As a school teacher, I’ve learned a lot about education.  I’ve entered high school classrooms filled with pregnant teenagers and young men who occasionally sported red eyes due to having been sprayed with a police officer’s mace.  There, I dismissed students from class early to attend trial for crimes they allegedly committed, and I’ve been wowed by the same young people as they broke out spontaneously into rap songs about the parts of speech and a classmate’s seeming inability to stop sneezing.  (The sneezer, incidentally, punctuated each beat with a well-time “Aaachew!”)  I’ve also spent years among younger folks, specifically 7th graders caught smack in the middle of the physical, emotional, and psychological transition from childhood to full-blown adolescence. Within a single classroom, these tweens ran the gamut.  Some were reading at a 12th grade level and were more together and articulate than a full handful of my colleagues. Others had never learned to read.  Among this sub-set, one poverty-stricken girl attempted to teach herself by re-writing, letter-by-letter, the schedule and class mission statement printed on my white board.  Meanwhile a well-off athlete in the same academic situation simply deferred his projects to his enabling mother.  I weathered threats of groundless law-suits, developed a rep as the “go-to” person for students with emotional issues, nurtured an unlikely bond with a buxom tough girl who nonetheless still sucked a baby’s pacifier, and became the subject of inspirational well-written essays and catty, crayon-scrawled notes. 

After leaving the public school system, I subbed for a while at the private day-and-boarding school I attended as a student.  While covering a maternity leave there, I encountered teenagers on the verge of adulthood who filled my AP classroom with witty comments, literary criticism, and hope.  Among the incoming freshmen, I took joy in being one of the first people to shake up their well-crafted ideas about how things work and to challenge them to do more than they previously thought possible.  I currently inhabit the contrasting worlds of online private school teaching and classroom-based adult education.  By day, I teach and advise training Olympians, aspiring actresses, children of diplomats, and self-motivated kiddos who simply decided that “the mainstream” wasn’t for them.  By night, I enter the world of former teen moms, recovering addicts, and cheerful special needs adults who hung with “the system” for all 12 years and walked across the stage at graduation only to discover later that the “diploma” they were issued was only a certificate of completion, not the academic credential needed to go to tech. school or to get a job. 

Outside the classroom, I’ve learned that public systems generally struggle because of the need to make it seem as though all students are identical when they’re anything but.  The constraint of teaching a uniform group of standards to an intellectually diverse group of student doesn’t work.  However, financial constraints and positive-yet-misguided intentions lead to a virtual quagmire within which some students (and, for that matter, teachers) still manage to flourish while others simply drown.  On the private school side of the equation, I’ve realized these institutions are met with their own unique struggles and that, while private schools are “for me,” this certainly isn’t the case for everyone.  Finally, I’ve discovered that the world of online learning is still largely an uncharted frontier.  The online school has the potential to exceed students’ needs in ways a brick-and-mortar institution can never match.  At the same time, it runs the risk of letting more souls fall through the cracks than any mainstream institution.

When I step back and consider all the information I’ve gathered along my path, two things become clear:

1.   Students are unique individuals who need unique learning plans in order to become happy, intelligent, healthy contributors to the world we share.

2.   Most schools lack a faculty member with the time, energy, knowledge, experience, and freedom to provide the kind of academic and personal guidance that each student needs.

These revelations have prompted me to offer academic guidance via MamaKelli.com.  Think of me as your child’s private advisor.  Curious about whether to make the switch to online learning?  I’m there for your family.  Unsure about whether to keep your child in his/her current school system?  Again, I’ll have practical guidance for you.  Rest assured that my advice is not the same across the board.  Your child’s unique personality, prior academic performance, and life goals are paramount in shaping my reply.  My experience as an academic advisor also qualifies me to ensure that your child is meeting graduation requirements and is taking courses optimized to fulfill his/her application to the college, university, or technical school of his or her choice.  I can also help tremendously when it comes to deciding which type of advanced degree will be best when the time to make post-graduation plans comes.

Are you simply searching for a tutor?  I’m there for that too.  I specialize in English Language Arts for students in grades 6-college.  Finally, I offer support to teachers at a cross-roads in need of career advice.

My sessions are conducted via the phone, live chat, or e-mail—according to your personal preferences and unique family needs.  My cost is $25/hour for tutoring, and $25/half hour for consulting. Please click here to request my Find Your Path Academic Services.  I look forward to working with you and wish you and your family the best in a lifetime filled with learning. J

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