I love working with children. This passion began when my siblings and I would "play school" with our green Disney chalkboard. We would take turns being the "teacher", and I delighted in the feel of chalk in my hands.

Upon graduating from New Mexico State University with a degree in elementary education, I became a fifth grade teacher with Las Cruces Public Schools. Again, I enjoyed the powdery feel of chalk in my hands, but this time, I wasn't playing. I took my responsibilities very seriously and with great joy.

As life took me to other school districts and different grade levels, time replaced chalk with dry erase markers and district-developed instructional goals with common core standards. However, my love of working with elementary-age children has never been superseded.

In reflecting on those years, I bring these research-based practices to the tutoring platform:

--Parents are a child's first and most important teacher; communication with parents is vital to a successful elementary tutoring plan,
--Working towards mastery in mathematics leads towards a student's confidence and independence in mathematics,
--Incorporating a child's interests into the curriculum is more likely to help students develop proficiency than one that does not,
--Instruction in handwriting should remain in the curriculum due to its association with fine/gross motor development, gains in reading and writing, and memory benefits,
--Developmental ages and stages must be taken into account when planning and carrying out a tutoring session. For example, an off-task student may need a "wiggle break" or review of how to carry out an assignment before they can return to task,
--Shaming is never an acceptable form of discipline. Teacher preparedness and pacing of instructional delivery have a huge impact on student behavior,
--Horse, then cart: Establishing a student's base of information must precede hands-on mathematics and science for maximum retention of concepts, and
--Training in HOW to test is likely to result in a reduction of test anxiety and higher test scores.