PrepNow Tutor - Melissa M.
Melissa is a tutor and theatre artist with a passion for cultural research and healthy cultures. She earned her BA from Middlebury College, where she was a theatre major, global health minor, and on the pre-med track. For the past three years, she has worked as a performer and development associate for an ensemble theatre company, while also offering freelance tutoring. She has tutored SAT test prep, high school mathematics, and high school English for several years.
Melissa started tutoring in high school when her guidance counselor asked if she could help her cousin with her math homework. From there, Melissa quickly discovered the joy and craft of helping students digest and comprehend new and challenging material. She especially loves discovering the teaching method that will best benefit a student's particular learning style. "My tutoring style is comprehensive and flexible to the needs of the student," Melissa says. "I can adjust to help both students who are struggling to identify the core of the problem, and students who are plagued by excessive self-doubt of their answers." She acknowledges that no size fits all, and no two students' brains work alike.
To that end, Melissa has recently begun developing her experience tutoring students with ADHD/Dyslexia. "I've just started working with a student in my area, who has both ADHD and Dyslexia, on her tenth-grade geometry. It has been an awesome experience to find the methods that hone her attention and tools that can help her keep track of the ever-shifting jumble of letters and numbers she has to sort through during the problems."
Melissa's philosophy on education is that learning is a soulful work and that the ability to engage in it should be considered a gift. "The joy and challenge of tutoring is to be fully aware of the hurdle each student is training to jump," she says.
In high school, Melissa participated in varsity field hockey, varsity track and field, dance, martial arts, theatre, and comedy. She lives on a farm in beautiful Western Massachusetts with her handsome Border Collie/Aussie mix, Clyde, who loves to go kayaking with her and can run around a cow pasture for hours. Melissa enjoys eating and foraging for local delicacies, and loves to watch any show about travel and culture.
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