Personal Description:

Social and outgoing, I enjoy working with people, and as I have a friendly and warm nature, I put people at ease. Because of a natural love for children, ! began working with them 46 years ago. Bringing up my own daughter was a rewarding experience, and being a grandmother of a 10 year old is a lot of fun!

Reading is my favourite pastime; and listening to music is a close second. Because I love to read, I am able to teach children how to read, and enjoy reading as well.

My favourite book is the Bible; I have read it from cover to cover a number of times. I enjoy a variety of genres, like drama, mystery, historic fiction, science fiction, biographies and history. I also love poetry.

I have strong faith, which sustains me daily.

Tutoring Experience:

It has been a pleasure for me to be a tutor of English for 17+ years, specializing in tutoring in the English Language Arts: Reading and Comprehension, Writing, Grammar and Punctuation, Cursive Writing, Oral Presentation and Poetry.

Before I began my tutoring service in Scarborough, Ontario called Five Basics 24 years ago, I worked as an Early Childhood Educator for 10 years. During my time living in British Columbia, I initiated, created and facilitated a reading program for children 3-8, which was conducted at a community center in New Westminster BC.

My teaching style is creative, rich in resources and strict. Helping children to focus, learn and build good skills for their future is my primary goal. I have had a lot of success as a tutor of English.

Tutoring Approach:

Although my curriculum can be guided by the children's interests, it is created to help them learn the essential elements of English, and to help them build strong skills in these. To this end my approach is on-task and focused on helping the children learn needed skills. Therefore I am a strict tutor; although I can have a lot of fun with the children.

I find that when children are able to approach the kind of books that they enjoy most, they learn faster; so I include these in my teaching resources. I like giving them a choice, as well. Having fun--like laughing-- in our classes is important to me, as it puts children at ease. However, the fun does not dominate the class. Learning does.

I like finding out what the children are learning about at school at certain times of the year, to provide teaching time and resources to compliment that. For some children, this helps build their confidence in their ability to handle the school work.

Working with children's homework during our tutoring hour, is also a service that I offer. However, this must be stipulated at the first meeting with the parent, as I do not mix doing homework with regular tutoring in one class, as this wastes precious time, I find.

My approach to tutoring has been very fruitful and successful over the years.