Greetings! I have 17 years of experience teaching math, business and special needs in the public brick and mortar setting. My Indiana license allows me to teach special education K-12, math 7-12 and geography at the middle school level. My special needs background gives me understanding of IEP's and accommodating struggling learners with various ways of differentiating material.

My teaching experience also includes 8 years of working with alternative youth. Through these years I saw kids with no desire to be in school thrive and want to learn. That experience made me realize that all students can learn despite ability or circumstances. I believe that my outgoing and positive personality along with lots of patience encourages students to give their best. I find the "carrots" in tutoring - the source of a student's motivation and using them to encourage them to do their best.

How I help: More often than not, students come to me for tutoring when they are behind in work. I begin working with students by finding out what work they need to get completed, and help them get caught up (organizing tasks, teaching on the spot for work completion). This helps to mitigate the feeling of being overwhelmed. When students are caught up, then I look for the gaps in their understanding. This may come from observations in helping them get their work caught up, through dialogue or from mini assessments and then we work towards closing those gaps so that they have those "tools" in their toolbox for when they are needed. As needed, I also teach strategies to help students stay organized with assignments, outline a paper they need to write, brainstorm, take notes, and give examples for students to refer to when working on their work. My goal in tutoring is to start where the student is at, and through observation and conversation, get them on a path where they feel successful and can continue the progress on their own.