Shaneequa
Certified Tutor
My name is Shaneequa and I am a 24 year-old professional in San Antonio. I am currently a Site Operations and Finance Associate with a local, education-based non-profit called City Year San Antonio. My work experience includes education reform, youth development, tutoring and program management. In the near future, I hope to run my own education-based nonprofit organization focused on incorporating the performing arts in behavior and ELA/Math strategies.
I have had the pleasure of serving two years (going on my third) with the national Americorps organization, City Year. City Year is an education-based non-profit organization that is committed to closing the achievement gap by focusing on three critical areas: attendance, behavior and coursework. We are committed to providing students with a quality education and excellent programs that foster academic growth and social skills. City Year has given me the opportunity to provide specialized academic and socio-emotional support for students ranging in the ages of 9-18 from low-income communities. As a corps member with City Year Los Angeles, I served at a predominately Hispanic and Latino/a high school and executed high quality ELA and Math lesson plans for a focus list consisting of 15 tenth grade students (some English Language Learners) and implemented whole school programming for over 300 students. I worked with a team of 20 individuals and coordinated college fairs, academic advising workshops, scholastic reading nights and math carnivals to support school programming. In an effort to reduce the growing number of disciplinary occurrences, I developed and facilitated 10 bi-weekly socio-emotional behavior management workshops that featured a lieu of motivational speakers and therapeutic practices that were followed by a 15% decrease in referrals for a span of two months.
As a Team Leader with City Year San Antonio, I led a team of 8 first-year corps members through their service at a k-8 academy and serve as a liaison between school administration and community partners. I maintained an extensive database of corps members and student data tracking over 80 students' attendance, behavior, and coursework performance. Additionally to monitoring progress, I attended weekly meetings with staff to discuss school climate, academic interventions, whole school programming and strategic ways to meet our district goals. In light of having a corps member resign, I was given the added responsibility of tutoring and providing specialized support to 25 fourth grade ELA and Math students for 20 hours a week which has resulted in 75% of the students experiencing 5 to 10 point gains in their course grades.
I am passionate about learning and developing youth and will ensure that your student receives specialized and tailored support.
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Undergraduate Degree: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Bachelors, Psychology
Hobbies: creative writing, community theatre, hiking, and volunteering. Interests: education reform, community development, performing arts, communications & marketing
- ACT Math
- ACT Science
- ACT Writing
- Algebra
- Algebra 2
- CAHSEE Prep
- CAHSEE ELA
- CAHSEE English
- CAHSEE Mathematics
- College Algebra
- College English
- College Essays
- College Level American History
- Comparative Literature
- Elementary Math
- Elementary School Math
- English
- English Grammar and Syntax
- Essay Editing
- Geometry
- Gifted
- High School English
- High School Level American History
- History
- Homework Support
- Literature
- Math
- Other
- Pre-Algebra
- PSAT Critical Reading
- Psychology
- Public Speaking
- Reading
- SAT Prep
- SAT Math
- SAT Mathematics
- Social Sciences
- Social Studies
- Special Education
- STAAR Prep
- STAAR EOC Prep
- STAAR Grades 3-8 Prep
- Study Skills
- Study Skills and Organization
- Summer
- Test Prep
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
I believe that every student learns in their own unique way, therefore; they should be given specialized and tailored support to ensure that full comprehension is reached.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I would have a brief "get to know you" warm up to establish a foundation and build a rapport.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Allowing a student to guide you through their thought process to find an answer is an excellent way to build independence and stretch their thinking. Also, giving them independent "check for understanding" problems is another method.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Words of encouragement throughout the session and giving them a visual of a finish line is an approach I would take.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
I would have us take a quick breather and then retrace our steps to the beginning to figure out where the breakdown is happening. I would also use multiple intelligence to figure out how the student best learns and teach from that perspective.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
I find that outlining a passage helps with comprehension. I label each section and paragraph with terms such as main idea, supporting sentences, conclusion, etc.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
KWL, Frayer Model, Think Aloud, Graphic Organizer, Venn Diagram, Plot Diagram, and Say-Ask-Check.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
By incorporating their interests in the tutoring session. For example, if a student loves basketball but dislikes math, I would come up with a math game that involved shooting a ball into a container every time they got a math problem right.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Check for understandings, exit tickets, independent practice problems, and have them teach it back to me.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
By sharing my own personal journey with learning a subject and letting them know that with practice comes results.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
By observing their method of approach to various subjects and then seeing how they respond to certain teaching techniques. I would also look for trends in past coursework and communicate with their parents to gauge what special attention they may need.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
By tailoring my lessons to their learning style and incorporating multiple intelligences. Multiple intelligences is a theory that states that students learn the best in particular manners. For example: students who rank high in the musical intelligence department, prefer to learn with rhythm and melody incorporated.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Dry erase whiteboard with markers, pencils, notebook paper, highlighters, stress balls, calculator, and manipulatives.