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James

Certified Tutor

First, a student, second, a teacher. This mindset reminds me to take a step back and meet students where they are background knowledge, current situation, feelings about what is to be learned, dreams and goals. It's important for me to listen to understand students when I work with them. This way, I can ask better questions to help them grow in specific knowledge, as well as in life in ways that work for them. This way, my students leave sessions satisfied, fulfilled, and feel it was time well-spent. My education background is in the sciences - for the first half of my undergraduate education, I lived in New Orleans and studied Neuroscience at Tulane University. There, I took a Teaching position for an AP Calculus class at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School my first real experience in a teacher-like role in after-school study sessions. An important question to ask students became "What do you want to get out of the class and our time together?" this way I could align my expectations of students with their goals. After Tulane, I went back home to finish my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Dallas. More of my teaching philosophy was developed here with positions as Teaching Assistant in Biochemistry and Supplemental Instruction Leader in Physics at the Student Success Center. Here, I started to see teaching as an art of sharing information and helping peers think in new ways about how to take-in and assimilate knowledge. I hadn't considered teaching as a career up to this point; I had always wanted to be a doctor. I took the MCAT in 2015, and interviewed for medical school in Texas. I decided on UT Southwestern. I graduated Summa Cum Laude with Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience at UT Dallas and then went on to complete two and half years of medical school with clinical rotations at UT Southwestern Medical Center. I liked all the specialties in which I rotated, but I did not feel called to any one specialty in particular like my peers did. This is why I left medical school in 2018 to pursue a M.S. in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience at UT Dallas. Since then, I have taught with Kaplan Test Prep as an MCAT Instructor for In-Person, Kaplan Partner Solutions Institutional Partnerships, and Live Online delivery modes. At Kaplan, my teaching style has matured incorporating elements of growth mindset and learning science with spaced repetition of relevant concepts all while meeting students where they are on their journeys in education. Now, as an Honors Chemistry teacher at Coppell High School, I am able to design learning to meet individual student needs in a dual-delivery space: in-person and online education, all at the same time, via zoom. Helping students achieve their full potential is my passion, and I specialize in MCAT science. Please reach out with questions!