College Counseling and GED tutor

About Alice

About Me

Hi! My name is Alice Dranger. I am an NYU:TISCH graduate with a B.F.A. in Drama. I am positive, and adaptable. I believe in encouraging students,being positive about their progress, and cheering them past frustrations. I am also able to adapt to each student’s specific needs and learning style.

Experience

I have 4 years of private tutoring experience, one of those years is with Varsity Tutors. Three of those years, my tutoring services were spread via word of mouth. I also have 4 years experience coaching gymnastics. As a gymnastics coach, I worked with children ages 2-15 as well as with special needs children and adults. I have also taught at a pre-school alternative called NYKids Club in New York City. I taught subjects from gymnastics to dance to science to social studies to children ages 1-5. I am also qualified to tutor for the HSPT exam.

As a private tutor, I have tutored a wide variety of subjects to a wide variety of ages. At the Elementary level, I have tutored Math and Reading, at the Middle School level, I have tutored Math, Science, English, Literature, Writing, U.S. History, and World History. At the High School level, I have tutored Biology, U.S. History, World History, English, and Literature. At the A.P. level, I have tutored Literature and U.S. History. I have also tutored Literature to students participating in the I.B. Program. At the College Level, I have tutored English, Literature, Dramatic Literature, and Intro to Psychology.

Philosophy and Alignment with Inner Genius Prep

I have looked at the website and philosophy of Inner Genius Prep and I believe your teaching philosophy to be in line with mine. I have a belief that in order to teach any one concept, you need at least 6 ways of explaining it, because every child is going to have a different way of understanding. Once, I worked with a middle school child on her math homework. When we first started, the child stated that she “wasn’t good at math”, to which I replied that she simply hadn’t had the concepts explained to her in a way she understood. I firmly believe this. Every child is capable of understanding any concept, they just need it explained to them in their language. For me, sometimes this means using pop culture references, sports, their favorite movies,shows, or songs, etc… to explain concepts, sometimes this means breaking down all the vocabulary from the teacher’s or textbook’s explanation, sometimes this means walking the student through an experience or narrative.

I have used pop culture references or a student’s interests to explain a great many things. To one client, I explained the concept of bacterial conjugation by alluding to “shipper names” (the recombination of celebrity or fictional character names when they’re dating, such as Bradgelina), to another client, I explained characteristics of Postmodernism using references to Star Wars, and to another client, I explained how to add and subtract with both negative and positive numbers using references to Captain America: Civil War( making negatives numbers "Team Iron Man" and positive numbers "Team Cap"), and to yet another client, I used references to dating to explain how to multiply positive and negative numbers. One student that studied World History with me was deeply interested in relationships and romance. For this student, I would bring in romantic stories about the people we were studying, for example, I discussed (to an age appropriate degree) the relationship of Napoleon and Josephine when covering the Napoleonic Wars. I also would discuss the interactions of the nations we learned about in terms of relationships. I reference whatever keeps the student interested and engaged, and keeps the subject matter within their world view.

I’ve also found that sometimes, it’s just a matter of explaining the subject using words with which the student is most familiar. Often, I’ve found that teachers will explain things with vocabulary the student hasn’t been exposed to yet. I will ask the student, in a non-judgmental and neutral fashion, if he or she understands the vocabulary being used to explain the concept, either by me, the teacher, or the book. This comes especially in handy when discussing Literature or History, but can be used with any subject. Sometimes the student won’t understand a scientific concept simply because there’s one vocabulary word they simply haven’t memorized or fully understood yet. Students sometimes just need some clarification on vocabulary.

I also find walking students through experiences or narratives can help a great deal. From personifying viruses or electrons to explaining historical events, I find this a very useful tool.

Any student can accomplish their academic goals, and I am here to help them do so. I teach to the student's needs and style. I reference and use what engages them and what fits within their interests and talents.

I would love to tutor you in the subject you are having difficulty in!