Teresa

Certified Tutor

I am a graduate of The University of Massachusetts at Boston. In this institution, I received my Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts, focusing on Elementary Education and a minor in psychology, my Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics, and a Doctorate in Leadership in Urban School Administration with a Special Education policy. Since graduation, I have
taught newcomer students and students with special education needs at the school level. Additionally, I have tutored students after school in communities with low socioeconomic status and professionals who recently moved to the United States and need to learn and improve their English to work.
I have also traveled extensively, tutoring children of immigrants in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, sponsored by the Baptist Convention.
I am most passionate about English, teaching reading strategies to those who do not know how to read or struggle with reading (special education students, students with interrupted education, and dyslexia, to mention a few).
In my experience, instilling an early love of reading at the elementary school level gives a child a head start on expanding their vocabulary and building independence and self-confidence. In addition, it helps children learn to make sense of the world around them and people, building social-emotional skills and, of course, imagination. My passion is teaching and training. My first passion lies in teaching students who have not learned to read in their native language; however, they may struggle to put together the sound/symbol correspondence concept, new words, and new sounds since it is difficult for students to distinguish phonetic components in new vocabulary words. My second passion is teaching special education students to develop a reading ability to increase college and career readiness. My third passion is to train teachers and support school leaders, which I have done for the last ten years at the school and state levels.
I have been a firm advocate of education for the last 27 years, believing it to be essential for improved well-being, and I always impart this passion to my students. In addition, I like to train parents in my free time by teaching them different strategies to help students in their education. Furthermore, I love to travel with my family because I love to spend time with them while visiting new places.