"My job is to help my students succeed.

Education does not have to be dull and boring. It can be challenging and fun. The human brain is hard-wired to seek novelty and challenge. In school, you should be learning something new every day.

The first step to success in school is to become an active learner: take charge of the process and focus on getting what YOU need out of it. When you start a new class, get the textbook and look through the table of contents. The material is organized for you. The table of contents is an outline of what is important. The next step is to find out what your teacher thinks is important. Focus on that. I have seen graduate students go through a textbook in an hour and do well on the final exam.

My specialties are writing and literature. I teach students basic tools they need to succeed in any kind of writing, whether it is left-brain or right-brain, thought based or emotion based, expository or creative: from academic essays to business memos and white papers, from short stories to poems and novels. All forms of writing have things in common. They require grammar, a sense of structure, reasonable punctuation, and clarity. They have a central theme or idea, a through-line, and a goal.

For academic writing, the five-paragraph essay is important and easy to learn. I teach students how to develop a three-part thesis statement that becomes the outline for the essay. I also teach creative writing. You can use the same life experience to write an essay, a poem, a song, or a story, depending on your assignment and your goals.

I have a lot of empathy for my students and treat them with respect. I try to form a partnership with them, if they are willing. I also trained as a psychotherapist and try to build my students' confidence along with their skills and help them develop their natural strengths.

MY BACKGROUND AND CREDENTIALS:

-- Teacher, published poet, prize-winning journalist, creative writer.

-- Freelance writer and PR consultant.

-- Calif. Comm. College Instructor, La" less...