New York City Metro Area

New York City Faculty My Learning Springboard's faculty is comprised of top-notch educators at every level from private, public, and charter schools as well as colleges, universities, and subject matter experts in their respective industries. Our faculty is based in the NYC metro area, including parts of Westchester and Long Island. Other locations include Washington, DC metro area, Northwest DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Rockville, Maryland; and Palm Beach County, Florida, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Palm Beach. We are available for consultation, virtual tutoring and distance learning beyond these areas as well.

Christie Alexander

July 17, 2020

Christie Alexander, a compassionate teacher and private tutor with a talent for building strong relationships with students and families, has filled multiple roles in early childhood education. Most recently, she taught kindergarten at PS 234 in Tribeca, where she successfully aided her students and their families in the transition to remote learning. It was during this time that she came to fully appreciate the value of connecting with her students through one-on-one online meetings. In a challenging new learning environment, Christie prevailed in providing her students with rich learning experiences, receiving much positive feedback from the parents of students in her class. Furthermore, she bolstered her students’ academic skills in reading and math through a variety of differentiated activities.

Previous to teaching at PS 234, Christie Alexander taught pre-k and kindergarten at Little Missionary’s Day Nursery, a private school in the East Village. In this role, Christie took great joy in creating a project-based curriculum which followed student interest and integrated learning across content areas.

Christie Alexander earned her B.A. from American University, double majoring in International Studies and Spanish Language. After earning an additional degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Christie worked in the private sector for several years. Christie’s diverse work experience has added to her robust skill set as an educator; along the way she has honed organization and management skills, problem solving skills, and the ability to coach young children through emotional learning. Christie has experience teaching Investigations, Teachers College Reading and Writing Units of Study, Fundations (an Orton-Gillingham based program), and Sounds in Motion.

Becoming a mother is what made Christie discover her passion for working with children and drove her to pursue a graduate degree in Early Childhood Education at Hunter College. After graduating, she entered the workforce and hasn’t looked back.

In her free time Christie enjoys traveling, reading, cooking and baking, kickboxing and exercising, and spending time with her family.

Sam Kleinman

July 9, 2020

Sam Kleinman is a master teacher and private tutor with a wealth of diverse teaching experiences. He has taught at various international and private schools all over the world. Having started his teaching career as a third grade teacher at the Dalton School, Sam then moved on to Berlin, Germany where he worked at an American International School called the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin. There he taught as a 5th and 6th grade homeroom teacher. His latest school experience was at an international school located in Accra, Ghana, where he taught the 3rd grade PYP curriculum to a highly international class.

Becoming an educator has been a lifelong goal for Sam. His love of teaching began at the Ethical Culture Field School where he went to high school. As part of Fieldston Lower’s after-school program, Sam tutored students in need of math support. He loved the work and still holds the giant thank you card made by those early beginning students he first tutored. In college, Sam continued to explore his interest in education, working as a student-teacher at the local high school in Oberlin, Ohio. Upon graduating from college, Sam then went on to receive his Master’s of Childhood Education at the Bank Street College of Education in New York.

Sam Kleinman’s goal as an educator is to work with students to help them reach their full potential and develop an everlasting love for learning. He believes the most effective way to do this is to have students actively engaged in their learning while celebrating the small moments of success along the way. It is also important to Sam that teachers recognize that not everyone learns the same way and, therefore, he works to create an individualized learning environment, in which each student accesses the material comfortably. To accomplish this goal, Sam pulls from a wide range of strategies, using hands-on materials and interactive lessons, adhering to a modality that fits the child’s learning style.

As education has moved to online learning platforms, so has Sam as he has quickly adapted to these contemporary trends. He effectively utilizes digital tools to help students navigate their learning both intellectually and technologically. Sam strives to maintain a balance so that the learning environment is effective and relevant to the contemporary experience of education, while maintaining an online environment that is personal and connected.

Sam is a voracious reader and is currently working on his first novel. He has written for an online film magazine, and even though he no longer produces content for the website, he continues to passionately watch movies in his spare time. Sam is an avid New York sports fan, who grew up playing every sport known to mankind. He enjoys painting, music of every genre, astronomy and learning about the latest advances in the scientific pursuit of space exploration.

Elizabeth Schiff

March 20, 2020

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 Schiff 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 Schiff 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.

Deborah Berebichez

March 5, 2020

Deborah Berebichez is the first Mexican woman to graduate from Stanford University with a PhD in Physics, and she uses her education and background to make science approachable to a wide range of audiences. Debbie co-hosts Discovery Channel’s Outrageous Acts of Science TV show, where she uses her knowledge of physics to explain the science behind extraordinary engineering feats. She also appears as an expert on the Travel Channel, NOVA, CNN, FOX, MSNBC and numerous international media outlets.

Deborah is the Chief Data Scientist at Metis where she leads the creation and growth of exceptional data science training opportunities. Her responsibilities include ensuring the excellence of Metis’ data science bootcamps, corporate training, professional development as well as online programs. She is an active contributor to the national data science ecosystem through frequent public speaking and presentations on panels at data science conferences.

Debbie Berebichez -Media Reel

Watch this video on YouTube

Deborah Berebichez completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University’s Applied Math and Physics Department and at NYU’s Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences where she carried out research in the area of acoustic waves. She invented a highly effective technique in the field of wireless communications whereby a cell phone user can communicate with a desired target user in a location far away.

Deborah’s work in science education and outreach has been recognized by the WSJ, Oprah, TED, DLD, WIRED, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and others. She has recently been recognized as an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador for inspiring and empowering young women to learn science and to improve the state of STEM education in the world. She is a John C. Whitehead Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association, a winner of the Society of SHPE’s STAR Award and a recipient for Top Latina Tech Blogger by the Association of Latinos in Social Media LATISM.

Deborah has privately tutored and mentored students from middle school through college and can offer test preparation and coaching with the ISEE, SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests (Math, Physics, Spanish), AP Exams (Math, Physics, Spanish, Computer Science, Statistics) and GRE Physics. She can also help coach students at the college level in math and physics.

Daniel Penny

February 6, 2020

Daniel Penny is an educator and writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, a BA in English from Grinnell College, and an AA in liberal arts from Bard High School Early College. A Brooklyn native, he lives in Cambridge, UK and teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Cambridge Centre for Creative Writing. When he’s not teaching, he writes about art, design, and culture for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and elsewhere. He is also a former editorial staff-member at The New Yorker.

Since 2013, Daniel Penny has been a private tutor, writing coach, and editor, and has worked with clients at every stage of the writing process, from the blank page to the final draft. Some of these projects include: college and graduate school admissions materials, academic papers, reading responses, creative writing manuscripts, presentations, and artist statements. Daniel is also adept at helping clients improve their reading and writing standardized test scores, having achieved a perfect score himself in the reading section of the SAT.

As a professor in the first year writing program at Parsons School of Design and a former instructor at Columbia University’s Writing Center, Daniel subscribes to a writing pedagogy of agency, meaning that the student leads the session, and through targeted, yet open-ended questions from the tutor, their writing develops. To write well, Daniel believes that students must be able to read critically, and for this reason, he strongly emphasizes the techniques of close analysis, annotation, and reflection. When possible, he also encourages students to find ways to write about what they are passionate about so that students begin to see their research as an extension of their interests rather than the mere fulfillment of an assignment. His clients have included many differently abled students and students for whom English is a second language. Daniel is a committed, knowledgeable educator whose passion is to help students learn to write cogently and persuasively.

New York City Metro Area

Christie Alexander

Elizabeth Schiff

Deborah Berebichez

Daniel Penny

Company Overview

School Planning

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation