Each month, the Tutor Spotlight will showcase a dedicated Sunshine Method tutor who has illuminated the path for students, going the extra mile to inspire and engage them towards lifelong academic success.
Join our conversation with Rachel below:
Hi Rachel, thank you so much for sitting down with us! We can't wait to dive in with you. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Something you probably don't know about me is that I have 7 pet rats! They often come into tutoring. If I have a kiddo who has a hard time focusing, I put a rat on my shoulder, and it works like nothing else!
I have 10 years of special education teaching experience [in the classroom]. I took the last 20 years off to be a full time mom. Now that my kids are 20 and 16 and they are not needing me as much ,I’m getting back into teaching. I'm finding out I that actually love tutoring one on one a lot more than I did being a classroom teacher! You can really get to a lot more stuff.
I initially got into teaching accidentally. When I was in high school, the only thing I ever thought I wanted to do was be a professional musician. I have played the flute and been classically trained since I was 6, but my last year of high school I got tendinitis. I was a little too intense about practicing and had to find my way again.
My first year of college, I think I changed my major six times. It was ridiculous. I tried art history, I tried English, philosophy, and finally I found my way into special education. I think working with children who have disabilities, who learn differently, has always been a passion of mine.
I like tutoring because you can really focus on the relationship with the child. Ultimately, that is more important than any skill that I could teach them. That’s the biggest thing I love, getting to know these kids and really being able to be a consistent positive person in their lives.
Positive relationships are so crucial to a child's development! You've been working with children for some time now. What is one of the best experiences you’ve had tutoring?
I have a 3rd grader that I’ve been tutoring all summer. He is diagnosed with ASD and ADHD, and he's been very slow to warm up to me. I work really hard to get kids to connect with me. To feel safe so they can learn.
A couple weeks ago, I found this book for him to read, and it was a choose your own adventure graphic novel about video games. As far as I can tell, it’s a unicorn in the book world, there's not really anything else like it. We started reading this book, and the kid looked at me and said, “Hey, is this a book or a game?”, and I think that is a highlight because that's the best question ever!
I’ve gotten to watch this kid, and a couple others, really fall in love with reading. That’s more fun than anything else to see.
That's incredible! What role do you believe that education plays in a child's life?
I want to go back to my college experience.
When I got into the special education program, there’s kind of buzzwords every couple of years. We were learning about what “at risk” means for kids, and what the consequences of “at risk” children are. So they identified poverty, divorce, abuse in the home, drugs and alcohol, all the things that you would think of. But that’s where the discussion stopped in the classroom. I wasn't satisfied with that because I wanted to do more.
I pursued a series of independent studies based on this idea of okay, we know what the risk factors are, but there are resilience factors too, and how can we as educators build resilience factors in the kids because we can’t change anything that's happening in their home life.
One of the key resiliency factors I identified in my research, and what I’ve come to think of as the most important, is that if a child has a consistent positive person who sees them for who they are, and really can celebrate their successes, that is giving them shields of armor to walk through their lives and difficult situations. Beyond anything, that is my primary role.
I think the biggest thing for me was when we had our initial training. We spent over half of the time talking about the relationship with the children and how important that was. It was so reassuring.
Any tutor that values consistency and relationships is going to fit in well with Sunshine.
When I first started tutoring at Sunshine, the thing I found the hardest was coming up with appropriate games and online activities, basically creating the curriculum for kids. That was a little daunting to me.
I focused on taking kids in K-3 first, and I think that helped me become more familiar with what the free online resources are for math and reading for those age kids. Then I slowly added other grades and stuff. I created a huge database of the resources I like for reading and math and other various skills and I add to it when I do lesson planning. That helped me feel more confident!
My first job right out of college, I was a certified special education teacher. I worked at a residential treatment center and my principal was amazing.
"One of the things she told me on one of our first days was make sure you're constantly seeing each child."
A lot of the kids that we worked with in the center had very volatile, big emotions. Things could change on a dime. I think I tried to really see my kids. To notice their assets, if they're not feeling great. I can't tell you how many times after a session I texted a mom and have been like “hey, so-and-so seemed a little off today, is everything okay” just to check in.
One thing that I try to do with my kids is regularly review how far they've come. So today I had my last session with one of my kids I’ve been tutoring all summer, and he’s going to take a few weeks off and I’ll see him in the fall again.
We had him pick his favorite game that we’ve done. I was able to go back and say, “do you see how easy this is now?”, they were the games we played two months ago. So really helping him see how far he’s come, and celebrate the growth.
I think that's the best advice I can give a student who’s struggling, to really focus on where you have grown. So often the kids say, “I can’t do this”, then two sessions later, I'll say, “you got this, you got 100% on this. Two days ago you said you couldn't do this”. I try to help them learn that they can learn.
I hope through my time with them, I’m able to build their confidence and help them learn skills and strategies about how they learn best. That they will have positive experiences where they can start retelling the story of their learning in a positive way. I can do this instead of I can’t do this.
Thank you for reading, and thank you, Rachel, for your truly seeing every child you work with!