Fun Facts

I really like skydiving! I love to travel and have been to 16 countries on 5 continents - which is part of why I love geography! When I was growing up, my favorite way to integrate my love for reading and my love for outdoor adventure was climbing as high as I could in a backyard tree to find the best perch where I could sit and read for hours. I really like wake boarding and knee boarding, but I'm still working on a 360. I also like to dance - I've taken basic ballroom and swing dancing classes. Swing dancing is definitely my favorite though! Before I decided to become an English major, I wanted to be an archaologist. I've climbed the Great Wall of China and been to the ancient city of Machu Picchu in Peru. I'm always up for an outdoor adventure - I spent my last birthday rock climbing and rappelling in Oklahoma. I lived in China for a while and speak conversational Mandarin Chinese.

About Me

I live in Duncanville, Texas. I am from a really big family - I am the third child in a family of ten - which is probably why I enjoy being around people. I am graduating from the Univerity of Texas at Arlington in December 2011 with a Bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Writing. I have worked as a writing consultant for the past year and a half at the UTA Writing Center. dallas">Tutoring is more than a filler job for me. Helping students develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed in life is something I truly enjoy and from which I derive a sense of satisfaction and purpose.

As a writing dallas">tutor, I have helped hundreds of students with a wide variety of assignments and writing concerns. During that time, I have discovered that I truly enjoy dallas">tutoring and feel a sense of satisfaction watching a student make progress in a given subject. Students bring in assignments about a wide range of subjects, everything from 1301 English essays and graduate school application cover letters to biology lab reports and graduate student term papers. I enjoy helping students develop their writing proficiency in all phases of the writing process. Before working at the Writing Center, I was employed for two years as an in-home teacher for two elementary age girls. That experience taught me a lot of useful teaching/dallas">tutoring strategies and techniques for working with younger students.

My dallas">tutoring philosophy has been developed through my experiences teaching English literature in China, dallas">tutoring middle school age ESL students in China, teaching elementary students in their home environment and dallas">tutoring college students in all phases of the writing process at UTA. I believe that a dallas">tutor's ultimate goal is to "work themselves out of a job" by helping students develop the skills and confidence to work independently. With this goal in mind, I strive to maintain a faciliatory role in dallas">tutoring sessions rather than taking charge of a student's assignments. I never want the student to feel that their work is either my responsilbility or accomplishment. I like to help them practice relevant skills and then supervise their efforts to complete the given task. Since I believe that positive reinforcement and encouragement is more beneficial than negative criticism and demands, I always try to maintain a non-threatening tone in order to establish trust with students.