Kayla

Certified Tutor

I graduated from Wartburg College in Waverly, IA in 2017 with a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work. Currently, I am obtaining my Masters of Arts Degree , in International Development, from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I began my teaching journey, in 2018 where I began substitute teaching grades K-12 in a highly diverse school district in Southwest Minnesota. During this time I taught a variety of subjects from reading, writing, math, English and science. In August of 2018, I moved to Prague, The Czech Republic, where I completed an intensive 120 hour accredited TEFL(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course. During my training, I learned how to create engaging and informative lessons on speaking, listening, reading and writing. Moreover, I independently created and taught 10- hour long lessons to English language students, within my first month of training.
After receiving two TEFL certificates, I spent one year in Prague, teaching beginner, intermediate and advanced English as a second language(ESL) to students in person. During this time, I taught students ages 4-70. While living in Prague, I also began my online teaching journey.
In October of 2018, I began teaching English as a second language to students in China through VIPKID, GOGO KID and Pal Fish, all online English language learning platforms. I have continued to teach ESL online, for the past four years. I have found teaching online requires a different skill set than in person teaching.

Teaching online requires showing and leading students to answers rather than telling them. I aim to include three components in each lesson I teach. It also requires great enthusiasm, patience, creativeness and an ability to keep students engaged through an online setting. I do this through a personalized teaching style for each student and lesson. Each student learns in their own way, and it is imperative I adapt my methods and styles to meet the needs of the students. I strive to meet students where they are in their learning journey. I acknowledge student's strengths, while working on areas of improvement. Specifically, when assisting students with trouble areas, I remain patient, but encouraging. When students speak, read, listen or write incorrectly, I aim to elicit or draw out a correction from the student before I offer them the right answer. Simply stating, I encourage the student to come up with the right answer themselves, as this is a key moment in learning any subject area. When students are able to recognize mistakes they make on their own and then make a correction, they are more likely to remember that information in the future.
Positive reinforcement and props are also key to creating a fun and engaging learning environment. I like to create a fun and colorful class environment, to encourage participation from students. I also
aim to use a reward system for each class. I found when students have something to look forward to within the lesson, whether that is a short game or a prize, they remain more focused and on task.

While my time teaching in Prague ended in 2020, I have continued to teach online and substitute teach in person up to the present 2021-2022 school year. During my latest years of substitute teaching, I have taken on longer teaching assignments which have given me more experience teaching areas such as: biology, algebra, history, social studies geography and reading. I have also worked with students who have various learning abilities and need individualized learning plans.

I have valued education my entire life. Education is key, to teaching our youth and our adults about how they can be productive, engaged and happy citizens of the world. I am dedicated to give my time to each student to help them be successful in and out of the classroom. I am looking forward to seeing you in class soon.