Rebecca

Certified Tutor

After taking three classes with a professor at Purdue University, I was inspired to become a teacher. His dedication, enthusiasm, and ability to bring history to life profoundly impacted me. I graduated from Purdue with a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education and an endorsement in history.

Following graduation, I worked as a classroom teacher for 11 years, spent another seven years as a substitute teacher, and served as an Adjunct Instructor at a small college in Ohio.

For over three years, I've worked with Varsity Tutors, where I have supported many students with specific needs.
I've worked with five students for over a year and another five for almost two years. In addition, I'm also been working with a student for nearly three years.

As a tutor, I aim to help children and their families explore new strategies, ideas, and approaches to reading, language arts, and spelling. My tutoring style is instructional, hands-on, and completely interactive. I take a unique and creative approach to working with children, assessing their learning styles and getting to know their interests, such as sports, animals, and hobbies, which helps me create engaging and enjoyable lessons.

My teaching methods have been recognized for their effectiveness. For example, before a student reads a text, I often create an individualized vocabulary word search for us to work on together. This is a fun way for the student to become familiar with the new words when they see them within the text.

Some activities I've developed have been featured on a local news station and published in a local newspaper. I have a proven track record of success, including my time at an inner-city school in Dayton, Ohio, where the school's standardized test scores rose by 48% over three years. A few years later, the school ranked 1st out of 33 schools in the district. This success was attributed to a comprehensive restructuring of the school curriculum and a new teaching model focused on literature and character education. This model was designed collaboratively by the principal and staff and integrated into all areas of instruction. The dramatic turnaround was so impactful that a documentary film highlighting the educational model's positive effects on students' lives was featured on CNN.

I love what I do and am always ready to share it with others. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to schedule a session. I'm here to help in any way I can!