About Marina

To illustrate my skills, I would like to begin by telling a story. I worked at a middle school as a one on one teaching assistant with a special needs student. This student's main difficultly was in writing class. She was intelligent with a high level of vocabulary, but difficulty with organizing and expressing ideas in writing and a low level of tolerance frustration. To build confidence that she could complete the writing assignment and express herself, I began by having her verbally brain storm ideas that she wanted to include and took note of them. Then I always broke down the task for her, to minimize frustration. At the beginning, we only concentrated on writing one sentence at a time. As she got more proficient and the assignments got longer, we began to focus on writing whole paragraphs. We always took note and celebrated even small successes to build confidence. I had to be flexible making adjustments everyday, depending on the kind of day the student was having. On some days, I had to be very directive and continuously redirected the student back the assignment. On other days, I let her be more independent as she began to demonstrate knowledge of how an essay should be structured, and as she become more self directed. During the several months that we worked together, she developed an understanding of the structure of a paragraph and then of the structure of a five paragraph essay. She gained confidence in her ability to write and her level of frustration decreased. This story demonstrates my strengths as a tutor. I take time to get to know my students, their strengths and weaknesses. I am flexible and adjust for their needs on a daily basis. I am patient, persistent, positive and encouraging. I have the skill and knowledge to be able to adjust assignments to the skill level of the student and then to scaffold the student's understanding to help him/her reach up to the next level.