Deborah

When I was a child, I passively sat through school, bored and usually learning nothing. Every once in a while, however, a teacher made things click. Throughout my schoolings – both in and out of formal classrooms – I noticed what helped or hurt my engagement and education: put simply, a need for balance between accessibility and challenge. Drawing from these experiences, my teaching mentality and methodology stem not only from my teaching experiences, but also from my lifelong journeys as a neurodivergent student with ADHD, martial artist, Jew, and empathetic woman. As such, I integrate and emphasize personalization, validation, process over product, understanding over memorization, improvement over perfection, communication, open-mindedness, effort, fun, and mutual respect.

In literature, my strongest interests lay in dystopian YA fiction, representations of mental illness, metaphorical borderlands, and overlaps therein. In creative writing, I`m generally partial to character-driven stories, flash fiction, and the process of world-building.

Outside of academia, I enjoy hiking, biking, playing board games, reading, watching comedy specials and shows, spending time with friends and loved ones, and (hopefully soon) returning to actively practicing martial arts. Organized, quirky, creative, and dependable, I`m from New York but currently live in Philadelphia with my husband and two cats.

Willing to travel: 5 miles

Experience: My teaching experience includes five years` background as a TA for introductory English courses, eight years` (and counting) as a university/college writing center tutor, and two years (and counting) as an adjunct professor. In addition, my relevant experience and knowledge extend beyond the classroom, drawing from and extending into fields such as martial arts, mental health, learning differences, and Judaism. Currently, I tutor online for John Jay College`s writing center and teach Introduction to Composition & Rhetoric at PSU`s Brandywine campus.

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