With a BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master of Arts in Education from the College of William and Mary, I worked for 24 years as a high school social studies teacher in Howard County, Maryland. In the classroom, I did my best to engage each student, within groups as large as 34, using a variety of approaches. As a tutor, now I have the joy of focusing on the specific needs of individual teenagers. My teaching philosophy was to push my students to work just past their comfort zone, providing clarity, encouragement and support as they impressed themselves with what they did achieve.
I prepared several hundred students for the AP US History exam and over 1,000 students for the AP Government and Politics Exam. In AP Gov, my students maintained scores well above the national average -- 80% earning 3 & above and 45% earning 4 & above (on the scale of 1 - 5). More broadly, I created novel, visually oriented graphics, found ways to simplify complicated concepts, and connected new topics to prior learning and to real-world examples.
For example, it was well-worth the extra effort to find a 2-minute video summary of budget negotiations in Congress from the PBS News Hour program, for example. Seeing and hearing the individual Republicans and Democrats, always given equal time on that program, trying to make Congress work for the people, shined a bright light on the legal and constitutional issues that my students struggled to understand.
My attempts to clarify terms and concepts by linking them to other similar and contrasting ideas was designed to introduce and normalize critical thinking skills. Students engaged in problem solving as they learned about those tense budget negotiations or the trade-offs in the implementation of public policy and Supreme Court decisions. Having provided this framework, I then tried to show students how to apply these problem-solving and critical thinking skills to their own writing in the course. On a regular basis, I emphasized and clarified standards and models for argument writing and historical document-based writing, as well as for the various writing prompts on the AP Government & Politics Exam.
Having retired from classroom teaching, I am eagerly seeking opportunities to share my knowledge, insight, and perspective to instill confidence in teenagers seeking to improve their academic credentials. Working towards graduation and college admission is intimidating. I spent my career trying to support, uplift, and challenge my students along this path. In addition, I assisted my own three children during these often-unsettling transitions from high school classes to AP Exams to college applications to college classes and graduation (for 2 of the 3; my youngest is a college Junior).
As a tutor, I can find out exactly what individual students prefer and how they learn best. Rather than trying to decide what style and mode of communication is best for the maximum number of students in a classroom of 30, I can be more flexible and precise, adjusting my communication to my individual student.
