Qualifications and Experience

Current homeschool management and tutoring

Over the past several years I have been assisting my sister as she homeschools her daughter. I have been able to give advice on curriculum choice and designing a yearly plan as well as individualizing the curriculum to suit her specific needs and learning style. I have also developed a plan for easy documentation that I have students complete daily.  In addition, I serve as a tutor in any area where my niece needs assistance.  We have daily conversations about each subject, making sure she is progressing in each course, discussing any issues, working on problems.

While in middle school, in addition to typical coursework, I have worked to help my student develop skills that will benefit her in both high school and college, such as organization skills, learning to know when to ask for help, finding and correcting mistakes in her own work, learning to take notes, and time management.  Since I have a math degree, I have been able to work with her individually to increase her math skills and am able to help her right away if she gets confused about any specific skill in math.  We have also worked on developing her skills using computers.  She is learning to use Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Meet, and a variety of other computer-based tools that will help her in college.  Currently, I have been able to get her online access to an Introduction to Programming course, where she is learning to code using Python.

Now that she is working on high school material, she is able to work quite independently and is an active learner.  I serve as her tutor for any subject where she gets stuck or confused. We are able to do this remotely. She calls me and we talk through any issues, often using Google Meet where I am able to work problems with her in real time; she also sometimes sends me pictures of her work when it is helpful.  I also help her to manage her time wisely, with reminders of what she should be working on at any given time.  I am also working with her to research where she might want to go to college and what classes she might want to take at the local community college as well as finding appropriate standardized testing and preparing her for taking the exams.

Homeschool management and tutoring with my children

When I had children, I made the decision to homeschool them.  It was the most amazing learning experience for me to watch the entire learning process starting with learning to count and progressing all the way to calculus, from learning to identify letters to reading novels and writing stories.   Both of my daughters had special situations which required continual adaptations over the years.  I have used a wide variety of materials, depending on the needs of my girls.  I enjoyed finding materials that fit each child's learning style and that also provided great content.  My older daughter, who is hearing-impaired and gifted, graduated from Greenville University with a triple degree in Chemistry, Biology, and Spanish.  She currently is working on her master’s degree in Biomedical Science and is working as a research assistant at Colorado State University.  My younger daughter, who at the age of 4 scored in the bottom one percent on a standardized test for preschoolers, just recently amazingly scored a 25 on the ACT and has been attending Lewis and Clark Community College. My girls have provided me with the experience of dealing with giftedness and with disabilities, further equipping me to meet the individual needs of students.

Math and Science tutoring

Over the past 20 years, I have been a math and science tutor for a variety of students.  Through the years I have tutored gradeschool math, middle school math, Pre Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Precalculus, Calculus, College Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.  Although my emphasis has been on math and science, I have also worked with students on a wide range of other subjects as well.  I have worked with students in an online setting as well as by phone and in person.  For several years, I had a couple of homeschooled students that I taught algebra and geometry to in individualized classes. Due to Covid-19, we had to adapt and work together exclusively by phone and online, and my students learned and thrived.  

Public high school math teacher

After graduating from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, I taught basic math, Algebra, and Geometry at Edwardsville High School for several years. I often worked with both special needs students and students for whom math did not come easily.  I have been told that I have a special gift for breaking down math concepts such that most students are able to grasp them. I enjoyed the challenge of helping students realize that they had the capability of doing well and understanding math concepts.