Sarah

Rate $42
Response 1h

$42/h

I graduated from Winthrop University, I have a Master's Degree in English, and I have sufficient classroom experience in teaching of over five years.

English
Reading
Literacy
Modernist literature
Classic Literature

Lesson location

- online

About Sarah

I am a nerd for old, new, and literature alike. I teach my students how to relate old media to new media, and I use the Iowa Workshop model to teach creative and technical writing alike. I am dedicated to helping students learn, and I hope to see people eager to do so!

About the lesson

Teaching is a non-stop experience and opportunity for the student and the mentor. My experience started in high school, when my English IV teacher spoke of how his father pushed him to be a doctor, rather he knew he wanted to teach, to help people grow into fully realized versions of themselves no matter how difficult or dismaying their circumstances. He pulled me through a lot of tough times, and he never judged me, even when my situation or viewpoint was less than favorable. I began mentoring other students, challenging them to do better. According to a few friends back then, I helped a lot when they were going through pregnancy, discrimination, and general hopelessness concerning studies. I carry these interpersonal skills, even now, impressed upon me by one of the best teachers I ever knew. These skills sharpened as I began to observe the techniques and craft of my college professors. Despite, my absolute adoration for my days of English IV, my real skills came from observing the varied teaching styles at Winthrop University, specifically the Winthrop English Department. The English Department at Winthrop took interpersonal skills to a new level: the Halloween celebrations, the activities for Sigma Tau Delta, the willingness to take extra time in or out of office to assist those in need, and the personable yet unique attitude of everyone led me to my current career. I knew, after my time at Winthrop, where I belonged. To me, Winthrop University is a second home: a place of learning I will never forget. Now, I take the morals, values, and content taught to me and use them to create my own brand of lesson-planning. My English teachers taught me, if nothing else, to keep improving, to learn, to listen, and to keep going.
Being a teacher at Indian Land High School gave me experience with student-led learning. Of course, this template is used predominantly in college, but it can also start with the younger generation and be successful. Marna Mortimore, and English teacher from East Egg, is the leader of my PLC group. Mrs. Mortimore explained the disparity between New York English education and South Carolina English education. One of the most important factors is a lack of focus on true writing or writing with a purpose in mind. She and I developed several ways in which students could lead lessons without feeling overwhelmed by crushing amounts of busy work and time-fillers. Suffice it to say, if we assigned a project, essay, or quick write it was meant to be personal to the students. It also encouraged working in groups. Together, the students realized, they could come up with stronger opinions, observations, and analysis on their projects. Not only did we meet government standards, but we also surpassed them. Our success rates show it. Marna taught me how to make the classroom cozy, the grading system fair, and to speak my mind and impart my wisdom without bias. I taught her the Iowa workshop model (which we both use in our classes), more about the LGBTQIA+ community, and how to navigate a lot of our modern grading programs and reports. I am a huge proponent of grace before grades, when applicable. Not to mention that my first-semester students still come to my classroom, just like I did when I was in my old English IV class. I aim to be a helping-hand and encourage students to keep going.
In my lessons, I use what made me best in graduate school: modern media. In one lesson, I connected Across the Spiderverse to the American Revolutionary period. They were made to watch the film and analyze how modern speeches inciting individuality and freedom over a collective oppressor can make them into their own person. Whether it be Miles Morales, Frederick Douglass, or Patrick Henry, they saw how a singular person can turn the tide of any movement. When they gave their own speeches, they were immersed in ideas they were passionate about, things they wanted to change, or had experiences they wanted to share and impart their lessons with other students. In another lesson, I had my students analyze and then debate amongst themselves Ralph Waldo Emerson’s beliefs on charity and then contrast it with a YouTube content-creator, Mr. Beast video entitled “I Bought Everything in Five Stores.” This not only got students invested due to the modern material, but they started quoting the speeches of revolutionaries verbatim, they could tell me the deeper meaning behind what Emerson was trying to say about exploitation, and they saw themselves as possible apprentices for diversity, equality, inclusion, and the need to keep going.
Conclusively, I would like to impress the most valuable lesson I have learned, even if a bit cliché: my students teach me every day. Each day is its own lesson. One fact remains the same: all students learn differently, and it is my job to ensure they can understand me based on an individual-to-individual scale. Be it that they want to sit with me during lunch to ask how to do the tension equation on a fellow classmate’s workshop piece or they come to me after school to talk and express ideas or thoughts they have on content we are studying, I make the time, effort, and most importantly, care for the thoughts they convey to me. This all goes back to the beginning of sixteen-year-old-me sitting with a couple of students talking to our Spider-Man obsessed English IV teacher on how to improve grammar mechanics in papers, how we could provide a more emotional analysis on Alan Moore’s Watchmen, or to express grief over some family problem we struggled to get past. I recognize every student has their own internal path that stretches out in front of them. I cannot tell them where to go, but I can try and nudge them in the right direction. If they need me for anything, I consider myself reliable and attentive. No one has told me otherwise. It always goes back to those days of lending an extra pair of eyes to a teenage mom, showing my best friend how to complete a sentence fragment, and sharing my ideas with the teachers I trusted most. Likewise, I am not a judge, I am not dismissive, and I am not someone who produces lousy work. I am an accommodating guide, I am a creative individual who implements innovation in all I do, and I insist, no matter what, my students keep going.

I graduated from Winthrop University, I have a Master's Degree in English, and I have sufficient classroom experience in teaching of over five years.

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About Sarah

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online

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I graduated from Winthrop University, I have a Master's Degree in English, and I have sufficient classroom experience in teaching of over five years.

Lesson location

About Sarah

About the lesson

Rates

Rate

Pack rates

online

Other tutors in English

Ryan

Sherry

Poe

Andrea

Michelle

Connor

Alaa

Ritika

Alex Hartman

Mai

Dr Fara, PhD (Top Tutor)

Yudith

Lorraine

Imran

Leena

Ali

Delia (Del)

Zeynep

Naazima

Anabel

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