About Blooming Minds Tutoring
Blooming Minds Tutoring nurtures metacognition through a multitude of learning styles and techniques dictated by content and student-centered goals
About us
It is the tutor’s job to meet your child exactly where they are along the path of learning and, through careful assessment and planning, build a bridge to reach their unique and desired learning goals.
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Whether you are seeking intervention to bring your child up to grade level in a specific subject or multiple subject areas, or seeking support for executive functioning skills and assignment organization, Blooming Minds has the solution to advancing your student’s academic achievement, higher order thinking and social-emotional skills, as well as improving their overall self-confidence.
Meet the Tutor
Courtney Harrison
BACKGROUND
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Courtney is a California clear-credentialed teacher based in Santa Cruz, CA with a Master of Arts in Teaching (PK-6), four years of classroom experience, and six years of dedicated private tutoring experience. As a first and second grade teacher at a Reggio-Emilia inspired elementary school, she was able to provide a great deal of personalized, one-on-one and small-group instruction to her students. This ultimately led Courtney to the realization that individualized instruction, particularly as it relates to intervention, was her passion. Prior to graduating with a B.S. and M.A.T. from James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Virginia), she was able to work closely with low-income, culturally diverse students in a public school setting in rural Virginia. During her four years as a multiple-subject classroom teacher at a private school in Silicon Valley, she was able to focus closely on social-emotional development, and enjoy the professional freedom to craft and sequence lessons according to student need with the understanding of how to utilize and plan in accordance with state imposed pacing guides, without the burden of being hemmed in by them.
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TEACHING STYLES & TECHNIQUES
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Courtney's prior experience and achievements permit her to design differentiated lessons to meet individual student needs and learning styles. Especially suited to meeting students where they are academically and social-emotionally, she creates and executes realistic intervention plans utilizing each student's individual zone of proximal development, developmentally appropriate practices, grade level standards, and student, parent, and teacher initiated goals. She is equipped with a deep pedagogical understanding of phonics and decoding strategies, age and grade level appropriate comprehension skills, a Slingerland inspired handwriting method, and narrative, informational, and fictional essay and story development. Courtney is trained in the Orton-Gillingham method and often uses this methodically structured, mastery-based ELA approach either exclusively or as a framework depending upon student need. Inspired by a plethora of mathematic curriculum materials such as Singapore Math, the Math Learning Center’s Bridges curriculum, and local experts such as Peggy McClean and Kelli Pearson, Courtney uses a hands-on approach to instruction in conceptual development and problem solving that deepens mathematical understanding. Over all else though, Courtney believes that the cornerstone of her success as an educator and much more importantly, the success of the students whom she mentors, lies in her ability to cultivate unique relationships with each individual, ultimately rooted in trust and kindness.