Laura S.
Private tutor in Richmond, VA
Education
English major, Virginia Commonwealth University 2015. Music minor, Virginia Commonwealth University 2015. 4.0 GPA
Experience
Tutoring 2nd grade reading at Clark Elementary, Charlottesville, VA. Music teacher for eight years. I learned about the value of the tutoring when I sought out tutors myself my first year at VCU. I was in French 101 and had never taken a French class before. Since then, I have used tutors every semester, at least a few times. I believe strongly in the tutoring system, having studied classical music my whole life and seen what one can accomplish through one-on-one work with a proficient. Therefore, I wish to be able to help others in the same way, by being a tutor. I know that through my experience as a student seeing tutoring help and my experience as a teacher of music at the Academy of Music Richmond and as a teaching assistant in Meriah Crawford’s UNIV-200 class, I can give students useful tools to use in their studies to enrich their learning processes and to guide them to a better understanding of their subject matter. As a teacher in music, primarily of young children, I have a great deal of patience in teaching. I understand that sometimes a topic must be explained many times and many different ways before someone can make a true mental connection with it. I strive to find new and creative ways to explain a subject so that students experience what they are learning in a holistic way. In teaching music, I ask my students to not just play the notes, but to be able to sing the notes, clap the rhythms, find large and small phrases and motifs, shape lines, add stories to the melodies, and analyze harmonic structure, all so that they can better understand and thus better play the piece. In being a TA for UNIV-200, I found ways to incorporate this approach with academia. Tutoring is more than just helping students get through an assignment. Tutoring should refine students’ study processes and give them a big-picture context for how to study and learn long-term. Students should leave a tutoring session with a better idea of how an assignment fits within the broader scope of the class and how that class will fit into their careers and lives. Learning techniques are almost always universal and applicable to any field—students should be given such learning and studying techniques that they can take with them and apply to other areas of their lives. As a teacher in music, primarily of young children, I have a great deal of patience in teaching. I understand that sometimes a topic must be explained many times and many different ways before someone can make a true mental connection with it. I strive to find new and creative ways to explain a subject so that students experience what they are learning in a holistic way. In teaching music, I ask my students to not just play the notes, but to be able to sing the notes, clap the rhythms, find large and small phrases and motifs, shape lines, add stories to the melodies, and analyze harmonic structure, all so that they can better understand and thus better play the piece. In being a TA for UNIV-200, I found ways to incorporate this approach with academia. Tutoring is more than just helping students get through an assignment. Tutoring should refine students’ study processes and give them a big-picture context for how to study and learn long-term. Students should leave a tutoring session with a better idea of how an assignment fits within the broader scope of the class and how that class will fit into their careers and lives. Learning techniques are almost always universal and applicable to any field—students should be given such learning and studying techniques that they can take with them and apply to other areas of their lives. As a teacher in music, primarily of young children, I have a great deal of patience in teaching. I understand that sometimes a topic must be explained many times and many different ways before someone can make a true mental connection with it. I strive to find new and creative ways to explain a subject so that students experience what they are learning in a holistic way. In teaching music, I ask my students to not just play the notes, but to be able to sing the notes, clap the rhythms, find large and small phrases and motifs, shape lines, add stories to the melodies, and analyze harmonic structure, all so that they can better understand and thus better play the piece. In being a TA for UNIV-200, I found ways to incorporate this approach with academia. Tutoring is more than just helping students get through an assignment. Tutoring should refine students’ study processes and give them a big-picture context for how to study and learn long-term. Students should leave a tutoring session with a better idea of how an assignment fits within the broader scope of the class and how that class will fit into their careers and lives. Learning techniques are almost always universal and applicable to any field—students should be given such learning and studying techniques that they can take with them and apply to other areas of their lives. As a teacher in music, primarily of young children, I have a great deal of patience in teaching. I understand that sometimes a topic must be explained many times and many different ways before someone can make a true mental connection with it. I strive to find new and creative ways to explain a subject so that students experience what they are learning in a holistic way. In teaching music, I ask my students to not just play the notes, but to be able to sing the notes, clap the rhythms, find large and small phrases and motifs, shape lines, add stories to the melodies, and analyze harmonic structure, all so that they can better understand and thus better play the piece. In being a TA for UNIV-200, I found ways to incorporate this approach with academia. Tutoring is more than just helping students get through an assignment. Tutoring should refine students’ study processes and give them a big-picture context for how to study and learn long-term. Students should leave a tutoring session with a better idea of how an assignment fits within the broader scope of the class and how that class will fit into their careers and lives. Learning techniques are almost always universal and applicable to any field—students should be given such learning and studying techniques that they can take with them and apply to other areas of their lives. As a teacher in music, primarily of young children, I have a great deal of patience in teaching. I understand that sometimes a topic must be explained many times and many different ways before someone can make a true mental connection with it. I strive to find new and creative ways to explain a subject so that students experience what they are learning in a holistic way. In teaching music, I ask my students to not just play the notes, but to be able to sing the notes, clap the rhythms, find large and small phrases and motifs, shape lines, add stories to the melodies, and analyze harmonic structure, all so that they can better understand and thus better play the piece. In being a TA for UNIV-200, I found ways to incorporate this approach with academia. Tutoring is more than just helping students get through an assignment. Tutoring should refine students’ study processes and give them a big-picture context for how to study and learn long-term. Students should leave a tutoring session with a better idea of how an assignment fits within the broader scope of the class and how that class will fit into their careers and lives. Learning techniques are almost always universal and applicable to any field—students should be given such learning and studying techniques that they can take with them and apply to other areas of their lives.
Subject Expertise
5th Grade ReadingFiction WritingHomeschoolFrench 1English9th Grade Writing9th Grade Reading8th Grade Writing8th Grade Reading7th Grade Writing7th Grade Reading6th Grade Writing6th Grade Reading5th Grade Writing10th Grade Reading4th Grade Writing4th Grade Reading3rd Grade Writing3rd Grade Reading2nd Grade Writing2nd Grade Reading1st Grade Writing1st Grade Reading12th Grade Writing12th Grade Reading11th Grade Writing11th Grade Reading10th Grade Writing
Availability
Mon/Wed/Fri after 6PM, Tues/Thurs after 9PM, Saturday at any time
Can Meet
Up to 15 minutes away for no additional charge
Hobbies
Beyond academia, I love to play music. As a harpist, I enjoy working on solo repertoire as well as chamber work--getting to practice with other musicians is so rewarding. For several years now, I have experimented with photography, playing and learning on my DSLR.
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