Professional Development & Certificates
Assessing Students
This certificate of training is through the Cox Campus online professional development course. Assessments drive instruction. It is vital for teachers and tutors to collect assessments periodically to determine if strategies are working as well as to move students to new skills if needed. At Holmes Tutoring, reading assessments are conducted frequently and baseline data is collected before students begin content-related lessons.
Direct Instruction
Direct Instruction is a teaching methodology used at Holmes Tutoring. It is discussed frequently on the website. Visit the "Why choose Holmes Tutoring?" page to learn more about Direct Instruction and why it works.
Virtual Backgrounds
Virtual backgrounds are used as a teaching tool during virtual tutoring sessions at Holmes Tutoring. Assignments, workbook activities, pictures, reward-systems, and so many other things are used to help engage students and to give them more than one way of learning new information. Watch the video on the "features" page of the website to see how I use the virtual background during tutoring sessions.
Setting up & Pacing
Knowing how to pace virtual lessons is extremely important to the success and retention rates of students. A quality structured environment is always utilized at Holmes Tutoring. Subscribe to the website to gain free access to recorded tutoring sessions so you can see for yourself how tutoring sessions are paced and structured.
Dyslexia PD Certificate
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It stems from a deficit in phonological and phonemic awareness. Knowing the signs of Dyslexia is the first step towards helping students close achievement gaps. I received the Dyslexia PD of completion from the Alabama Department of Education eLearning PD.
ELL PD Certificate
This certificate was received from the e-Learning of Educators-Alabama: Teaching Your First ELLs. The course was centered around effective strategies to teach ELL/ESL students based on the ELL teaching philosophy. Holmes Tutoring offers services to ELL/ESL students and knowing how to structure virtual classes to accommodate the needs of foreign students is crucial in the success and retention rate of students.
Growing Readers
Growing Readers is a certificate of completion from Albama Virtual Academy. This is one certificate out of 6 clock hours of reading professional development. The reading professional development was based on the five elements of reading focusing primarily on phonological awarness.
LETRS Certificate of Mastery
LETRS is a training course for teachers that teaches in-depth the science of reading. The LETRS is a rigorous professional development that dives into how we learn to read and what tools and symptoms need to be set up in order to get students reading.