Karen

Certified Tutor

My life's work has been focused on helping young people in a variety of ways: parenting, volunteering, coaching, teaching, and tutoring to name a few. I believe that knowledge is power and grit is necessary to succeed.
Reading and writing are necessary life skills that provide the foundation for learning everything; sometimes a person has to work a little bit more to learn these skills or to boost his/her confidence. Tutoring provides the opportunity to inspire and encourage the love of reading/writing and to demonstrate how these skills open doors to opportunities. Sometimes a simple review of a grammar skill is all it takes or maybe a new reading strategy helps move information from short term to long term memory. I firmly believe that good readers become great writers.
It's important to engage students by making personal connections, pique their curiosity, and challenge them to be "doers and problem solvers". The best part of tutoring is that I can provide a caring, supportive environment in which students can take risks to achieve success. It's important that students believe in their ability to improve over time. My experience in education has been based on having a growth mindset: we are all green and growing!

An easy way to "see" more about some of my philosophy regarding teaching and tutoring, here is a link to a video that was made about me when I was awarded a 2018 Teacher of the Year by Cypress Fairbanks ISD https://youtu.be/RdWvOxsfsbo.
With eighteen years in education as a certified teacher of reading and writing, my excellent literacy skills coupled with as many years of experience tutoring students in grades 6 8 demonstrate my commitment to middle schoolers, but I also recently completed my TESOL/TESL/TEFEL certification in order to help all ages of people who are hoping to improve their English skills.
Currently, my favorite subject to tutor would be writing because I love grammar! Grammar reminds me of math in the way that (sometimes) you can learn it by using a formula OR memorizing a rule which can be readily applied.
I graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and obtained my Texas Teaching Certification to teach grades 4 8. As mentioned above, I completed my TESOL/TESL/TEFEL certification in September of 2020. I enjoy Aggie football games, reading, puzzles of all kinds, playing and watching tennis, walking, and hiking. But, most of all, I love traveling and have been fortunate to experience many different cultures!