Executive Function; Organizational & Study Skills Archives

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.

Zubeida Ullah

February 11, 2014

Zubeida Ullah, M.S.Ed. is a New York State licensed Learning Specialist who focuses on relatedness and socialization skills for early childhood and school-age learners. She holds certification in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention in Schools via Cornell University and is proud to be a Breathe for Change Wellness Champion. Additionally, Zubeida is a Registered Yoga Teacher, via Yoga Alliance (RYT-200), who works to incorporate mindful movement and meditation into social/emotional, as well as, academic support services for learners of all ages.

With a deep commitment to a team-based approach to inclusion, Zubeida works in collaboration with parents, classroom teachers, therapists, school administrators, and related service providers to develop and implement an in-depth, individualized plan for social and academic success. Zubeida also provides home-based dyadic interventions with parent and child and coordinates and facilitates specialty workshops. Zubeida is currently employed as a full time ICT/Special Education and Yoga Teacher with the New York City Department of Education.

Zubeida attended Bard College and received her B.A. in American studies. She then went on to receive her Master’s from Adelphi University in Special Education for School Age Learners (K-12) and Elementary Education (Pre-K – 6), writing her Master Seminar Paper on depression in Pre-School Aged Children. She worked as a lead teacher at Barrow Street Nursery School in an inclusive classroom, and she has since worked as a Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) with the Bank Street College Home and Community Program, the Rivendell School in Brooklyn, and Starting Point Services for Children. Zubeida is also a member of the Association of Educational Therapists.

After school private tutoring and intervention services can be provided with respect to each child’s specific goals, learning style, and needs. Service locations often vary to meet student need. Zubeida’s favorite places to teach include, but are not limited to, playgrounds, museums, client homes, camps, and community programs.

Gail Kleiner

October 27, 2013

Gail Kleiner brings over 30 years of teaching experience to private tutoring. She has taught in New York City public schools and in the Westchester suburbs. She has successfully tutored students in reading, writing, history and other social science subjects. Gail brings a wealth of knowledge and great compassion to her individualized tutoring work.

“Nothing brings me more satisfaction than getting to know students on an individual basis and helping them strengthen their skills and produce work they are proud of and delighted by.”

Gail Kleiner is passionate about working with all types of students—those who excel and strive to reach even greater heights and those that struggle to keep up with the pace and quantity of work assigned. She works with students to learn how to learn so they can apply the skills practiced during tutoring sessions to their independent work. She has successfully helped students write analytic and personal essays for English, research papers on a range of topics for social studies and history classes as well as prepare for exams in these same subjects. Gail also enjoys working with students to develop literacy skills more broadly so they can feel stronger and participate more fully in all of their classwork.

Gail Kleiner’s familiarity with school and teacher expectations allows her to guide students to produce high quality work that will satisfy these expectations while ensuring that they maintain and develop their own ideas and perspectives. Gail’s students describe feeling empowered to develop and clarify their own ideas and to powerfully and coherently express them. After recently working with a student on a lengthy, challenging research paper, the student expressed surprise and delight at seeing how the incremental process of approaching the task now became doable.

Parents and students alike appreciate Gail’s friendly demeanor, level of energy and expertise and her ability to help students realize their potential.

From her first day in the classroom, Gail knew that working with young people was her calling. She continues to cherish time spent with her students and is honored to help them develop confidence and new skills. She values the bonds that develop as teacher and student sit side-by-side, accepting and overcoming challenges together.

Rebecca Sunde

November 24, 2012

Rebecca Sunde began tutoring math when she was 13, and it has been been a passion of hers ever since. When working with her students as a Private Tutor, Rebecca enjoys working with students across a wide range of ages and topics, particularly math, French, and organizational and executive functioning coaching. She especially loves teaching the math sections of standardized tests (SAT, ACT, ISEE, SSAT, SHSAT, and GRE) and test-taking strategies in general. She believes that harnessing a student’s own intuition and logic is the key to mastering a complex subject—rote memorization begone!

Rebecca Sunde earned her Bachelor’s degrees in Organizational Studies and French at the University of Michigan, where she was awarded the Mastery of a Foreign Language Award as well as a scholarship based on her performance in math coursework. She spent her junior year studying art history in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Originally from Augusta, Georgia, and Holland, Michigan, Rebecca moved to Manhattan to work remotely as a full-time research assistant for one of her professors at the University of Michigan. She spent several years conducting historical research in New York’s archives as well as those in Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Paris. The resulting book, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson, was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in Nonfiction and a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Rebecca also holds an Associate’s degree in Womenswear Fashion Design from Parsons and has interned at several fashion design houses, including Oscar de la Renta and Rosie Assoulin.

In her free time, Rebecca enjoys reading, organizing friends’ apartments, visiting France, learning about nutrition, and practicing yoga and pilates. She lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and dog, a playful Australian Shepherd.

Paley Munn

September 12, 2012

Between New York and Florida, Paley Munn brings over 20 years of experience teaching students with a variety of disabilities. She began her career in Miami-Dade County working with students with severe emotional disturbances as both a classroom teacher and a behavior management specialist. She also participated as a district trainer for Functional Assessment of Behavior (FBA) the year of its inception and beyond.

A move to NYC in 2000 brought on a change of scenery working in private schools as a classroom teacher for students with learning disabilities and then as a learning specialist, one-on-one and in small groups. Paley taught at York Preparatory, Winston Preparatory, and the Churchill School in Manhattan. After several years she ventured into private practice, continuing her work as a learning specialist, as well as homeschooling terminally ill students, consulting on behavior and organization within students’ homes and the school environment, tutoring students in a variety of subjects from writing to Biology to SAT/ACT preparation, and shadowing and supporting students within an early childhood environment.

In 2009, Paley returned to South Florida as an ESE Specialist, ESOL Coordinator, and Guidance Counselor at a charter school in Broward County. She also taught Middle School English-Language Arts. Currently, she works as an ESE Specialist and Team Leader for a Special Education program within a High School in Broward County. Paley is enjoying her venture into administration: mentoring both students and other educators, maintaining legal compliance, and managing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and evaluations.

Paley is a graduate of Tulane University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She received her Master’s degree in Human Relations at New York Institute of Technology majoring in mental health and addictions counseling. Her work as an addictions counselor introduced her to the world of education, where she learned that many of her adolescent clients were High School dropouts. She decided to take her work to a more proactive environment, to the schools where these adolescents were previously enrolled in order to reduce the drop out rate. She found herself teaching in inner city Miami when she decided to go back to school to earn her second Master’s degree in Special Education from Florida International University. Paley graduated with honors and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

Paley brings to My Learning Springboard expertise in both learning and behavior, and she is able to tutor across many disciplines – writing, reading comprehension, mathematics, science, organization, critical thinking, study skills, and SAT/ACT preparation. Her experience has honed her skills in understanding learning styles so that she can identify student’s areas of strength, and work with them to utilize these strengths to compensate for the areas in which they struggle. She is also able to work with families to develop organized study and homework areas within their home, as well as developing behavioral goals and setting up programs for reaching these goals. With her older students, she excels at working with them to self-advocate. While she specializes in working with students with Specific Learning Disabilities or diagnosed Emotional Challenges, she also works with typical learners who may be struggling or need bolstering.

When she isn’t tutoring, Paley enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, working out, and experimenting with healthy cooking and baking gluten free treats.

Zubeida Ullah

Gail Kleiner

Rebecca Sunde

Paley Munn

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