Pam: Hoboken tutor

Certified Tutor

First of all, I'm not nearly as scary as my picture looks! I am a retired high school (some middle school, some college) teacher. I've been involved in education since I was 5-- until this last year, and I miss it! I love teaching and am looking forward to the less structured, much more informal opportunities tutoring provides. I am absolutely passionate about teaching and believe in student-driven learning goals. Tell me what you need help with, and we'll make it happen.

I have taught and meet the requirements for "highly qualified" in English (from grade 8 through College Prep), in most social studies (Government, US and World History, Geography), and French. I have also taught Spanish and Technology (Office, Word, Excel).
I believe one of my strengths is taking complicated information and breaking it down into more manageable bites and helping you come up with ways to remember and use it. And I believe each subject requires different skills, strategies, and approaches.

For writing, it's all about finding your strengths and weaknesses, prioritizing grammar issues (so you aren't feeling overwhelmed), and developing an approach to writing that fits your style and needs. I've worked with students who have only the basic skills and need a very systematic approach to writing (I can make this pretty painless, really!) to advanced, college prep students who just need a little polishing--and the occasional grammar lesson ;). I am pretty good at grammar (yes, I'm a nerd and LOVED the college grammar class I took), but I believe grammar should be taught on a need-to-know basis. If your writing REALLY needs a semi-colon, let's go there; if you have trouble with run-on sentences or comma splices (pretty common), we'll focus on that. The first thing I do when I read a student's essay is to proofread for grammar, make a mental (or actual) note of the kinds of errors, and then prioritize our focus. One run-on sentence is an anomaly; several run-ons need attention. After that, I reread to look for ideas, organization, clarity, word choice, and voice. And we polish things up from there.

In foreign language (I've taught both French and Spanish), my strengths are helping you understand grammar concepts that are tripping you up and helping you memorize vocabulary and grammar rules. I have a lot of tricks and strategies that can make the whole thing pretty painless--rhymes, mnemonics, acronyms, etc. (although, you still gotta study, LOL!).

As I said, I've worked with a broad range of students, from those who need basic remediation to those with advanced skills. I'm flexible, patient, and organized--and very much looking forward to working with you!