Teacher Sarah

“Great teachers are masters of the techniques they need to reach their students, though those techniques are extremely different depending on the students’ skills, trust levels and emotional needs.”  — Ellie Herman

With thirty-six years of teaching under her belt – sixteen as a high school teacher and twenty as a private tutor — Sarah is truly a master at what she does. Her techniques are well-honed, but what really makes her an exceptional teacher is her love for her students. She never stops believing in them.

Sarah focuses on the positive and encourages her students’ “best selves” to emerge. This is the key that unlocks the door to their individual potential. Over time, teaching techniques and curriculum requirements come and go but one thing that does not change is that great teachers, and Sarah is one of them, love their students and their work. The success and gratitude of her many students speak to her highly skilled, caring approach.

Profile

SarahPrivate Teacher (Tutor)
Besides teaching, Sarah has a great love of the outdoors, her two cats and singing with Cantores Celestes Women’s Choir. She likes to hike, swim and play Scrabble in the Haliburton Highlands with her husband Steve.

Her special skills and interests include:

• writing poetry and is currently writing a book;
• acting, directing, singing (trained mezzo), dancing (tap, swing, ballet, interpretive);
• hiking (Member of the Bruce Trail Association), biking, x-cross country skiing, painting, embroidery, rug-hooking, ceramics, cooking;
• volunteering as a youth group leader, youth correctional facility mentor, facilitator at detox centres in Toronto; and
• traveling – Sarah has traveled to the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Israel, Western and Eastern Canada, the New England States.

Sarah’s teaching personality

Effective teacher

Sarah explains ideas and delivers thoughts simply and clearly. She speaks at a level students can understand and is good at summarizing the main points of a topic. She is patient when students need extra help learning and finds creative ways to make learning fun.

It takes good preparation to become an effective teacher. Sarah plans her lessons carefully in advance, according to each student’s needs, and always thinks of the best way to manage her sessions. When needed, she offers alternative approaches that will help overcome a student’s learning difficulties.

Good communication skills are fundamental to teacher-student contact. Sarah makes sure that her speech is understood by her students. She also makes her expectations clear. She makes every effort to learn about her students’ experiences and finds out what they know so as to understand their needs.

Sarah is approachable, friendly and patient. She also strives to be cheerful, humorous, lively, interesting, confident and straightforward with students. Her students know she cares and believes in them.

Great tutors have a passion for what they do. They have a love for what they teach, how they teach it, and the students who come to learn. Sarah is no exception. Her passion for teaching drives her to work hard and to make sure that her students learn well. She wants her students to feel that their success is important to her, and that what they are learning is important too. It is clear from her students’ feedback that they appreciate her teaching passion and the respect she gives them.

Sarah is able to put her students at ease, an important quality that encourages learning. She makes her students feel comfortable and interacts with them on friendly yet professional terms.