{"id":28409,"date":"2018-12-18T05:31:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T10:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backtobasicslearning.com\/?p=28409"},"modified":"2018-12-18T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T23:42:10","slug":"margiespeer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/margiespeer\/","title":{"rendered":"TUTOR TUESDAY: Margie Speer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this occasional feature, we’ll be sharing profiles of some of our outstanding tutors.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The first thing you notice about Margie Speer is that she sparkles.<\/span><\/p>\n

As she shares enthusiastic stories about her work in education and her family, it’s easy to see that she\u2019s high energy,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to hear how her experiences shaped her passion for math.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s easy to see why she would inspire students to love learning. <\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s made that difference as a tutor for Back to Basics since 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

[su_pullquote align=”right”]Building students\u2019 confidence as she works with them individually is one of Speer\u2019s greatest strengths, and one of the aspects of tutoring that she finds to be most rewarding.<\/span><\/strong>[\/su_pullquote]Speer\u2019s background is not the traditional path for an educator. Her degree is in mechanical engineering, and she has considerable professional experience in the field. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI worked in engineering for\u2013 well I like to round up by saying nine years, but my husband says, \u2018You\u2019ve clearly worked for eight,\u2019\u201d she laughs. \u201cI worked for DuPont, but then I had my son, and I didn\u2019t go back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Speer was a full-time mom until her son was in ninth grade, when she responded to a posting for a long-term sub position teaching engineering technology at a vo-tech program. The school offered her a full-time position after the first semester. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although she loved teaching and working with the students, she wanted to stay more flexible than the \u201cfull-time-plus\u201d hours expected of a teacher. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once she was hired at Back to Basics, Speer worked in a wide variety of settings. She has worked at the Back to Basics private school, Title 1 programs, homebound support, and 1-on-1 tutoring at the middle and high school levels. Currently, she tutors students in math through Algebra 2, but she has also worked with physical science, chemistry, and other subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love math,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when kids say thank you, it makes you feel good. Or if they did well on a test, you feel good that you helped them. Or when something clicks, and you hear, \u2018Now I get it!\u2019 You realize you\u2019ve really helped somebody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Speer suggests one of the most important ways that parents can help their children as they progress through middle and high school is to stay involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know not everyone has the luxury of lots of time. But find ways to make sure the teacher knows you, and knows you\u2019re on top of your kid\u2019s stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cMany people work full-time, so they can\u2019t go to all the events. But you can still e-mail, you can still make a phone call, you can still check their online grades.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[su_pullquote]Contact us to get started with 1-on-1 tutoring today.<\/strong><\/span><\/a>[\/su_pullquote]\u201cYou have to show you\u2019re interested,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that helps so much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She encourages students, also, to make sure they are reaching out and communicating with their teachers. \u201cSo when they\u2019re doing the grading, they know you\u2014 and they know that you did come to the teacher for help, and try. You have to be somebody that they recognize, right?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes this is where Speer sees that tutoring helps the most. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes kids feel they don\u2019t want to say anything in class. They don\u2019t want to be the one to raise their hand,\u201d she observed. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1-on-1 tutoring, though, that same student will be more comfortable asking questions. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make them feel good about what they\u2019re learning,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a confidence problem. They <\/span>can <\/span><\/i>do it, they just need to be able to say, \u2018Oh, hey! I can do this!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Building students\u2019 confidence as she works with them individually is one of Speer\u2019s greatest strengths, and one of the aspects of tutoring that she finds to be most rewarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her children are now following in her footsteps. Her son is about to graduate this spring with a degree in mechanical engineering, and her daughter is studying chemical engineering. Both of them attend challenging university programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

She encourages her children to put in their best efforts\u2014 but not to stress out too much. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust know that you gave it your best shot. Don\u2019t go to bed the night before, thinking, \u2018I should have studied,\u2019\u201d she tells her kids. \u201cMy own GPA\u2014 well, I rounded up, and I got a good job coming out of engineering school.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt all works out when you always give it your best shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building students\u2019 confidence as she works with them individually is one of Speer\u2019s greatest strengths, and one of the aspects of tutoring that she finds to be most rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,39,40,41,1323],"tags":[124,87,14,1336,241,130,13,271,1337],"class_list":["post-28409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-and-recognition","category-for-parents","category-for-students","category-for-teachers","category-resources","tag-education","tag-engineering","tag-learning","tag-margie-speer","tag-math-education","tag-delaware","tag-tutoring","tag-wilmington","tag-wilmington-de"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28409"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28426,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409\/revisions\/28426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}