College and Grad School FAQs
 

How does Lexington Tutoring, LLC differ from other tutoring services in the area?

If you only have a moderate level of need, your university can probably help you to find a student on your campus who will provide tutoring. If, however, you find that you are confronting a more substantial challenge, we can offer high caliber support.

Our tutors are scientists, mathematicians and educators who are academic high achievers with real world experience in their current professions. We are not a sign-up list for recent graduates filling in while they seek employment. Our tutors are successful professionals actively working in the fields that they tutor.

Where do you provide services?

We offer office and university/public library visits throughout Metro West and most of the greater Boston area. We also provide sessions by Skype Video for a variety of special circumstances.

How does college level homework coaching work?

If support is needed in more than one subject and time management/organizational support is also needed, we provide what we call homework coaching. In two or three weekday late afternoon or evening sessions of somewhere between an hour and a half and three hours in length your tutor will work with you on whatever is due. The method by which you work will be determined as you and your tutor assess your present skills and your time management strategies. The tutor will provide an emailed report at the end of each week.

Following these sessions, after completing any remaining assignments, your tutor may ask you to email copies of your completed papers/assignments to him/her.

On the weekdays when you are not scheduled to meet, for each class upon which you are focusing in your sessions, it is sometimes effective for your tutor to ask you to phone or text him/her and to briefly convey what was covered in classes that day, what assignments were given, what long range assignments were discussed and what handouts were distributed. Then, if possible, you might be asked to email to your tutor scans of any handouts (especially assignment sheets for major assignments) and the URLs for any major assignments your professors have posted online.

These are all strategies we use, some or all of which might be ones you’d like us to deploy with you.

I have difficulty keeping track of assignment and project due dates. What do you recommend?

Many of our students have found that slip-ups in tracking assignments and projects can present a real obstacle to their success. Our organizational coaching helps students with attention-related concerns and/or executive functioning issues to manage daily challenges, such as prioritizing time, connecting actions to outcomes, and planning ahead.

Our homework coaches have found that Google Calendar-- a creative, unique, free online time-management tool--can help ameliorate this problem. Our tutors (and, sometimes, their parents or members of their support team) also have access to these calendars, and can facilitate the system or make notes and suggestions where appropriate.

Are any of your homework coaches Massachusetts certified learning disabilities specialists?

Yes, two of our tutors are experienced teachers with LD certification and training. Four others have substantial experience with students who have learning disabilities. All have deep skill sets across the curriculum. They offer substantial, knowledgeable academic support in math, science, history, language arts and test prep in addition to working with their students to increase their conscious awareness of the various strategies available in their own academic situations and how to choose the ones that will be optimal.

What support do you offer in addition to face-to-face sessions?

We offer the following optional support services. We prorate whichever services you choose at $50 per hour and itemize them on your weekly invoice.

  • In order to foster consistency and responsibility, we provide brief, daily support, direction and feedback to our students via telephone and email if requested. These homework check-ins can be very helpful to students who have difficulty with executive functions.
  • If requested, we email our students’ professors and advisors for clarification of assignments, feedback on student progress, information on make-up work owed, etc.
  • We offer a weekly report detailing the current work, noting progress achieved and discussing areas of concern.
  • Please note that we invoice time spent on email and telephone communications from parents to tutors and from tutors to parents as support services.
  • We are available to attend support team meetings. We invoice attendance at meetings within 8 miles of Lexington at $85 per hour. We add a travel surcharge when such meetings are farther afield.
  • Prearranged, prepaid, scheduled Skype video sessions can supplement homework coaching sessions. Our rate for supplementary homework coaching by Skype video is $80 per hour.


 █►For more details or to schedule your first session, please call 781-652-9649 or click   here   to send us an email.
 


 Expertise
 

Josh Sanford, MEd

  • Learning disabilities faculty at a metro west school
  • MEd, Lesley Unversity
  • BA, Bates College--Classical and Medieval Studies with a secondary concentration in Educational Studies
  • 11 years of experience in working in Special Education
  • At the college level, tutors courses required for LD degrees & Classical and Medieval Studies
  • Is a very effective homework coach across the curriculum
  • Massachusetts Educator’s certification: Special Education – Moderate 5-12

Gina Moran, MEd

  • Learning disabilities faculty at a metro west school
  • MA, Simmons
  • BA, Emmanuel College--English Communication, with a minor in Political Science
  • 2 years of experience in working in Special Education
  • At the college level, tutors political science & courses required for LD degrees
  • Massachusetts Educator’s certifications: English 5-12; ESL 5-12 and Special Education – Moderate 5-12

Nevin Katz, MEd

  • Online curriculum specialist with a firm in Newton
  • MEd, Harvard University
  • BA, Swarthmore College--Biology, with additional work in Chemistry
  • Author and illustrator of the Dr. Birdley Teaches Science series, a nationally published set of teacher resource books for secondary school classrooms.
  • 8 years of experience teaching at the secondary level
  • At the college level, tutors biology, chemistry, physics & calculus, provides writing coaching & tutors web design & front-end web development (HTML, CSS, Adobe Tools--Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign & Photoshop)
  • Massachusetts Educator’s certifications: Biology, Grades 5-12

Suzanne Hyslip, MEd

  • Learning disabilities faculty at a metro west school
  • MEd, Lesley Unversity
  • BA, Lehigh University--English
  • 4 years of experience in working in Special Education and teaching history
  • At the college level, provides writing coaching and homework coaching, tutors chemistry, psychology, political science and courses required for LD degrees and provides ESL instruction
  • Massachusetts Educator’s certifications: Special Education – Moderate 5-12, English (5-12), Humanities (5-8, History (5-12) and ESL (PreK-12)

Brandon Robinson, MEng

  • Principal/Managing Partner/Asset Manager at a metro west investment firm
  • BS & MEng—Cornell, with honors
  • Founder and Project Manager of the Cornell Snake Arm Robot Design Team
  • Authored and orated winning paper presentation at the ASME 2004 Student Mechanism Design Competition.
  • Selected to represent Cornell Systems Engineering at the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) 2004 conference in Toulouse, France.
  • Paper co-author “The Design and Manufacture of a Snake Arm Robot” presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2003 Rochester Conference.
  • Tutors calculus, physics, accounting, history, physical sciences, provides research paper support
  • Is an incredibly effective homework coach in all of the above plus a vast array of courses ranging from cinematography to philosophy

Mike Cappillino, BS

  • Molecular biologist
  • BS, University of Massachusetts, Boston--Biology
  • previous to his past 4 years with us, substantial professional experience as a molecular biologist, web developer, technical writer, and SAT prep coach
  • At the college level, tutors biology, general chemistry & organic chemistry & physics, calculus & tutors general chemistry & organic chemistry
  • Is an exceptionally talented homework coach across the curriculum with a with a knack for improving his students’ organizational & study skills

Sarah Hughes, MEd

  • Math department head at a metro west school
  • MEd, Harvard Unversity
  • BA in English and Math, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
  • Massachusetts Educator’s certifications: English and Math.
  • At the college level, tutors English & American literature, composition & writing; calculus, algebra, precalculus/trigonometry & geometry
  • Is a very effective homework coach in all of the above plus biology, chemistry, physics, history  & Spanish

Amy Berninger, MPh

  • Senior analyst in program implementation and policy evaluation at a public policy, business research and consulting firm in Cambridge
  • MPh--Boston University--Epidemiology
  • BS-—State University of New York, Albany--Human Biology
  • Tutors algebra, geometry, statistics, probability, health, English lit & comp, American & world history, earth science, biology, chemistry & art history
  • Is a very effective homework coach in all of the above plus trig, precalculus, physics, psychology & anthropology, with a knack for improving her students’ organizational & study skills

 █►For more details or to schedule your first session, please call 781-652-9649 or click here to send us an email.

©2012 Lexington Tutoring, LLC.

All content on lexingtontutoring.com belongs to Lexington Tutoring, LLC. and may not be reproduced without our prior written consent. All of lexingtontutoring.com's content is protected under U.S. and international copyright laws. The material on our web site may be reproduced for use by a single user only. You may not modify, retransmit, sell, or copy any of our content in any way. Lexington Tutoring, LLC reserves the right to change the reproduction policy at any time without prior notice.