Tutors

---

Reading, Educational Therapy, and After School Theater

Kelly is thrilled to be teaching at Learning With Grace!  She has a passion for excellence (not perfection), a drive to do better than yesterday and a desire to learn more.  If you can’t find Mrs. Blackman in the classroom; then she’s probably out on the farm working on writing a new play or script.  She has a Masters in Teaching, BA in Behavioral Science, and she is a certified Educational Therapist through the National Institute for Learning Development (https://www.nild.org/families/how-can-nild-help-my-child/).

Zoe Life, Bible and PE/Health

 Renee is a pastor's wife and homeschooling mother of two boys. Her boys are two of her greatest treasures. Renee established a support group for moms of children with special needs. She founded Zoe Life, a Bible based social communications group for children with special needs. She leads the women's ministry at her church. Her missionary adventures began 20 years ago. She has seen God do so many amazing things in Baltimore city, Ireland, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and India. Renee loves people and has a passion for sharing God’s word in an easy to understand way. Her deep desire is to help those with learning differences gain confidence and a “can do” attitude. Her greatest joy is to see children who love Jesus and want to tell the world about Him. 


 

Nature

Estera has years of experience teaching students in a vast area of avenues, from church, homeschooling, tutorials, and private school.  She has a student that has special needs and uses his testimony to what God can do.  She has a strong belief that every child is able to learn, you just need to find the right key.  Mrs. Contreras is German and also taught at the German School in Washington.    

Reading, Educational Therapy, Executive Function Class

Sarah Donegan has been a home school mom for the past 16 years, 12 years of homeschooling a student with extreme learning struggles.  She has been a private piano teacher for the past 12 years.  Teaching kids has been a life long adventure from Sunday School, Children’s Church, camp speaker, and Vacation Bible school.  She has a BA from Pensacola Christian College in Youth Ministry, with a minor in Speech.  Masters in special Education and is a certified as an Orton-Gillingham, dyslexia reading specialist, and a NILD certified therapy (PCET). 

She is lifelong crafter, addicted to Chocolate, loves old movies, and enjoys reading missionary biographies.

Middle School & High School English and Math

My love for learning became a part of me in second grade when the teacher encouraged me to think deeper about my ideas. I continued to dive deeper while studying creative writing in high school, English for my BA at Washington College, and Curriculum and Instruction for my MS from McDaniel College.  I have enjoyed encouraging my students to learn and grow throughout 22 years of teaching in both public and private schools. I learn so much from teaching them and absolutely love being a part of their self-discovery learning journey. God has made each of them with strengths and weaknesses, preferences, learning styles, and purposes - and it is exciting to help them learn to navigate life in their God-given way.   I am certified for English Language Arts and Special Education. I hope to spur the same love of learning in my students here at Learning With Grace. 

Middle School and High School Reading and Math

Heather is a teacher who truly cares about her students and their  families.  She has worked with people of all ages for over twenty  years.  Heather has a BA in Psychology with minors in Spanish and Music  and a Masters Equivilant in Education.  She is a certified Special  Education teacher who has worked in public and private school. Heather  is enjoying homeschooling her own children.  Her daughter is in 10th  grade and her son, who has autism and adhd, is in 7th grade.  She also  has taught private voice lessons and is a part of her church's worship  team.  Serving others, whether it's as a small group leader, Sunday  school teacher, or life course instructor, brings Heather joy,  especially if chocolate is involved.  She and her husband returned to  Maryland and settled in Pasadena in 2005,  after traveling the west  coast wtih the U.S. Marine Corp.  Jesus and good books kept her company  while her husband was fighting in Iraq and she hopes to inspire her  students to love reading and Jesus, as well.  

History 

Thelma James is a wife and mother of three who has been in Christian Education for over 20 years.  She is quite excited at the prospect of teaching history to your children in the following school year.  Thelma enjoyed homeschooling for some years until she went back to work in Christian schools. Her last twelve years of teaching was at Rockbridge Academy in Millersville from which all her children graduated; the youngest of whom just completed his sophomore year in college.  Thelma has always enjoyed teaching and considers her work a ministry; thus, after she retired from full time teaching two years ago, she continued to teach at Rockbridge as a substitute teacher and now also tutors in history at her church tutorial.  Thelma has a degree in Education and in Educational guidance and counseling.  She and her family live in Hanover, Maryland.    

Grammar II 

Becky Kang began homeschooling her children in 1993, and has spent over 20 years teaching Latin, Music, Shurley Grammar, Excellence in Writing (IEW), and her signature WordSmart SAT vocabulary prep classes in homeschool tutorials across Maryland, in addition to teaching these classes from her home. With a passion for the Lord and educating students of all ages, Becky carries her contagious joy and enthusiasm for learning and excellence into every educational setting. Both of her sons are US Naval Academy graduates and serving as officers in the military, and her daughter is pursing a career in nursing. Becky lives in Crofton with her husband, Yong.  

Grammar I

I am happy to have the opportunity to teach at Learning with Grace Homeschool tutorial program. I have a B.A. degree in Spanish from Pennsylvania State University. While teaching adults in a GED program many years ago I became fascinated with how people learn and why the school system had failed all of the students whom I was teaching. This lead me to pursue an M.A. in Educational Psychology from Atlanta University. During my many years as a Navy wife, I taught in alternative learning programs in Connecticut, North Carolina and Florida. In Florida as a homeschooling parent I taught Spanish in a church homeschool program similar to LWG. I also taught at Pace Private School which is a school for children with learning challenges similar to The Lab School in Washington DC. At Pace I taught Art to elementary and middle school classes and all seventh grade subjects. There I focused strongly on the individual needs of each student while working with small classes. I found the students needed organizational skills in addition to their academics and tools for determining their own learning styles to help them in the future. At times their assignment was to teach what they had learned to a family member at home and to present those lessons to our class. Through those many years I was also a professional doll artist. I designed and marketed my own porcelain doll. As a portrait doll artist I sculpted, painted, designed and sewed the clothing and designed my own wigs. I am also a portrait artist using oils and charcoals as my preferred mediums.