category: High School

Adele Brown

Adele Brown is a writer, English composition professor, and private tutor with her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English Literature and Writing from the University of Maryland. She teaches composition in the classroom at Montgomery College and online for the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC). In both venues, she reviews punctuation and grammar to refine students’ communication skills while she focuses on critical analysis and evaluation of texts so that students become more effective at organizing rhetorical responses to those texts for academic essays.

Adele Brown is also experienced in facilitating students’ research into credible sources for documentation in academic papers. She teaches college documentation formats to include updated versions of APA, MLA, and the new science-oriented CSE. At UMGC, she accomplishes this in the online classroom format, LEO, and she also engages in remote, e-tutoring for students utilizing Google Docs.

Other interests of Adele’s include creative writing, thus she loves teaching poetry writing workshops for elementary and middle school students in Maryland through the Maryland State Arts Council and has done so for years. She is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Freshwater Pearls, and The Moon Lighting, and she published a book of poetry writing workshops for young people, Look Ma, “Hands” on Poetry.

When not teaching and writing, Adele Brown enjoys reading (yes, poetry), concerts, old Hitchcock movies, and attending “The Bard’s” plays at the Washington Shakespeare Theater.

Johnathan Appel

A graduate of Amherst College, Johnathan Appel has worked as a private tutor, classroom teacher, editor, and writer since his junior year of high school. He has worked with students of vastly different ages in several schools around New York City, a university in China, two public schools in Taiwan, and the Hampshire County Jail in Massachusetts. He loves helping his students find what they’re passionate about in their writing, reading, and research. In addition, as a high scorer on the SAT himself (2350), he’s eager to help with standardized test preparation or general study skills.

Born and raised in New York City, Johnathan Appel graduated from St. Bernard’s School on the Upper East Side and Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. He then attended Amherst College, graduating magna cum laude with a BA in Political Science and Phi Beta Kappa distinction. Within the major, he concentrated in institutions and the reproductions of inequalities and completed a senior thesis on rhetoric and domestic welfare policy. During the latter half of college, he became fascinated by theater and participated in four productions (three as the lead) as well as writing and performing in a solo capstone piece. After graduation, he jetted off to Taiwan on a Fulbright English Teaching fellowship where he worked with 2^nd through 5^th graders at two public schools. Johnathan also teaches writing workshops at public and private elementary schools across New York City with the Story Pirates, a theater dedicated to encouraging young creative writers.

Johnathan Appel is a successful humor and satire writer, with multiple published articles in the New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and other online publications.

You might find Johnathan wandering around a bookstore buying everything in sight, hosting or performing in a comedy show, getting way too excited about Marvel movies. Johnathan Appel has spent his life trying to convince people that his first name isn’t misspelled, that his last name isn’t a fruit, and that he has no direct relationship with the hero of American folklore, Johnny Appleseed.

Elizabeth Schiff

Elizabeth Schiff is an enthusiastic Learning Specialist and private tutor with over 25 years experience teaching and tutoring reading, writing, math, science, French, and social studies for K-8th grades, as well as English, history and French for high school students. Elizabeth has an MS.Ed in Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education, an AB in English and American Literature from Brown University, and she graduated from The Brearley School. Elizabeth has taught all grades from Kindergarten to 4th and has tutored many students in 1st through 12th grades. Moreover, she is trained in Orton- Gillingham based interventions, including PAF.

Elizabeth absolutely loves teaching and makes learning fun! She has taught at private, public and charter schools, and has extensive experience with a broad range of learning styles and differences, including: ADD/ADHD; executive functioning; dyslexia and decoding; graphomotor/fine motor; processing; short term memory; receptive and expressive language; visual-spatial and motor planning; and anxiety disorder. She focuses on improving students’ self-esteem by offering consistent positive encouragement and feedback, supporting them academically, and teaching them the skills and analytical thinking they need in order to be successful.

Through informal assessments, Elizabeth develops an individualized plan that addresses each student’s strengths, interests and needs, and she uses a wide variety of developmentally-appropriate methodologies, resources, games and activities specifically designed for each student. She gives frequent oral and written feedback to parents, and stays in close communication with teachers and learning specialists when appropriate. She generally works long-term with students, but she also does test preparation for the ISEE, the SHSAT and the SSAT, and she teaches interview skills.

Elizabeth has tutored students from Dalton, Chapin, Brearley, Ethical Culture/Fieldston, Columbia Grammar, Trevor Day, Rodeph Sholom, The Town School, The Dwight School, Professional Children’s School, United Nations International School, Speyer Legacy, Stephen Gaynor, Gateway and multiple public schools.

Alexander Vinik

Alexander Vinik (“Zany”) is a Literacy Specialist, English Teacher, and private tutor with over a decade of experience across grade levels, disciplines, and student abilities/needs. He has a Master’s and certification in Adolescent English Education from Hunter Graduate School and a Master’s degree and certification in Literacy from SUNY Oneonta. Zany is well-trained in a variety of literacy assessments. Through these materials, student needs and interests are identified, enabling Zany to tailor content and curricula to maximize student engagement and achievement. He is trained in the Wilson Reading System, the Rewards Reading Intervention and a myriad of different methods and Best Practices.

Alexander Vinik (“Zany”) has taught high school for at-risk students as well as in a school for students who don’t fit into conventional school structures. He has worked in a special education self-contained classroom and in an elementary school with many ESL students. He worked as the Literacy Specialist at Manhattan High School — a New York City Department of Education District 75 school, where all students had IEPs. In this capacity, Zany was responsible for writing many of the IEPs and attending associated meetings. The students at Manhattan High School ranged in ability needs and diagnoses. For each student, Zany provided appropriate and engaging content activities and guidance. With a focus on growth and progress, as well as an undying belief in his students, Zany simultaneously strove to meet the high standards of the school system in which he worked.

Alexander Vinik (“Zany”) also helped students with organization and behavior within a classroom setting. As a SETSS provider, Zany pushed into classrooms and served to keep students focused and on- task. Interventions were put into place to help students’ materials remain in the right place, their homework done and handed in, and their schedules created and followed. In this context, Zany worked as a shadow for a number of students with autism and traumatic brain injury. He worked in a summer program for students with ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and successfully implemented behavior plans throughout his roles and career. In all settings, Zany’s work involved both literacy and other subject areas. A great tribute to him is that over the course of time that Zany worked with his students, many advanced significantly after only one year of his one-on-one literacy instruction.

Zany ‘s skill set includes working with student in the following test preparation areas: Regents (English and Social Studies,) SAT, GREs, LSAT, EdTpa and more. In addition, Zany can help with Bar and Bat mitzvah training as well as all areas in Torah.

Zany’s greatest strength is his ability to connect with students and facilitate hope, fun and ability. It is his belief that each student is unique, worthy and deserves to be treated with respect and care. Zany recognizes that progress, not perfection, is the goal and the path to achieving this is to identify needs and ignite interests within an engaging and well-planned course of study.

Avram Schlesinger

Avram Schlesinger — a private tutor and professional educator — is available to work with students from fourth through twelfth grade, and into the university years. He specializes in academic coaching, organizational and time management skills, personal essays as well as expository writing. Avram holds degrees from Occidental College, New York University, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He also spent time studying at Harvard University and in Florence, Italy.

For more than twenty years, Avram Schlesinger has been a teacher in both the Middle and Upper Divisions at one of the city’s most prestigious private schools. He teaches disciplines associated with both history and the humanities, he directs an interdisciplinary independent research program for graduating seniors, and he has taught English and Literature courses as well. His work extends beyond the classroom as an admissions interviewer and committee member. He spends time helping Middle Division Students after school once a week and has tutored throughout his career — even assisting students who are applying for graduate dental programs. During Avram’s tenure, he worked with the highly respected college counseling office at the school where in addition to meeting with colleges, he assisted running summer essay workshops and he served on the admissions committee of a highly selective liberal arts college. He works with the institutional equity office as a teacher and parent educator. He has attended seminars and conferences focusing on teaching humanities, essay writing, college counseling, adolescent brain development, listening and advising skills to name only a few.

In his career, Avram Schlesinger has written hundreds of recommendations and has coached families through academic and personal concerns. Avram remains a deeply committed advisor and a mentor to students and faculty. Avram is an avid outdoor person, flyfisherman, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt and a devotee of dark chocolate. His lives in Manhattan with his wife Jackie, their child Al and their dog Beau.

category: High School

Adele Brown

Elizabeth Schiff

Alexander Vinik

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