Happy Spring!

Summer camps, incentive parties, new blog posts, and more… May, 2022

Hi parents! I wanted to update you all on some additions and changes that I plan on implementing to my services.

First of all, and I have already shared this with a couple of you, I am no longer teaching full time during the day. I feel that I’ve discovered my passion in helping kids and adults with literacy disorders, and I want to dedicate all of my professional time and energy towards it. I love being able to cater completely to individual strengths and needs, and seeing the progress my students have made in learning to read and write has been very fulfilling for me.

This means that I have more availability, especially during daytime hours. If you’re interested in adding more timeslots, or changing any to daytime ones, please let me know. I am also actively looking for a few more students, so if you know anyone who is looking for a literacy tutor please feel free to pass along my info!

Google Classroom and New Incentive System

There are a couple of things that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: 1. wanting to give my students access to a bit of extra practice between sessions, and 2. wanting to get my students together for fun social activities. I’ve found a way to combine both of those goals.

I’m going to start providing opportunities for extra practice to my students. The goal is to give them activities that 1. are short, 2. can be completed independently, and 3. are nonstressful. They will mostly consist of brief activities and games. I don’t want the bonus activities to feel like “the-dreaded-h-word”, and I want to have an incentive system built in place to motivate them to want to do it. The bonus activities are optional, so kids don’t feel obligated to do them, but they feel rewarded if they do contribute.

Ever since having our Read October games day, I’ve thought about other ways that I can get my students together. Getting to socialize with other kids who have similar challenges and experiences seems incredibly valuable to me. I want to have a monthly party that my students work towards earning by completing some of the “bonus” activities mentioned above. We have a monthly group chart that all students work towards filling. For every bonus activity completed, a student gets to add a sticker to the chart. Once the chart is filled, we have earned the party as a group. (Parents don’t need to pay anything for their child to attend). The number of activities they need to complete will be kept small at first so that they don’t feel that it’s an overwhelming or impossible goal to reach.

I’m going to start using Google Classroom to post bonus activities. I’m also going to use it to post material for our lessons, as well as feedback that parents can read. This means that I need all parents to provide an email address that can be used for you and your child to access Google Classroom. I would like to start this next week, so please provide one as soon as possible, preferably before the weekend. I will send out instructions on how to use Google Classroom soon. I have used Google Classroom in the past, and most parents and students find it very simple and intuitive to use.

This month’s incentive is a movie watching party. We’ll watch Rescued by Ruby, a true underdog story, in which one of the characters has ADHD and dyslexia.

Summer Camps!

This summer I’m offering half-day camps in order to help reinforce learning and prepare for next school year! There will be a morning group and an afternoon group, and the number of students is going to be kept very small to make sure I can individualize lesson plans and cater to specific skill levels. There will be lots of learning games to keep the kids engaged and to give them social time with other like-minded friends.

Because the groups are going to be kept very small, I need to know if you’re interested ASAP so that I can reserve your spot. Here’s the link to the information about summer camps on my website: SPECIAL OFFERS | Mysite (literacytutoringse.wixsite.com)

New Blog Posts

I wrote a 3-part series on my blog about learned helplessness and dyslexia. If you’re interested, you can check it out here: BLOG | Mysite (literacytutoringse.wixsite.com)

Katrina "These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb." For the Love of Literacy (literacytutoringse.wixsite.com)