English and Language Arts (ELA) Archives

Evelisse Mercado

September 22, 2014

A high experienced and master teacher within the New York City Department of Education and a private tutor, Evelisse Mercado not only engages her students in learning, but she is also a reflective practitioner who evaluates all teaching practices and continuously seeks to improve her methods. Evelisse strives to personalize learning for each of her students while building off their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses. Her strong rapport with families has led to exponential learning growth for each of her students.

While working in the New York City public school system, Evelisse Mercado taught first, second, third, and fifth grade students within a general education and Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) setting. Throughout her extensive experiences, she created Individualized Education Plans while addressing the wide array of learning needs within her classroom. These learning needs include students with Speech and Language Impairments, Learning Disabilities, Executive Functioning Disorders, ADD/ADHD, Anxiety, and high functioning students with Autism. Evelisse also worked as a summer school special education teacher for two consecutive years at Mount Pleasant Blythedale Union Free School District in Valhalla, N.Y. In all settings, Evelisse continuously aims to engage all learners, including English Language Learners, through scaffolding and differentiating activities wherever appropriate.

In addition to her extensive in-person teaching experiences, Evelisse also uses a variety of online collaborative tools to engage her students via remote learning. Through the use of Zoom, Skype, and Google apps, Evelisse caters to your child’s individual needs by preparing highly engaging/interactive virtual lessons. As a result of these lessons, students are motivated to learn and are eager to attend the next learning session.

Evelisse Mercado is a Highly Effective Teacher who has high expectations for all students. Evelisse genuinely believes all educators serve as a role model for their students both in the classroom and in the community. Evelisse is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in School Building Leadership at City College. Evelisse hopes to continue to motivate and stimulate young learners and educators as they explore and discover.

Sara Levin

August 28, 2014

Sara Levin is currently a Private Tutor and teacher at PS 172 in Brooklyn, a high performing Blue Ribbon award winning school, where she has taught in both third grade general education and inclusion (ICT) settings. Sara received her B.A. from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 2005, with a major in Political Science and a minor in Spanish.

Sara then worked in advertising and media planning in New York City at Universal McCann and Allied Advertising, providing media plans and negotiating deals for print advertising for movie studio film releases. A career in education was always at the back of Sara’s mind. Eventually she realized how unfulfilled she felt working in advertising, and kept finding herself daydreaming about teaching, so she decided to go for it. She earned a Master’s in Childhood Education and Special Education from New York University in 2009.

While attending graduate school at NYU, Sara student taught in a second grade micro-ICT class within the ASD NEST program at PS 32 in Brooklyn where she provided instruction to high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum as well as general education students in an inclusion class. She also student taught in a fourth and fifth grade self-contained special education class at P.S. 212, where she learned a lot about the importance of structure and organization in the classroom. Both of these experiences taught her valuable lessons about differentiating instruction, tailoring teaching to the individual children.

In addition to teaching third grade for the past four years PS 172, Sara has been very involved in their curriculum development and implementation for reading, writing, mathematics, and social studies, as well as the school’s strong test preparation curriculum. She has experience working with programs such as EngageNY Math, GoMath, Everyday Math, Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop, Fundations as well as with Math and ELA test preparation. She has worked with diverse learners within the special education community, English Language Learners, and gifted learners, and believes that every student can learn.

Sara believes it is up to the teacher to get to know each child and find the materials and teaching strategies to best support and teach each student. Sara also feels strongly about empowering each student and building confidence. Sara has used her strong communication skills to build relationships with colleagues and families within the school community.

Outside of the classroom, Sara loves to travel, ski and play tennis, read, try new restaurants and spend time with her friends and family in New York City and New Jersey, especially at the beach!

Jaime Mezon

August 21, 2014

Jaime Mezon is passionate educator and private tutor. Most recently, he was on faculty at The Elisabeth Morrow School as a first grade head teacher. Before that, Jaime was on faculty at Avenues in Chelsea where he was a teacher in a Spanish immersion section of kindergarten. Additionally, Jaime worked as an admissions consultant for Avenues. As an admission consultant, Jaime assessed a variety of incoming students through model lessons and hosted playgroups. He joined Avenues from P.S./I.S. 210, Twenty-First Century Academy for Community Leadership in Manhattan, where he worked as a teacher in a bilingual special education fifth grade classroom.

Prior to P.S./I.S. 210, Jaime Mezon was an assistant teacher, supporting classroom teachers in an inclusive special education kindergarten classroom at P.S. 029 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. He facilitated the Kids Club after-school enrichment program, where he practiced motor skills with lower elementary students through arts and crafts and provided homework support to middle school students. Prior to this role, he provided language instruction to emergent bilingual Spanish-speaking students, and tutored K-6 students in various subjects through the Alianza Dominicana MOSAIC Beacon in the Bronx. Jaime creates an environment where children are motivated and confident in their abilities to perform above expectations. He is skilled in Fundations, Wilson’s reading system, Handwriting without Tears, TERC Investigations, GO Math, Math in Focus, Singapore Math and ReadyGEN.

Jaime Mezon received a B.A. in Economics from SUNY New Paltz and an M.S.Ed. in Bilingual Special Education from the City College of New York. He is fluent in both Spanish and English.

In his free time, Jaime enjoys reading, traveling, playing basketball, and spending time with family.

Eminesse Gonzalez

June 4, 2014

Eminesse Gonzalez is currently a Learning Specialist on faculty at The Spectrum School, working with Kindergarten and first grade students with autism spectrum disorder. Eminesse also teaches a 1st Grade class on Saturday mornings through the GO Project, providing extra support to students in public schools and teaching reading, writing, and math strategies that are aligned with the Common Core Standards. As a private tutor, she works with a wide range of learners in elementary and middle school. Eminesse received both her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree from Pace University, with a combined focus in Elementary Education and Special Education.

Eminesse has provided instruction in an array of different environments, working with first, third and fourth grade students from diverse backgrounds. Her experiences have helped her to her fully understand that every child is unique and learns differently. In Valhalla, New York, Eminesse worked as a student teacher where she gained experience with differentiation in regards to literacy and math. In Manhattan, New York, Eminesse was welcomed into a new academic community where she gained her first experience teaching in an inclusion classroom. For a full academic year, she assisted students of different cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds who, she is proud to say, demonstrated tremendous growth by the end of the year.

Eminesse exudes a genuine passion for teaching and learning. In 2013, she had the opportunity to present at the 9^th International Literacy Conference in Guatemala City, Guatemala. While visiting underprivileged schools in Guatemala, Eminesse had the opportunity to share interdisciplinary teaching methods with educators around from the world. Her main objective was to invite teachers to utilize more creative approaches in the hopes of enhancing literacy within all academic subjects. For Eminesse, visiting Guatemala City was an eye opening experience that reinforced the concepts of collaboration, differentiation, and being a reflective practitioner.

Eminesse currently resides in the Lower East Side area of Manhattan where she enjoys reading, trying new restaurants, and spending time with family and friends. This year she hopes to continue her love of traveling, which she attributes to her open-mindedness and love of learning.

Shuhan Hu

November 3, 2013

Shuhan Hu graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers University with a B.A. in English Literature and Political Science. She is a native Mandarin Chinese speaker who was born and raised in the United States. She grew up in an environment enriched with the Chinese language and culture, however Shuhan took her Chinese language skills to a higher level by immersing herself in Chinese culture, living in Taipei, Taiwan for two years. There she studied Mandarin Chinese at ShiDa University and worked as a private English tutor.

She taught elementary through advanced level English to native Chinese speakers in Taiwan and has had students of all different ages ranging from Pre-K to young professionals.

Shuhan Hu believes in an interactive classroom, so whether it is a private tutoring session between tutor and student or a large class of 20 kids, she believes communication and a strong connection between the teacher and student is imperative to a successful learning experience. This is why she takes the time to build a relationship with each of her students, learning how they learn and what they are passionate about. She caters each of her lessons to the needs and interests of her students incorporating activities such as games and arts and crafts for younger students and a diverse selection of novels, articles and short films for older students.

Regardless of the specific topic of the lesson, Shuhan always integrates critical thinking, note taking, reading comprehension, and brainstorming skills into each lesson. She believes these are essential skills to have both in the classroom and out of the classroom in every day life. Although acquiring efficient study skills is important for a successful academic career, she believes pure rote memorization of vocabulary words is not conducive to actual learning. Learning is a fun and dynamic activity!

Shuhan is passionate about languages and different cultures; she loves to travel to learn as much as possible. She started off early in life, traveling to France in high school on a student exchange program. Living abroad for a mere three months, she experienced her first culture shock, learning just how diverse the world truly is. After France, Shuhan continued with her interest in different cultures and languages by focusing her thesis on the political climate of South Africa. She studied abroad in South Africa where, she learned Afrikaans and the Zulu language as well. In her spare time, Shuhan likes to discover new books, music and artists alike.

Evelisse Mercado

Sara Levin

Jaime Mezon

Shuhan Hu

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