"As a former secondary education and GED teacher, I experienced first hand how stressed and frustrating it is for students to overcome learning hurdles -- whether challenging concepts, insecurity with specific subjects, or simply overcoming the fear of returning to school after a multi-year layoff.

As an IT professional with over 20 years of experience, I encountered these same obstacles in the day to day work environment. Very bright computer consultants overwhelmed business customers with technical jargon; though impressive, the unnecessary complexity with which they disseminated information unintentionally inhibited communication and hindered the objective at hand. These experiences strongly influenced my teaching philosophy: determine the student's knowledge and confidence level and intentionally design lessons to improve both. My aim is to create a stress free environment that facilitates learning and enhances confidence over time.

As a person with diverse interests who enjoys different teaching and learning styles, I can accommodate the student's preferences as well. For example, if a highly structured instructional approach is desired to advance one's Spanish conversational or written skills, I can design lessons that focuses on established paradigms and substitution drills; but if a flexible conversational approach is preferred, lessons can favor free form dialogues -- or anything in between!

Let me share a little about my background. During my college years, I developed a love for history and antiquities. This led to graduate study in biblical history where I obtained an M.T.S. degree from Harvard University. One of my favorite authors is James Michener, and it was after reading his book, The Source, that I went on my own archaeological dig; the problem is that it was on my honeymoon! But I convinced my wife to undertake a small expedition and we actually made a significant find in southeast native American history. As a college student I minored in Spanish, but my skills or classroom studie" less...