Tutors

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Reading, Educational Therapy, and After School Theater

 Hi, I’m Kelly Blackman and I am thrilled to be teaching at LWG!   I have a passion for excellence (not perfection), a drive to do better  than I did yesterday (and yes I expect the same from my students), and a  desire to learn more.  I hope you will come along with me on a science  adventure this year as we crack (we might hatch something too) into all  things living, explosive, and most certainly exciting!
I have a Masters in Teaching
BA in Behavioral Science
Background in sales (from perfume to physics textbooks)
Yes, I’m lethal.  I can understand human psychology, teach creatively, and make you want to come back tomorrow to learn more. 

 Missions and History

 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.

Strength and Fitness/Health

Penny Flora is a Christian wife and mother of four grown children. She is also a retired home-school mom and home-school tutorial Family Administrator. Both of these roles are ones she took on with the heart of Christ and her usual vigor for life and serving God and His children. She has honed her fitness skills over the years and is the owner of FitMamas: Fun, Functional, Full of Life Fitness. Her incredible gifts have been used to bless many students over the years as she perfected her craft as a now Retired Dance Fitness Instructor and ACE certified Personal Trainer. She enjoys reading, gardening, her cats and family time. 

High School Math

Lori has always had a love for learning mathematics and teaching it to others. She attended college at Loyola College in Baltimore, MD, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. Following working several years in finance at T. Rowe Price, she went back to earn her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. She spent six years working in Finance for Marriott International before “retiring”,and focusing on her three children. For the past two years, Lori has homeschooled one of her three children, her son Luke who has learning challenges. One of her greatest joys has been watching him evolve from a student who was afraid of mathematics, to one who embraces the subject, has built a good strong foundation of mathematics, and even somewhat ENJOYS the subject. Lori’s passion is to get children to understand math, especially children who do not think they like math, or who are afraid of math. To break complex ideas down into learnable information, whatever that takes, is her goal for every student. She promises to make it fun, and hopefully pass on her passion for math to every student in her class. Lori has a long history of tutoring students, beginning in highschool, and continuing on through college, business school and throughout her working years. She has tutored students of all ages in math, and taught English as a second language. She lives with her husband, three children and three dogs in Crownsville. 

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.