Victoria
Certified Tutor
I will graduate from Seton Hall University come May 2016 with a B.S. degree in Secondary Education and English, a Minor in Music, and an Information Technology Certificate. I tutor reading, writing, MLA citation formatting, college essay writing, thesis and research paper writing, grammar, and punctuation. I have several years of 1-1 tutoring experience as an academic tutor at my university's Writing Center and as a substitute teacher in grades K-12. My favorite subject to tutor is the English Language Arts because I love being able to help students develop and practice strong and effective communication skills. My tutoring style involves holding an open discussion with my students, figuring out their individual needs, asking productive questions and letting them figure out the answers, outlining their goals, and coaching them through a step-by-step process towards achieving those goals. I motivate my students with kindness and professionalism while providing honest instructional feedback. Outside of tutoring, I enjoy playing my piano and violin, watching Lord of the Rings, and writing poetry.
Connect with a tutor like Victoria
Undergraduate Degree: Seton Hall University - Bachelors, Secondary Education
I love playing the piano and violin. I also love the Lord of the Rings films and cooking.
- College English
- College Essays
- English
- English Grammar and Syntax
- Essay Editing
- High School English
- Homework Support
- Other
- Reading
- Study Skills
- Study Skills and Organization
- Summer
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
Successful and meaningful education encompasses the roles of both the student and the teacher as a cooperative and interactive unit. My plan of effective teaching always includes finding a balance between what and how, between content and skills, and between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge in giving lessons and providing new knowledge to a class. For my students, I make sure to model the practice of visualizing the details of achieving a certain goal and taking the time to step back and imagine the bigger picture of the desired end result of a task. An effective classroom – as in an effective learning environment for effective teaching to happen in order to bring about effective learning experiences – requires consistent and meaningful classroom management. The role of the learning student is to practice active listening, follow the example effectively modeled by the teacher, cooperate and collaborate with fellow learners, be creative, and strive to be self-reliant in his or her learning. One of my favorite quotes comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance: “nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” In order to help students discover and engage their own personal interests and talents, I encourage students to be innovative thinkers, as well as practice and demonstrate good productivity and responsibility in embracing one’s own individuality. The role of the teacher in education in any field is to prepare students for the real world, as well as guide and mentor them through their academic and personal adversities by pursuing and achieving one goal at a time. Parents and guardians entrust their children to the school to educate, nurture, and cultivate these learning individuals. A great teacher is empathetic, caring, and energetic, yet also sturdy in his or her morals as one who puts emphasis on academic and social integrity and as one who remains consistent with his or her rules and expectations that he or she sets for students. I seek to function as a positive and motivating force for students, which brings me to a quote by Henry Ward Beecher: “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” I push my students to achieve both satisfying and realistic goals that encourage and monitor student progress over the course of the entire school year but with various checkpoints in between that allow students to reflect on their progress after certain time intervals throughout their high school journey. As a teacher, I make sure to utilize my teaching strategies and tools to bring the world – its values, constructs, history, and current events – into the classroom and expose certain issues to students in order to inform and spark student interest about the world they live in. I want my students to function as good citizens of the United States of America and to grow up and lead their lives with morality and the integrities of truth, justice, and overall goodness as human beings. This kind of influence, sense of urgency, awareness of the world outside the classroom, and commitment starts and is cultivated first within a classroom. These are the skills and attributes that I feel students need in order to succeed in their everyday lives. That being said, my educational philosophy encompasses features of both essentialism and progressivism within my classroom. I do believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic and disciplined way, which includes the literary and philosophical classic texts of the Western canon of literature, the teaching and active discussion of universal morals and standard values, and the demonstration and practice of logical thinking and practicality. I fully believe that the success of students and the future outcomes of their aspirations to achieve what they want out of their lives is heavily rooted in realistic and essential knowledge, communication skills, and are best fostered and practiced in an English Language Arts classroom that stresses personal accountability and academic rigor. I very much accept the idea that this core curriculum may change over time because as the world continues to change as it always has in the past, we the people must change with it in appropriate ways that still, however, uphold standard intellectual morals and integrity. I prepare my students to become valuable members of society by teaching the different genres of literature and how to write and report with an essential focus on facts, as in the objective reality out there, and how to reflect on certain aspects of reality and life in general in training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically. Along with these essential skills and standards that I uphold and do my best to cultivate and instill within my students, I also, at the same, advocate my students to be creative and to think productively with the end in mind. In this way, while I am at heart an educational essentialist, I am also an educational progressivist. While the material and content knowledge of my English Language Arts class is important, I also advocate active discovery and experimentation of ideas for the improvement and growth of students as developing individuals with a diversity of backgrounds, life experiences, personal interests, and hobbies. Learning is not just rooted in personal responsibility, morals, high expectations, discipline, respect, and awareness of the world we live in, but also in the questions of learners that arise through actually experiencing the world. I want my students to learn how to not only function as active and productive members of society but also as problem solvers and thinkers who make meaning by drawing from his or her individual experiences and interactions with others and analyzing them through the lens of the physical and cultural contexts of society. I cannot stress this enough for I support and emphasize each student as his or her own individual, and I understand that everyone’s experiences vary.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
In a typical first session, I will greet the student and do my best to get to know his/her interests. I'd ask the student how his/her day is going and then get right to the assignment or task he/she would like assistance on. I'd have the student explain the task in his/her own words so I can understand whether or not the student has a good grasp on the assignment. Then, I'd have the student let me know any specific concerns, challenges, or trouble he/she is experiencing with the assignment. After pinpointing what the student is struggling with, I would then elaborate our target goals we'd like to achieve during our session together. Then, I'll model effective tutoring and coach the student towards achieving the goals we set together. At the end of the session, I'd conduct a review of what we did and then have the student recite to me the strategies we've implemented so that in the future, he/she can apply them independently and grow in his/her learning.