Pre-K Archives

Evelyn Gmoser

October 28, 2017

Evelyn Gmoser earned her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education for grades 1-6, and her Master’s Degree in Special Education for grades 1-12. She is currently a self-contained, English Language Arts (ELA) teacher for 7^th and 8^th grades in the New York City Department of Education at IS125 in Woodside, Queens.

Prior to working with the New York City Department of Education, Evelyn worked in a Career Connections classroom with students with severe physical, emotional and cognitive disabilities. In all of her teaching settings, Evelyn worked with students to reinforce skills taught during daily lessons in small group and individual settings. As necessary, Evelyn has implemented behavior support plans and collected data on students through discrete trials. Evelyn has also integrated Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) methodologies within the classroom to help her provide appropriate behavioral interventions for all students.

Currently, as a self-contained special education teacher, Evelyn teaches students with various academic needs and abilities. She designs and implements differentiated lesson plans, activities, and assessments to ensure the success of a diverse group of students at a Title 1 school. She is experienced and skillful with differentiating instruction to accommodate all learning styles, strengths, and areas of need. Evelyn is trained in Really Great Reading’s Boost and Blitz phonics programs and has seen great success amongst her struggling readers; these are both Orton-Gillingham based approaches. She enhances and adapts instruction to maximize student engagement, motivation, and progress.

Evelyn is extremely passionate about teaching and enjoys finding ways to help students achieve academic success. She creates interactive lessons by integrating technology and hands-on activities with real-life application. Evelyn believes that using technology in the classroom is an effective way to get students excited about learning, while supporting various learning styles.

Evelyn is an outgoing and energetic person, with a love for education. She uses that energy and love to create engaging lessons that can nurture a classroom of lifelong learners.

Over the years, Evelyn has worked with students as a private tutor across all grade levels and subject areas, with particular focus in reading instruction. She works with students to provide them with skills and strategies for acquiring and comprehending new content as well as reinforcing previously learned information. Evelyn helps provide the students with studying and organizational skills to help them become stronger students. She feels it is crucial to help students identify their strengths, in addition to supporting their relative weaknesses, to give them the confidence they need to become successful students.

In her free time, Evelyn enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling with friends and family. She has had many wonderful traveling experiences and looks forward to continuing her explorations in the years to come.

Brad Hoffman

April 28, 2017

Brad Hoffman, Educational Consultant and C0-Founder of My Learning Springboard (MLS), has always loved working with students and their families. He believes in the power of collaboration and advocates for a holistic, 360-degree view of education that is grounded in sensibility and balance. Brad and his wife, Faya Hoffman, founded My Learning Springboard in 2009.

Brad and Faya partner with each family to provide an integrated and meaningful experience, which often includes collaboration with school faculty and related service professionals at a family’s request. Through their unique structure and individualized approach, they offer a wide range of services to students, families, and schools. They see learning as a lifelong journey, and their goal is to help students of all ages enjoy the ride, build confidence, and achieve success.

Brad and Faya are both Board Certified Educational Planners (a specialized type of Educational Consultant) and Learning Specialists. As a boutique multidisciplinary educational consulting firm and Learning Concierge® service, My Learning Springboard offers a wide range of educational consulting services at every level from nursery through college.

These services include:

Our school planning and placement expertise includes both day schools and boarding schools across mainstream, specialized, and therapeutic settings as well as virtual schools and homeschooling.

Professional Associations

Brad Hoffman is a Board Certified Educational Planner (AICEP) and Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) with specialty designations in mainstream day and boarding schools, specialized schools for students with learning disabilities, and therapeutic placements, including therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centers, and wilderness programs. He is also a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) as well as the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP).

My Learning Springboard is a member of ISAAGNY, a consortium of independent schools in and around New York City, and Brad Hoffman C0-Chairs the committee Friends of ISAAGNY, which includes educational consultants and community-based organizations. My Learning Springboard is also a member of The Enrollment Management Association (EMA, formerly SSATB) as well as WISER, the Washington Independent Services for Educational Resources (WISER), which is a network of professional leaders in the Washington, DC metro area.

Brad Hoffman’s Teaching Background

Over the past 25 years, Brad Hoffman has worked with students from pre-kindergarten through Fortune 500 executives as a classroom teacher, tutor, curriculum writer, human resources talent development specialist, and educational consultant. Brad graduated magna cum laude from Penn State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and then received a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Hood College in Maryland graduating with honors. He is also an Elementary Math and Science Specialist and holds an Advanced Professional Teaching Certificate from the state of Maryland. Brad is trained in PAF Reading Intervention, an Orton-Gillingham based approach, Sounds In Motion, Read Naturally, Singapore Math, Everyday Math, and a variety of other programs and curriculum standards. In 2014, Brad was honored with the prestigious Penn State Alumni Achievement Award in honor of his significant contributions to the field of education.

My Learning Springboard | Company Overview

Watch this video on YouTube

During his undergraduate career, Brad Hoffman was an Assistant Teacher at Penn State’s Bennett Family Center (formerly called the Penn State Child Care Center) during all four years of college. He worked with children ages birth through 5 and participated in the center’s accreditation process with NAEYC. During his senior year of college, Brad was a Teacher Intern in England while studying at University of Chichester. There he taught a Year 2 class (ages 6/7) at an Infant School in all areas of the curriculum, including literacy, numeracy, technology, science, religion, history, PE, and Art. Upon graduation, Brad accepted a full-time lead teaching position in Frederick County, Maryland in a fully inclusive public school setting located in a rural part of the county. Children with both learning differences and physical disabilities were fully integrated in the regular classroom. One-third of Brad’s students had dyslexia and received specialized intervention, and two of his students were children with autism.

“While it was really challenging, I learned so much about how to differentiate classroom instruction for all types of learners, which is critical for any productive learning to occur.”

Brad played an integral part in facilitating his students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEP), a documented plan to help meet the unique needs of an individual learner with a learning disability. This assistance often required a team of related services experts to meet, ranging from the speech language specialist and school psychologist, to the parents, principal, and teacher(s). Working collaboratively always led to increased professionalism and greater student success.

In 2001, Brad relocated to Bethesda, Maryland to pursue a teaching position with Montgomery County Public Schools, one of the leading public school systems in the United States. He taught first and fourth grades at Somerset Elementary School in Chevy Chase, Maryland for five years, differentiating instruction for students at, below, or above grade level in addition to working with students identified as gifted and talented. Somerset is an internationally diverse community and one of the highest ranked elementary schools in Maryland; it is also a model Inclusion Program school. During this time, Brad earned his Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and partnered with the Somerset Educational Foundation, school faculty, and the school counselor to develop K-5 Service Learning curricula. Brad presented his curriculum work at both the county and state departments of education and was named a Maryland Service-Learning Fellow.

Brad Hoffman’s Corporate Background

In 2006, Brad Hoffman moved to New York City to start his second career in Human Resources with Time Inc., a Fortune 100 Media Company. As an educator, Brad brought a unique perspective to Corporate America and focused on Talent Development. He worked with clients across locations, divisions, and countries – over 5,000 employees – to design and implement customized learning solutions and strategic recruiting efforts to attract, develop, and retain talented employees. Brad also designed and managed summer internship programs for college and MBA students interested in media, general management, finance, and marketing career paths. These programs were designed as 10-week projects so that management could assess intern performance on authentic, thoughtful, and substantive tasks, while interns were also able to assess the company as a good fit for starting their careers.

Brad Hoffman’s LinkedIn profile

Brad Hoffman

My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Board Certified Educational Planner

A multidisciplinary educational consulting firm specializing in school planning, academic tutoring, and test preparation.

Upper West Side

New York,NY

10024

brad@mylearningspringboard.com

Phone: +1 (646) 580-9794

Last edited Sep 7, 2025 @ 10:23 am

Sage Haas

December 26, 2016

Sage Haas is an elementary school teacher and private tutor with over a decade of experience. For as long as Sage can remember, she has always wanted to be a teacher and learning specialist. She graduated from SUNY Buffalo with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences and a concentration in Education. Sage then completed a dual Master’s degree in childhood general and special education at Hunter College, as well as an advanced certificate in Gifted and Talented Education. While in graduate school at Hunter College, Sage was an Assistant Teacher at PS6 in Manhattan, where she developed a passion for a full inclusion model. She taught 3rd grade ICT at Brooklyn Arbor Elementary School (PS414) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for 5 years until relocating to London, UK. For the past 3 years, she taught at The American School in London and worked in grades 2, 3 and 4. She is proud to say that she truly loves what she does.

Sage believes that all children are unique in the way they think, grow, learn and explore. With the rigorous standards for school children today, Sage understands the importance of finding a way into the curriculum both as a classroom teacher and private tutor. In working with a wide range of students, Sage has been able to tailor instruction, materials, and supports in order to meet these diverse needs. Whether working with an individual, a small group, or a whole class, making real-world connections and making learning meaningful is a priority to her. Through exploration, discovery and practice, students will acquire the knowledge needed to forge connections, think critically, and foster the skills that lead to a healthy and fulfilling life.

In Sage’s free time she enjoys reading, art, traveling, hiking, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

Emily Andrews

August 26, 2015

Emily Andrews is an Early Childhood Learning Specialist.

She works as an independent consultant at a variety of private preschools as well as working one-on-one with children and families as a private tutor and parent coach.

She visits children in their homes and in their classrooms to observe, play, and make suggestions to their teachers and parents regarding how best to support their developing learning skills.

Emily has worked at a variety of early childhood settings in New York City for over ten years and has had a variety of roles ranging from a classroom teacher, a SEIT, a program director, and a consultant. She has unique program development experience having helped launch both an afters chool program and an inclusion preschool and has insights as to what skills a child may need to strengthen in order to thrive in a variety of educational settings.

Emily received a dual Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education from Bank Street College in 2007. In 2010, Emily was honored to be selected as one of 12 individuals for Bank Street’s Autism Annotation program, a U.S. federal fellowship that focused on deepening one’s preparation to work with student’s on the autism spectrum. Emily is passionate about supporting all children’s learning and classroom readiness skills, including: attention, executive functioning, social cognition, and most importantly CONFIDENCE. She believes that children acquire these skills most successfully when they are introduced through individualized play techniques that draw upon the child’s true interests and strengths.

Emily is also a parent to a lively and charming two year old girl!

Rachel Hirshan

July 10, 2015

Rachel completed her undergraduate degree from University at Buffalo in speech language pathology. She then earned her Master’s at CW Post in General and Special Education, Grades 1-6, with a concentration in Autism Spectrum Disorders. She also has a certification in Applied Behavior Analysis and several years of direct instructional experience. Her love and passion for teaching children has been prevalent since she was young.

Rachel is currently working at IS125Q, the Woodside Intermediate School, in Queens, teaching 6th grade self-contained math, science, and social studies. Many of her students enter 6th grade performing below grade level expectations in math, reading, and writing, and it’s Rachel’s job to close the gap and scaffold instruction so that each student succeeds. Rachel previously taught a private school on the Upper East Side as a Learning Specialist, where her students ranged from second to eighth grade.

While being a highly adaptive and versatile educator, she has enjoyed the opportunity to teach a diverse group of children including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, speech impairments, noncompliant behavior, learning disabilities, physical challenges as well as typical children. These experiences have helped her blossom into a well-rounded and compassionate individual, private tutor, and educator, who takes each student’s unique goals, interests, and needs into account and creates effective lesson plans and activities to accommodate and motivate them to grasp and maintain their attention. She always makes sure that each child receives individualized praise and encouragement insuring that he/she remains motivated and does not become frustrated or quit. Rachel has expertise in a variety of instructional programs and interventions, including Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Fundations, PAF, and Boost as well as Handwriting Without Tears, Judith Hochman’s Teaching Basic Writing Skills, Words Their Way, GoMath, and Everyday Math. Rachel is also experienced with Kindergarten Readiness coaching, including ECAA and AABL preparation, as well as NY State test preparation.

When not teaching, Rachel enjoys going on vacation (especially to tropical islands when it’s cold in New York), cooking, babysitting and spending time with friends.

Rachel Hirshan

Company Overview

School Planning

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation