Services
I offer academic support in every school subject while teaching my students important organization skills so that they will become independent life-long learners. This includes helping to prepare for upcoming exams and completing high quality homework on time.
Homework
Writing
Public Speaking
Math
Reading
Language Arts
Math
In math, understanding new concepts requires mastery of previously taught material. Therefore, falling behind can cause problems as the school year moves along. I will help your child learn and review the new concepts that arise each week and will help prepare for upcoming tests, quizzes, and projects.
Language Arts
I combine my formal professional training in Language Arts with my own personal passion for reading and writing to deliver high quality tutoring support for my elementary, middle school, and high school students.
Essay Writing
Essay writing is not an easy process. Not only do you have to figure out what ideas you wish to express, you have to find a way to clearly communicate those ideas to others, often confined to the class instructor’s requirements. Essay writing is an exercise that requires practice, patience, and discipline. No matter the grade level, skill level, or topic, I help my students brainstorm ideas and organize them into a well-structured compelling piece of writing. Moreover, I provide instruction on how to make sure an essay’s bibliography conforms to the style of American Psychological Association (APA) style. Get essay help with
- Personal Statements
- Book Reports
- Forensics
- Editing
- Thesis Statements
- Research Papers
- Writing for Standardized Tests
- Descriptive Essays
- College Admissions Essays
- Creative Writing
Grammar
Grammar is the study of sentence structure. An essay, for example, is made of sentences, and those sentences are made out of words, which must follow certain rules. When we follow them in our writing, our sentences make sense to our intended audience. As a blogger, ESL tutor, and elementary school teacher, I have developed effective ways of making grammar instruction intellectually stimulating and personally relevant. Learning grammar doesn’t have to be boring and tedious. It all depends on how it’s taught.
Reading and Comprehension
As an experienced and credentialed teacher I have formal training in assessing and teaching reading skills and comprehension.
Phonics
Teaching Phonics is an important fundamental building block to empower children with confidence as readers. I apply phonics by creating the environment that leads children to first discover the sounds made by individual letters or letter groups (for example, the letter “d” makes a d sound), and second to learn how to join separate sounds to make one word (for example, blending the sounds m, a, t makes MAT).
I weave phonics instruction into the context of projects and other explorations so that the learning is meaningful. For example, a student may be asked to create his or her own colorful flashcards by writing the letter and drawing a picture whose first letter makes that sound.
My phonics instruction is intended to help students gain phonemic awareness – an important skill that will allow them to rapidly map sounds to letters and blend sounds to read words. In this process, students develop the conceptual understanding that there are rules that can help them sound out words. This understanding allows my students to begin forming the foundation for reading decodable words – words that can be sounded out using the rules of phonics. Examples include: pot, flute, and snail. Over the course of several tutoring sessions, my students are introduced to – and apply – these rules of phonics, which will help them decode words.
Vocabulary:
In my experience as an educator – reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are closely related. In fact, the more words elementary students know, the better their reading comprehension will be in high school.
My vocabulary instruction consists of three elements:
1. Learning the definition and using it in different contexts. This method ensures that all meanings of a single word are clearly understood.
2. Seeing the word many times in different contexts. When students are exposed to a word over and over again, they naturally collect information about it until finally a solid idea of its meaning is formed.
3. Word Work (Active Processing) – Encouraging students to manipulate a word in different ways. For example, students make antonyms and synonyms; rewrite definitions; use multiple vocabulary words in one sentence; write stories poems, or essays in which the word is used; make nonsense sentences and silly questions using the word.
Public Speaking:
Teaching public speaking skills to young students is invaluable to their future. It helps students become effective communicators and develop self-confidence, which is an important quality of an effective leader.
English as Second Language (Subpage):
- Personalized instruction to improve writing, reading, and speaking
- Professional coaching to build skill and confidence in conversations
- Preparation for the TOEFL Exam
College Applications :
I will help you put together a college application that will promote you through your strongest qualities. This process will include:
- Helping you write the statement of purpose
- Obtaining and organizing transcripts
- Requesting letters of recommendation
- Preparing for the admissions interview
Mindfulness through Meditation:
I teach meditation and yoga to help my students realize and refine their abilities to pay attention, to stay calm when they are upset, and to improve self esteem.
With 15 years of meditation training and extensive research on the effects of mindfulness on children’s academic performance, I have designed a program that integrates Mindfulness with achievement of content-specific curriculum goals. I accomplish this by teaching students various meditation and yoga techniques.
Summer Tutoring:
Summer tutoring will help set your child up for future success by offering the following benefits:
Filling in the gaps. We will help you turn your areas of weakness from the previous year into future success. We will analyze the past content with your child, assess his/her most effective learning style, and create a plan to build the skills. Your child will feel empowered with confidence and motivation to succeed in the upcoming school year.
Getting a head start. Based on your goals as parents and your child’s school curriculum, we will introduce concepts and skills that he/she would encounter in the upcoming school year.
Emotional health through consistency: Young children thrive academically and emotionally when they know what to expect from their teachers and caregivers. Summer tutoring helps sustain this predictable routine, picking up right where school left off.
Research Skills:
Jane begins the project by developing a driving question that will guide her inquiry. Jane wants to know: what are the different types of fairies? She begins to conduct her research by searching the online catalogue of the public library for books about fairies. She writes the title of each book that interests her, and I check them out and bring them in the next day. As she explores the books, she finds and recordes many answers to her driving question.
Language Arts:
Reading: Jane will read nonfiction and fiction texts as she conducts her research to uncover her guiding question: what are the different types of fairies? As she explores these books, I assess Jane’s reading accuracy and comprehension in order to provide further reading instruction. She will also examine books such as “Nature Crafts for Kids” by Terry Krautwurst to work toward her goal of making the Fairy World.
Writing: She will develop writing skills by drafting, editing, and revising her non-fiction book about fairies. During this this process, Jane will receive instruction on handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Jane will also sharpen her typing skills when she conducts internet research for her final presentation.
Public Speaking: Jane will prepare a public speaking presentation about her project. She will learn how to effectively organize her thoughts before speaking while using oral language confidently and with increasing accuracy.
Social Studies:
Jane is inspired to seek out where in the world fairies originally came from. Her research lands her in Europe. She uses maps to identify various towns in Ireland, learning a great deal about its history and culture. She includes her findings in her final presentation.
Math:
To build her fairy world, Jane will be exploring various mathematical concepts, such as measuring, number sense, and calculating scale with fractions.
Technology:
By the time her project is complete, Jane has learned to responsibly conduct academic research on the internet to find information, capture the main ideas, and apply them toward her final presentation. She has also used a digital camera to document her own learning and Adobe Photoshop to edit her photographs.
Art:
Jane learns how to use materials from nature to build her Fairy World. She makes bamboo whistles, leaf prints, homemade paper, seed mosaics, and snow candles.
About Us
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Get In Touch
- allen@tutorsofmarin.com
- (415) 68 39 041
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Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be better than before.
– Loris Malaguzzi
Tutors of Marin 