Middle/Junior High School Archives

Hillary Jordan

January 30, 2023

Hillary Jordan is an internationally bestselling author, screenwriter, writing teacher, and public speaker whose novels, Mudbound and When She Woke, have been translated into 16 languages. Mudbound won the prestigious PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, among other awards, and was adapted into a 2017 Netflix film that earned four Academy Award Nominations. Hillary has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia and a BA in English from Wellesley College. She speaks French with near fluency.

Hillary is a passionate proponent of good writing as an essential life skill that is an invaluable asset in any academic, social, or professional endeavor. She takes great pride in helping students of all levels express themselves with greater confidence, clarity, and concision.

Using a flexible approach tailored to each individual’s needs and strengths, she gives students the analytical and linguistic tools to write with intention and structure compelling arguments that persuade a reader, whether it be an English teacher, a college admissions director, or a grader for the ACT essays.

Hillary received a 5 on the AP English exam and has scored consistently in the 99th percentile in the Reading/Writing/Language sections of standardized tests, including the ACT, PSAT, SAT, and GRE. She is excited to help students navigate these tests and make them less intimidating by teaching them how to break down essays and literary passages into their elements and read closely for enhanced comprehension.

Hillary’s essays and reviews have been published in The New York Times Book Review, McSweeney’s, PASTE, and Outside Magazine. She has taught workshops for Stanford, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Hudson Opera House, as well as many workshops and craft talks at literary festivals.

She is represented for screenwriting by Anonymous Content and has been a member of the Writer’s Guild of America East since 2019. She lives in Brooklyn, along with half the writers in America.

Misha Shklyar

January 30, 2023

Misha Shklyar first started working on advanced math when he won 2nd place in St. Petersburg, Russia math competition and was recruited into the city math team. He continued his intensive studies until he immigrated to NYC with his family in 9th grade. Right away, Misha joined the math team at Brooklyn Tech and throughout his high school career won numerous awards, including 1st place in New York City Ingerscholastic Math League and 1st place in New York State Math League. Misha earned his Bachelors in Pure Math from Columbia University and then pursued a PhD in Pure Math at the Graduate Center. However, he realized that teaching gave him a lot more pleasure than research, so he got an additional degree in education and became a high school math teacher.

Misha started tutoring math when he was in high school and since then worked with students on all levels, from 5th grade all the way up to graduate school. The bulk of Misha’s students are high school students who need help in advanced math – subject SAT, Calculus or Competition Math. For example, a student needed to quickly learn BC Calculus to get a 5 on the AP and Misha made that happen.

Misha Shklyar is extremely passionate about advanced mathematics. Every Saturday, he works at two of the most competitive math enrichment programs in New York – New York Math Circle and Math-M-Addicts. Misha enjoys teaching challenging concepts the students don’t cover in school, like mass point geometry, inequalities and proof techniques. He also started a math team at his current school and is hoping to instill a passion and appreciation of mathematics among the students in his school.

In the past, Misha tutored high school math from Algebra I all the way through AP Calculus and AP Statistics as well as college-level math like Multivariable Calculus, Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis. He helped many students improve their scores on SAT and ACT. He also worked with students on deepening their knowledge with advanced material that went beyond the school curriculum, which involved help with AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12 and AIME.

Misha doesn’t have much free time, but whenever he has a spare moment, he likes to fold Modular Origami models. Some examples of those models can be found in this video:

Origami Creation Process (No Glue)

Watch this video on YouTube

Rachel Levinsky

January 30, 2023

Rachel Levinsky has been an educator for over 20 magical years. She has been a New York City public school educator for 18 years, and has also taught in Chile, Egypt, Taiwan, and Shanghai.

Rachel’s undergraduate studies at Colorado College, graduate work at Columbia University’s Teacher College for a master’s in curriculum development, Hunter College for certification in administration, and Hamline University for a master’s in TESOL have prepared her with the skills to plan tailored curriculum for specific student needs. Rachel has two sons and the family enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, and lots of baking. The house is always filled with the scent of someone’s cooking project and the walls are lined with everyone’s favorite books. Rachel loves incorporating these interests into her teaching, often teaching fractions through baking or sewing projects, or working on writing skills by creating plays. No matter what your child’s interests are, Rachel will find a way to include those special assets in their work together.

Rachel Levinsky has teaching and private tutoring experience with all elementary ages and also taught middle school for eleven years. Rachel has been a classroom teacher, English as a New Language teacher, and an interventionist, supporting struggling learners in reading, writing, or math. Teaching so many different subjects and students has helped Rachel develop a facility with adapting to any new learning environment and meeting any student’s needs accordingly. Rachel always incorporates games and projects so that learning is fun and engaging.

Rachel works to light the spark that leads to a lifelong love of reading. Matching children to the perfect book series is a particular joy. Rachel has a wide library of books for all levels of readers. She is trained in Heggerty, Sounds in Motion, and works with a Bank Street literacy initiative. All of these programs develop children’s phonemic awareness, as hearing the sounds that compose our words is the basis for reading. Rachel is also trained in Fundations and SPIRE, two Orton-Gillingham based programs that systematically develop phonics. Rachel also has 18 years of experience teaching with the Teachers College Reading and Writing units of study to develop reading comprehension.

Rachel is currently using the Illustrative Math program, a constructivist program that provides multiple opportunities for learners to build number sense through games and problem solving. She also has experience with Engage Math. Rachel works to build students’ confidence in math through games to develop number sense and applying literacy skills to understanding word problems.

Rachel has experience preparing students for the NYSESLAT test (a test that measures English language proficiency in New York State), the New York State ELA test, and the New York State Math test.

Rachel believes in asset-minded teaching, harnessing your child’s strengths to approach the areas of struggle. With engaging activities and games, your children will develop a growth mindset, understanding that while certain skills might be challenging for them now, they are always making progress.

Susan Selvin

October 10, 2022

Susan Selvin has over twenty years of experience teaching in college preparatory middle and high schools, including L.A.’s prestigious Buckley School and Greens Farms Academy in Connecticut. With a Ph.D. in French Language and Literature from UCLA, she takes particular joy in her private tutoring work with her students, creating personalized instruction that encourages them to capitalize on their unique talents and interests. Alongside content related tutoring, she emphasizes executive function skills – including time management, organization, and prioritization of tasks – to maximize her students’ success in all areas of learning.

In addition to her expertise teaching the Humanities across high school and middle school classrooms, she’s guided students through the college application process, assisting with essay writing and standardized test preparation, including the AP French Language and Culture exam and the verbal portions of the SAT. Susan also holds a TESOL certificate from UCLA and has taught introductory and remedial high school English courses, including reading comprehension and writing instruction for students for whom English is a second language.

Susan approaches learning with patience, kindness, and flexibility – a teaching philosophy developed over a long career in the classroom (and from having two grown daughters of her own!). In her spare time, she loves reading contemporary fiction, running in Central Park, and exploring New York’s many museums.

Emma Kash

October 10, 2022

Emma Kash always dreamed of having her own classroom as a child and looked up to her elementary school teachers. She made those dreams come true after graduating in 2014 from Keene State College, in Keene, NH, with Bachelor of Science degrees in elementary and special education, and a third major in English. She received her NCATE accredited certification from the state of New Hampshire in elementary education for grades K-6 and special education for grades K-12. After graduation, Emma moved back to her hometown near Albany, New York, and received her NYS certification in childhood education for grades 1-6 as well as teaching students with disabilities for grades 1-6. Shortly after, she began long-term substituting as a special educator in the Albany area. By 2015, Emma decided to fulfill another dream of hers and move to NYC, where she joined the Department of Education and has worked as a special educator in grades K-5 for the last 7 years. During the first year, Emma worked in Mill Basin, Brooklyn as a kindergarten teacher and Special Education Teacher Support Services provider for kindergarten and 1st grade students. From there, she moved to teach in Harlem at P.S. 123, Mahalia Jackson School, as a 2^nd grade special education teacher in an inclusion classroom (ICT). In 2017, she moved to P.S. 124, Yung Wing Elementary, in Chinatown. At P.S. 124, she has taught grades 3-5 as a special educator in the inclusion classrooms (ICT). Emma has many years of experience working with students with ADHD, students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), students with speech and language-based learning disabilities, and students with a variety of other learning challenges. Through her work as a special educator and learning specialist, she has taught lessons and skill building focused on developing executive functions, along with modifying the academic curriculum to fit the needs of her students.

Emma Kash regularly engages in professional development. In 2022, Emma was trained in grading the NYS ELA test and has since graded 3^rd through 5^th grade assessments. This experience was especially useful in her classroom as well as her private tutoring in order to incorporate test preparation into her teaching. Emma is also trained in the Wilson Intervention Program, which included the Fundations and Just Words programs. These Orton-Gillingham based programs help students with phonics and word work, including a variety of multisensory decoding strategies. Emma also attended Social Emotional Learning (SEL) professional development and has joined her school RULER team, which promotes incorporating social-emotional learning and strategies into schools and communities. Though Emma specializes in literacy and word work, she has successfully implemented NYC math curricula while teaching in the elementary school setting. For several years, Emma has been using the SAVVAS Realize Investigations Math curriculum, aligned with Common Core Standards. In the past, she used Go Math and prior to that has used Engage NY Math, Eureka Math, and IXL Learning.

Recently, Emma has been attending SUNY Oneonta through a remote Master of Education program in literacy education. By the Spring of 2023, Emma will graduate with a Master of Education degree in literacy education and will apply for certification in literacy. Another goal for Emma is to one day help other educators best improve their literacy teaching strategies and support students with literacy needs.

When Emma is not teaching, she is enjoying cooking at home in Astoria, Queens with friends and traveling the world. Emma seeks to inspire her students to follow their hopes and dreams by expanding on her own.

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Hillary Jordan

Misha Shklyar

Rachel Levinsky

Susan Selvin

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