Broadview & Lake City Tutors

Toni

Although I recently retired from teaching English full-time at the middle and high school levels, my love for teaching remains. At the high school level, I taught courses ranging from READ 180, a course for students struggling with reading, to AP literature. I have also taught 3rd grade, worked as a college essay tutor, and privately tutored a wide range of skills within the realm of language arts. I continue to dabble in diagramming sentences (great for ensuring grammatical correctness), coach public speaking, and use alternate voices to bring life to oral reading.

Teaching in and of itself means little if it does not result in authentic and lasting learning. I believe that strong instruction begins with meeting a student where he or she is academically. From there, teaching is 1-on-1 coaching, with the learner’s responses determining what comes next. Nothing is set in stone, and both teaching and learning are fluid processes. My instruction is based on “moving” with the student, using strong, solid techniques that give students something to hold onto and to build on.

I continue to receive letters from former students, thanking me for foregoing generic rubrics and checklists, focusing first on models, writing blueprints, and practical skills/techniques that work- period. Most of all, however, those students are thanking me for being part of a very heartfelt connection. Their notes and letters stay with me, reminding me of why I teach.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Master’s degree from Washington State University in English education. Years later, I passed my National Board certification in young adult literature. Because my teaching certificate also allows me to teach history, I do so once a week at a private school in Seattle.

Spencer

I’ve spent much of the past five years working in community mental health as a behavioral therapist, providing 1:1 therapeutic care to children with various developmental and learning disabilities. I currently work in the Shoreline School District’s special education department. Writing and storytelling, though, have always been my greatest passions and greatest teachers for understanding the world and how we see ourselves within it.

I earned a B.A. in International Studies and Economics from the University of Washington, where I took undergraduate and masters-level coursework in conflict studies and mediation, co-founded an independent writers collective focusing on music and the arts, and completed an interdisciplinary honors thesis examining the handling of problematic drug users in conjunction with the Dutch National Police Corps and Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team.

I spent the first few years of my career in Washington, D.C. creating public-facing content as a research analyst and editor for various think tanks operating in the public policy space, covering topics ranging from nuclear nonproliferation to global trends in institutional investment. As time went on, however, I found my thoughts drifting back to the direct service work I’d done in the past, and I decided to pivot to a career in behavioral health, where I could provide help that mattered to those who needed it most.

My work with students of all ages, from pre-kindergarten all the way through high school, has shown me that teaching can happen no matter what environment you find yourself in: the home, the classroom, after-school programs, or out in the community. Helping my students better cope in their educational environment and achieve their fullest potential has taught me more than I could have ever imagined about patience, flexibility, resilience, and empathy––all qualities I believe are needed in our schools, now more than ever.