INSTRUCTOR PROFILE:
Hello! As education is so important to overall personal development, success, and happiness, my goal is to build life long learners. After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder with degrees in Environmental Science and Studio Art, I spent 5 years teaching in India, Thailand, and South Korea. With each experience I added new techniques and perspectives to my teaching tool kit. Finally, from 2021-2023 I taught 5th and 6th grade at a Montessori school in Phoenix, where I continued to implement the whole student approach, design paths forward to meet each individual student where they are, and create content that best meets each student’s strengths and weaknesses. I am now a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson studying business and information systems.
In addition to strengthening my students academically, I work to develop additional skills to best prepare them for a successful life. Some examples of this include guiding them to consider others’ perspectives, as well as teaching them how to think about failure and adapt a growth mindset. A particularly bright 6th grade student who I taught recently routinely produced high quality work, often receiving 100%s and A’s. However, when faced with a challenge she was unable to immediately comprehend, the tension rose drastically, and she was unable to move forward. With her, I added discussions that it is normal and sometimes even a gift to not know everything. We discussed the many theories and discoveries that have come into being after countless mistakes and oversights. It is in fact learning the process of how to learn that is the most important. I believe these lessons in emotional intelligence combined with the academic material will best setup students for success.
In order to develop students comprehensively, I tailor each student’s path based on where they currently are and where they want or need to go. While teaching adult architecture and optometry students in India, I noticed that even though they possessed robust vocabulary, their conversational communication would be quite ineffective for dealing with a client or administering patient care. As a result, I had the architecture students practice English by describing an image for a partner to physically draw and created role-plays and mock interviews for the medical students. In addition, as South Korean children begin to study English from a very young age to prepare for the country’s notoriously competitive college entrance exams, I focused on developing the students’ ability to articulate modern ideas and current events. To illustrate, my 4th grade students researched the global food crisis and proposed their own solutions based on multiple sources and watched Angela Duckworth’s TED Talk about success through grit and discussed how to apply this mindset to their own lives.
Lastly, I try to implement assignments and activities that will cultivate meeting standards yet still allow enough flexibility for students to choose their own way forward, thereby making it inherently interesting. A recent classroom assignment was to explain Japanese Shinto-ism to peer classmates. The topic itself met the state’s curriculum requirement of studying ancient civilizations and I gave the children the option to write a storyboard, create a play, give an oral presentation, make a mobile, or otherwise construct any creative manner to convey what they had learned. Across the board, the children are so much more excited, and resultantly, learn so much more from their assignments when they are able to choose based on their own volition.
As shown through my extensive time living abroad, I am incredibly curious about learning new ideas and perspectives, as well as meeting new people and exploring various places. I also have a strong love for the outdoors and am an avid hiker, runner, and snowboarder. When not out on an adventure, I can be found relaxing with a home-cooked meal and a good book.
For Peak Academics I offer services in general grade K-8 academic tutoring, with a concentration in language skills and math, as well as enhancing executive functioning skills.
TESTIMONIAL:
“My 13-year-old daughter had a late diagnosis of dyscalculia. Unfortunately, after years of struggling with math, she internalized that she was ‘bad at math.’ She had come to truly dread math and was really opposed to the idea of a math tutor at home (i.e., having to spend even more time on math). Math was such a struggle for her once she got to middle school that she started losing confidence in other subjects too. Shea start working with my daughter and immediately made her feel comfortable. She was happy to finally ‘get’ some of the foundations she had been missing. I cannot emphasize enough how important that has been. My daughter had been getting even further behind her peers because she never grasped some fundamental concepts from elementary school. After her time with Shea, she really started to gain confidence in math and school in general. When asked what she thought about Shea she said ‘Oh, she was awesome! She took her time and had patience while teaching me. She understood when I needed breaks. She was amazing!’“