Melanie

Certified Tutor

Tutoring has been a passion of mine for many years. I began tutoring in high school, where I tutored my peers in algebra, geometry, and Spanish and met weekly with a third grade girl to help her with her math and reading homework. I loved everything about it; it was so rewarding to get to know each student and watch them grow more confident in their abilities to tackle their schoolwork and problem-solve on their own. It was fascinating to witness the ways different people think, and I loved the challenge of adjusting my tutoring style accordingly. This passion led me to pursue a career in making education more effective for all students.

To pursue this goal, I majored in cognitive science and minored in child development and computer science at Tufts University. My major taught me about how the brain works, and how it learns most effectively. With this background, I bring scientifically tested learning, memorization, and studying techniques to my tutoring sessions. I also minored in child development to better understand how brains learn differently across the lifespan; as a result, I understand ways to tailor my tutoring practice to the age of the student I'm working with. For example, the brain becomes much better at thinking abstractly over time as it becomes able to hold more pieces of information in mind at once. Thus, when tutoring younger children, it's helpful to rely much more on pictures and other visuals so the young learner doesn't have to maintain all the information from the discussion in their heads. My minor in computer science stemmed from my desire to pursue a career in educational technology. Technology can make learning more interactive and engaging for students no matter the subject, and I am interested in designing software that makes the learning process fun. Next September, I will begin working toward my Masters in Computer Science at Northeastern University to work toward this goal.

After my tutoring experiences in high school, I had numerous experiences tutoring learners of all ages, from preschoolers to adults. I spent my first year of college tutoring preschoolers in reading comprehension and alphabet knowledge; I served as the curriculum writer and head teacher of a computer programming camp for children aged 4-7, using the ScratchJr programming language; I was a writing tutor for three years as I worked with other Tufts students on their term papers; I taught introductory Spanish classes to adult men who were immigrating from Africa to Spain; And lastly, I was a T.A. for a statistics course in my senior year of school, where I helped college students learn statistical concepts as well as the programming language R. All of these experiences are detailed in-depth on my resume.

Of these experiences, I would have to say that my work tutoring writing and computer science have been my favorite. Both subjects offer a lot of room for students to put their own, personalized touch on their work, which lends itself well to my personal tutoring style. I ask students a lot of questions during tutoring sessions rather than simply telling them the answers, as this helps guide students to develop thought processes they can use to problem-solve on their own in the future. In addition, it helps the student talk through the material and reveals where they may have some misunderstandings. There are many right ways to write a program or a paper, so when I tutor subjects like writing and computer science, I get to make these questions more open-ended and help students let their creativity flow. This is harder in subjects like math, where there is only one right answer, but I still enjoy asking students questions as we puzzle through challenging questions and plan out approaches to word problems together. No matter the subject, I view myself as a partner to the student as they make their way toward mastery of the material.

I look forward to working with you!