A harvard grad that doesn't wear a suit
I recently had a good laugh with a student with whom I've been working for many years. She confessed that when her dad told her he was hiring a tutor that went to Harvard, she had expected me to show up in a suit. Ha!
Yes, I graduated from Harvard. And I studied Engineering and Biology, and have a natural affinity for math. My love of tutoring has lasted for more than 30 years and is still going strong.
But part of my skill in teaching is drawn from the other things I do: I’m a published author and poet (eight books so far). Before that, I was a singer-songwriter in the folk-rock band Crooked Roads (three CDs and lots of shows), and before that I was a comedy screenwriter (I optioned a screenplay to Warner Bros. and have been hired for various other screenwriting work). I also work out regularly, run, and play basketball and tennis.
To me, being a good teacher (and a good person) has to do with how much of the human experience you can relate to and draw from. I can talk about a wide variety of topics. And I can meet most any student at their level to help them to explore their potential.
See below for more about my experience in education.
Talking to Chinese parents in Shanghai about US college entrance exams (SAT & ACT).
Teaching experience:
• Convent of the Sacred Heart High School
• The Hebrew Academy
• East Bay School of the Arts
• Arrowsmith Academy
Subjects:
• High School Physics, Chemistry, Biology
• Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus
• Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh-Grade Math
• Writing (including college essays)
• ACT & SAT Test Preparation (also SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, and TACHS)
ACT & SAT Test Preparation Experience:
Hundreds of hours of private tutoring with a wide variety of students
Teaching Classes on ACT/SAT prep for Think Tank Learning, a Bay Area tutoring company
Designing an online course for both ACT and SAT prep with Testpreplabs (now Versal)
Developing what I believe is the most effective and individualized approach to preparing for the ACT and SAT, by drawing on many sources including my own 25 years of experience
More Info on ACT and SAT Test Prep
My experience also includes designing educational materials. I have worked:
with StudentAcademy.com, one of the early educational websites, to craft clear explanations and visual aids to help high school students learn biology
with Brooks/Cole Publishing, to create online tutorials in math and biology
with Decision Development Corporation, to design colorful, interactive history lesson plans for elementary age kids
with TestPrepLabs to develop a comprehensive online SAT and ACT test prep course
on my own, to create the first half of a visually-oriented chemistry textbook
"Flora had some good teaching in school, but having you each week to go over problems, look at points from a different perspective and generally talk to, proved to be very useful. I doubt if she would have got anywhere near these results without your help... Having extra teaching that was effective but that they also enjoyed was a bit of a miracle for us. Thank you for all your efforts. It has paid off."