Kyle

Certified Tutor

Education has defined much of my career for over a decade. I began this path in high school, assisting teachers in an elementary classroom and helping out other high school students with math or Spanish courses. Since then, I have expanded my acumen to a variety of ages and needs. I recently taught middle-school students in public speaking and current events seminars during the school year and algebra and pre-algebra during the summer, and I currently am an adjunct professor of philosophy and an online course facilitator at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. In my free time, I enjoy reading, particularly history or science books; following various sports, especially college basketball; and playing computer games and board games with my wife and friends. I also enjoy a good coffee shop, whether to get work done or to socialize.

I am currently preparing to begin a Master's of Teaching program at VCU this fall and have continued to excel in the math and history courses I need to round out my teaching endorsements. Because my future career path focuses on teaching at the high school level, I have a preference for tutoring math (especially algebra through calculus) and history, along with writing and my current subject of philosophy. Besides my career motivations, I find that I stand out the most as a tutor in these areas because of my capability in clearly presenting complex material and my ability to grasp the diverse perspectives of my students.

This ability to clarify complex ideas is important to tutoring, but what often gets overlooked is the other side of the equation: properly understanding the questions being asked. I have frequently encountered decent teachers who can effectively outline a subject in a lecture but who have trouble comprehending where their students might be confused, often because they are too removed from the way the students' brains work. The best teachers and tutors are those who not only can teach material clearly but who realize the points of confusion, which vary from student to student (and class to class). When I teach a subject, I prepare lessons, but I also understand the need to be adaptable, to adjust the lesson on the fly, as everyone learns differently and encounters difficulties at different stages. I developed this adaptability and this understanding of a multitude of perspectives from my diverse teaching experiences and also from my multidisciplinary educational background.
I attained my Bachelor's degree from Xavier University, a Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I was enrolled in an interdisciplinary program in history, philosophy, and political science, which also involved a minor concentration in psychology. I then went on to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where I received a Master's degree in philosophy, a subject hospitable to my wide-ranging aptitude and curiosity. The diverse capabilities have reinforced both my competence and enthusiasm in a number of areas, which I bring to bear readily as a tutor. I can appreciate the perspective of a student strong in math who needs help with the verbal section of a standardized test or the viewpoint of a good writer who might be struggling in math courses, as I have immersed myself with a wide variety of subjects and consequently a wide variety of ways of thinking (not to mention diverse classmates). Though my comprehension of various subjects is important, my knack for relating to the way others think is likely my strongest feature as an educator.