I have substitute taught all ages (K-12) in nearly every subject, and taught full time in a small private school, it is my time tutoring one-on-one that is my favorite! I earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in French from the University of Oklahoma in 2001. I then went back to school to take teacher education classes that allow me to have a much more thorough understanding of how we learn - something that makes me a better teacher. Later, I went back to school again, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Molecular Biology from Rogers State University. I then went on to become an online tutor for Chinese children learning English. The students I've taught over the past three years have helped me realize just how much I love education. Because of my varied background, I am able to tutor a wide variety of subjects. One of my favorite topics is biology, but in all honesty, I love science in general. In fact, one of my favorite things to do with my students is to teach them science in English. This means they're not just learning English, but they're science at the same time and seeing just how useful and relevant the language is. My varied education is a reflection of my own love of learning and my willingness to adapt and grow. I've studied multiple languages, both on my own and in the classroom. Because I've already made mistakes when I've studied other languages (including the time I accidentally propositioned a stranger, oops!), I like to model mistakes to my students. This lets them see that mistakes are where we learn the most. It also shows that I'm safe - I won't mock my students for what they don't know! When they don't understand, I'll try to back up, adapt my approach, and build them up to the problematic information. Being willing and able to change approaches in the middle of a lesson is the only way we can reach the lightbulb moment I love so much! My husband and I love to spend time with our dog, Yogi, and our cat, Domino. We love to travel and visit museums and historical sights. We love learning more about everything, especially learning from perspectives and experiences not our own. While we have no children of our own, I come from a very large family, which means we have lots of nieces and nephews! The different backgrounds and experiences of my family also help me understand just how different our experiences shape our learning and understanding. It's an adventure to go on a vacation with 8 adults and 8 children under 10 (and that's just part of my family!) and adapting to what each child needs, wants, and can handle. I'd love to meet you and I hope we can become a great team! Thanks for giving me a chance to help you fall in love with learning!

To be fair, I think my list of interests and hobbies might be shorter if I left off the things I don't like! I grew up with sci-fi, especially Star Trek and Star Wars. As an adult, I fell in love with Doctor Who (though I haven't seen much of the classic). I also devoured books as a child, including most of Stephen King's works and much of Agatha Christie's mysteries. Nor has that love of reading waned - I've read many YA novels, including the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games, everything written by John Green, and a wide variety of non-fiction. My husband and I love to travel (especially with our dog) and visit a wide variety of museums when we do (though science museums are a particular favorite!). We also have a cat, and sitting and snuggling with her while I watch my favorite sci-fi series of the week is amazing. When I'm not trying a new craft (I arranged the flowers in my profile picture), I'm learning a new language (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Swedish, some ancient Greek... and I'm not fluent in most of them, but I love learning all of them!). While I often focus on sci-fi, I love a good action movie and the occasional romance. I'm sure we can find something in common!