Tutoring Form - Thank You - Well-Trained Mind Academy

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Amy Samuelson

Tutor

Writing, Anthropology

While I have always loved writing, my path to becoming a writing teacher has been a winding one. I earned dual bachelor’s degrees in engineering science and civil engineering from Manchester College and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively, before deciding to pursue my interest in cultural anthropology in graduate school. For my master’s degree at Colorado State University, I conducted household surveys on Pine Ridge Reservation and ranches in South Dakota. As part of my doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), I spent a year in Moldova on a Fulbright grant doing ethnographic fieldwork among environmentalists. I also did a year of research in Romania, and after graduating in 2013, I returned to Moldova and later moved to the country of Georgia.

In all of these places, I spent time writing, editing, and teaching. In addition to my own writing, I edited papers for colleagues as well as non-academic clients. At UWM, I worked as a teaching assistant, taught a course on ways of life in different cultures, and worked as a tutor at the university’s writing center. In Moldova and Georgia, I taught English as a foreign language. For some of my advanced students in Moldova, this included a writing course and workshops where we covered many of the basics found in WTMA’s courses. Working with writers from different cultures with their own writing traditions, both at UWM’s writing center and in Moldova, gave me a new perspective on Anglo-American academic writing.

On teaching: Now that I’ve relocated to Chicago with my husband and our young daughter, I’m excited to continue teaching writing in the U.S. As a teacher, I tailor my classes to the interests and temperaments of the students. I try to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable asking questions and participating in discussions. I strive to give clear explanations in lectures and useful feedback on written assignments to prepare students for success in their future academic endeavors.

Cindy Biondo

Tutor

Math

Hello! I am excited to have the opportunity to tutor mathematics for the Well-Trained Mind Academy! Excited for two reasons–one, I am grateful for WTMA and the impact classical education has had on my homeschooling journey, and two, I love math! For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed math both as a student and a teacher. My desire is to help kids see the big picture in mathematics and understand the connections between concepts. Mathematics is a language and it really does make sense!

Being a former homeschooling mom, I came across numerous math curriculums, utilizing many of them to some degree or another. However, I found Singapore Math and Math Mammoth to be my two favorite curriculums. These mastery based programs teach mathematics with a ‘concrete to visual to abstract’ approach. In line with this approach, I often had my children use manipulatives and draw pictures to “see” concepts before attempting to write them with mathematical symbols. Like the alphabet, numbers are symbols. When a child understands the how and why behind the what, math is less of a foreign language and confidence grows.

I earned my BS in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Ursinus College and received my teaching certificate for secondary mathematics from Towson University. I taught math for three years to Baltimore County Maryland middle and high school students. While educating my kids at home, I taught high school chemistry and physics, as well as elementary science at our local homeschooling co-op. I also worked for eight years as a statistician for T. Rowe Price Associates.

Other things to know about me: I am an avid tea drinker, I enjoy most anything outdoors, I love to play games (Scrabble being one of my favorite), and I swim twice a week. I live in Baltimore with my wonderful husband and two great kids, who are now finishing out their education at a local classical school. I’m excited to enter into this new season and look forward to helping your child achieve their full potential in math!

Colleen Sharpe

Tutor

Writing, Reading

Hello! I’m excited to be tutoring for the Academy! I have been tutoring since 2003. I started homeschooling my own children, and then I started teaching other students the foundational skills of reading and writing. I also spent a five-year period teaching creative movement and drama skills to children, teens, and adults in various multicultural and socio-economic settings part-time.

While homeschooling, I’ve used The Well-Trained Mind book as an overall guide. The idea that one could methodically learn a set of academic skills and then use those skills to learn content subjects just blew me away! I finally understood the concrete meaning of the phrase, “learning how to learn.” In my kids’ early schooling years, I used TWTM ideas with blind faith simply because the book made practical sense to me. In their recent high school years, I have seen the fruit of all that skills-teaching in their lives. All of this inspired me to expand my tutoring reach.

I love teaching fine details that I believe are going to help a student overcome any learning obstacles. I love figuring out what a student needs. And I love seeing the light go on when a student realizes that the skill being practiced can be mastered and used.

My general background includes communications and performing arts training courses with an international organization; a wide variety of volunteer work locally, in inner-cities, and internationally; seminars for self-education (including the Well-Trained Mind Tenth Anniversary conference in Virginia!); and various administrative jobs.

I grew up in the state of Maine, lived in a few other states, and came to Canada in 1993 for a three-month training course. Here I met my guitar-playing Canadian husband, and here I stayed. We live in the Maritime province of Nova Scotia, and we’ve happily raised two children in this beautiful place. When I’m not tutoring or acting as guidance counselor to my younger child, you’ll find me designing and making handcrafts, photographing and blogging about my creations, refreshing my high school math and reading skills (using The Well-Educated Mind book!), or spending time with friends. My goal is to pass on my enthusiasm for learning to my current and future students.
I look forward to helping your children in their educational journeys!

David Thompson

Tutor

Latin, History

Hello! I am a retired Latin professor that just can’t stop teaching! My experience includes teaching university, high school and middle school students. Until my retirement, I was a Senior Instructor of Latin at Portland State University. Before that I taught Basic Latin at the Centre for Medieval Studies (University of Toronto). In my retirement I have taught at Xavier College Preparatory High School and Arizona State University. Latin is a good foundation for learning languages and literature. It has the added benefit of exposing students to the roots of Western thinking and artistic expression. These broader cultural issues are incorporated into my classroom.

Latin can be fun! Latin Scrabble has become something of hit on the internet. There is everything from crossword puzzles to Elvis songs to sing in Latin. Even as you’re having fun, the most important thing, however, is to appreciate the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary that the language of the Caesars can teach students today. A majority of the words in English either come from or are related to Latin words.
When working with students, I use a steady approach, so that I am challenging without being too demanding. I am also ready to help students wanting to learn about ancient, medieval or modern European history, as I have years of experience teaching these subjects.

I look forward to helping your student learn and enjoy a great language!

Joann Hohenberger

Tutor

Math, Science

Hi! I’m delighted at the opportunity to use online technology to continue to do what I love – that is, tutor math and science students. After graduating with a B.S. from Drexel University, I became certified to teach Chemistry and Physical Science. Immediately following my college days I taught those subjects and other sciences in a Pennsylvania public school for three years. While raising our five daughters, my teaching was considerably more varied. I did some homeschooling, ran a one-room schoolhouse (really!), taught Bible & music (grades K-8th) in one private school and chemistry & pre-calculus in another, even taught SAT prep and did some college counseling. Then after retirement, I had the wonderful privilege to move to Mexico for several years, teaching all the high school math and science for homeschooled teenagers in a children’s shelter, plus Pre-Algebra and Algebra in a small private school.

Currently I’m living in a small town in central Virginia, where I tutor in person and online. I truly love teaching middle school and high school students, especially one-on-one; it’s rewarding to encourage and help them. I work to boost their confidence as their skills improve, since I genuinely believe that they can master the material. Our sessions are friendly, personal, and highly interactive. My great joy is to hear from former students who are achieving more in subsequent classes than they once had thought possible.

In my personal life I’m an enthusiastic grandmother to nine wonderful kids scattered from Illinois to Germany, a volunteer at a non-profit working with at-risk children, an involved church member, and a wife still in love with my husband of 48 years.

Nina Wasserman

Tutor

Writing

I am excited to come on board as a writing tutor at the Well-Trained Mind Academy! I have always been a lover of words since grade school. I devoured books and tried to write a few of my own as a child. I was fortunate to have many good writing teachers all the way up through college, and I cherish their collective wisdom. After graduating with a journalism focus from Barnard College, I began a career as a reporter, working for many different newspapers in the Northeast. When I settled down with my husband to start a family, I became an elementary school teacher for a few short years and then brought my love of education, reading, and writing into homeschooling my children.

OWEN SHARPE

Tutor

Math, Science

I discovered the beauty of mathematics when I was about ten years old and read about such wonderful topics as prime numbers, the golden ratio, and Archimedes’ approximation to pi. During my high school years, I taught myself to program in C# and a few other languages. This was valuable experience for my three years of summer research on Hopf algebras during my bachelor’s degree. I earned my B.Sc. in mathematics from Saint Mary’s University of Halifax in 2020 and will continue in the master’s program at the University of Waterloo in 2021.

I tutored math and physics at a first-year help center at Saint Mary’s for three semesters, and also tutored a few people at the high school and undergraduate level privately. My favourite part of my undergraduate degree was participating in the Science Atlantic and Putnam math competitions (my team scored very high in the standings in the former). I also got to attend a few conferences as an undergraduate and took two graduate-level courses in the summer of 2019 as part of a program organized by the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences.

KAITLIN KELLEY

Tutor

Math, Language Arts

Greetings from northeastern Wisconsin! I am so thrilled to be joining the Well-Trained Mind Academy staff this year. Growing up, my mother homeschooled my siblings and I using The Well-Trained Mind book as a guide, so I have been immersed in its wisdom from a very early age. I earned my B.A. from Christendom College, with a well-rounded Liberal Arts curriculum and a focus on theology and mathematics. While there, I discovered my passion for one-on-one tutoring as I worked in the peer-tutor Writing Center. Upon graduating I taught for several years at a budding classical school, primarily at the preschool/kindergarten level but also helping at the other grade levels in various capacities such as curriculum building and substitute teaching.

Eventually I was able to return to the work that really brings me joy with a private tutoring position. I am honored to now be able to expand my work scope by sharing my skills with the students of the Well-Trained Mind Academy.

My particular gift is tutoring in the areas of language arts and mathematics. The fusion of freedom and regulation within the laws of grammar and of numbers fascinates me. I love being able to share this joy with my students and experience those moments of illumination together. I’m looking forward to helping you discover your inner genius!