Spanish and ESL. My experiences in teaching/tutoring involve working as a tutor at a community center in Ithaca, NY; a Teaching Assistant at a childcare center in Brooklyn, NY; a Teaching Assistant at an after school program for children of immigrants for the Balia Foundation in Madrid, Spain; a summer enrichment teacher for the Bell Foundation in Baltimore City; Lead Classroom Teacher for Baltimore and District of Columbia Public Schools, and a certified TEFL/TESOL teacher in China. My passion for world languages and cultures has deeply enriched my experiences living abroad and has been a boon to my ability to communicate effectively in the target language and adapt to different ways of living. I am most passionate about tutoring Spanish and ESL but also interested in intermediate French. My approach to language teaching is through total immersion which focuses on building communicative competence using authentic cultural materials. Students who are constantly exposed to situations where they must use the target language will develop their speaking and listening skills at a much faster rate and will be more confident to use the language in and out the classroom. Focus on the usefulness of the language will served to motivate interest and continued study beyond the textbook. Over the course of my career, I have gathered numerous resources, gained knowledge of second language pedagogy, planning and implementing lessons and use of effective teaching strategies for maximum student success. In my free time, I like to read (usually something in Spanish), watch foreign films, watch international news, go to language meetups, Latin dancing, listen to classical music, play volleyball, sing and of course, travel.