Hi There!

I have had three very impactful experiences that guide my practice as a learning specialist.

 

My own dyslexia and ADHD showed up as early as kindergarten when I struggled to sit down, focus, and connect the alphabet song with the visual letters in it. I then spent many years feeling incapable of keeping up with my friends in class until sixth grade, when I went to a specialized school for students with dyslexia. Landmark school was created by some of the early founders of the field of educational therapy, and the support I received there was a game-changer for me. The message of Landmark was that people with learning disabilities often have above-average intelligence and are capable of learning anything with the right tools and support. Along with Landmark, I was also blessed to have parents that nurtured my love of ski racing and encouraged me to go to a ski academy, where I first learned how to set high goals and excel.  

 

After graduating from college with honors, I decided to marry my passion for the outdoors with my excitement to give back and become an educator myself. I absolutely loved inspiring others in the outdoors, and I especially enjoyed watching students who struggled in the classroom feel like excellent and capable learners outside. When I finally earned my master's in education and started working in the classroom, I was eager to bring the explorative and collaborative style of teaching I learned from the outdoor classroom inside. Seeing parts of myself in many of my students, I chose to learn as much as I could about how to best engage and support these students. This goal led me to learn a ton about social and emotional skills and how they interact with a student's perception of themselves as a learner. 

 

Wanting to give even more individualized support to many of my students I decided to earn my second Master's in Educational Therapy. Educational therapy is a field that aims to understand the whole child including their passions, their self-perception, feelings around learning such as worry or frustration, their own goals, how they behave at school and at home, and more. Instead of simply supporting students with their current homework like most tutors do, as a former teacher and as a student of ed therapy, I will first seek to get a better picture of your child by analyzing any past assessments and evaluations. I will also ask you and your child questions about them as learners to get a fuller picture. I will also implement my own assessments so that I can best discover if there are any missing foundational skills that help to explain your child’s challenges. Because of Covid’s effect on education, many students who do not have learning disabilities still have sizable holes in their foundational skills that can continue to present difficulties in later grades for them as the academic content builds on itself and becomes more challenging. I vividly remember how, as a young student, I internalized my own learning challenges as examples of my not being very smart or capable. I am so honored to now be able to bring the best tools and strategies along with my own deep understanding to support your child in their journey as a lifelong learner.