I have been in the field of education since 1975 as a music therapist with mentally challenged adults in Mentor, Ohio. After a two year stay at the Lake County Mental Retardation Center, I left the education business to pursue a career in music for four years as a road musician, and returned to education in 1982 after graduating from Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Christian Education.
After graduation, I moved to Dallas, Texas upon where I was employed by the Dallas Independent School District teaching the elementary grades. I taught third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades concentrating in language arts, math and computer science.
I also taught at St. Philip's Episcopal School and Community Center, an Episcopal mission school in inner city Dallas, Texas, teaching grades second and third. St Phillip's recruited inner city children to its religious and educational complex exposing these students to an advanced math, language and computer science curriculum.
In 1989, after the completion of a computer degree, I was employed as a medical computer instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, training physicians, research technicians, medical students and all university staff. I also developed computer curriculum and training manuals for all IBM and VAX mainframes.
In 1994, I moved to Atlanta and entered the corporate environment as a computer trainer, software installer and help desk technician for thirteen years with a software company in Alpharetta, Georgia. I again returned to public education in Georgia in 2005 as a middle school teacher in a local school district.
I am presently tutor for the government funded, "No Child Left Behind", and a substitute teacher for a local school district in the Atlanta area.
I also am a certified teenage driver's education instructor and taught driver's education for five years in Atlanta.
------------------------------MY Goals As A Teacher--------------------------
To survive and succeed in today's global economy, our students must be taught efficient research skills, which will empower them to teach themselves. We must encourage our children to actively process information and develop deeper understanding, rather than just learning facts by rote and not having the cognative skills to apply them.
I teach the skill of self-correction, which allows the child the chance to put the error right themselves. A tutor's most important goal is to help students become independent learners. As a tutor, you try to work yourself out of a job.
A tutor's most important goal is to help students become independent learners.
As a tutor, you try to work yourself out of a job.
There's an old saying:
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life.
As a Tutor, I teach active learning, Below is an example of passive learning verses active learning
Passive Learning:
Tutor:
Here, let me show you how to do that.
Active Learning:
Tutor:
What section of the textbook discusses this?
They are Empowering themselves to have the ability to teach themselves!
Sincerely,
Mr. Richard Mentor
B.S. Music Education / Kent State University / Kent, Ohio 1970
B.S. Elementary / Christian Education / Belhaven University / Jackson, Mississippi 1982
B.S. Information Technology / DeVry University / Alpharetta, Georgia 2002
Kennesaw State University / Kennesaw, Georgia / Instructional Curriculum Design 2005/2006
Microsoft Certified Professional/Windows NT/Windows2000/WindowsXP
A+ Certified Computer Technician
Network + Certified Network Technician
