About Valerie

I love to help students discover the joy of writing, literature, and history! I can help with everything from phonics for the youngest readers up through AP classes and advanced high school coursework. When it comes to writing, my greatest strength is showing students how to use the skeleton-and-skin process to create concise, informative essays with minimal time and drama. With history/social studies, I try to offer the kind of context that enables students to understand the underlying concepts, which makes exams and papers a breeze. For the younger learners, I work on functional skills and also challenge them to find the why in what they read. I also help students write their college admissions essays, and am available to give a light edit to written work.