Hello. I’m Susan Joy Clark, and I am offering online English tutoring services in middle school and high school English or adult ESL in intermediate or advanced levels, including conversational English.
Here is a little about me. I have a B.A. in English from Cedarville University and 10 years of experience as a journalist with North Jersey Media Group. I am the indie author of several books for both adults and children: And the Violin Cried, a middle grade novel (currently out of print,) Action Men with Silly Putty, a mystery comedy novel, Action Men and the Great Zarelda, a mystery comedy novella in the same series, The Lit Club Mystery, a mystery short story, and The Journey of Digory Mole, a picture book for middle grade readers.
At Cedarville University, I had an emphasis in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language.) Before choosing a TEFL emphasis, I was a “straight English” major, studying literature and writing. I excelled in my creative writing classes which prompted my professor to call me in the dorm and encourage me to pursue getting published. While in my junior year, I was awarded a scholarship and award for excellence in the preparation of language and literature. Earlier in life, while I was an eighth grader, I competed in spelling bees at town, county and state levels and won second place in the state of New Jersey. (If you are interested in spelling bee prep, you can put in a request for that too!)
In the ’90s, for three months each, I taught English as a foreign language in Debrecen, Hungary and in Riga, Latvia. More recently, I have tutored a Korean man living in the U.S. and taught conversational English online to students all over the world (Asia, Africa, South America and U.S.) on Cambly. In recent times, I passed demo classes for teaching English as a foreign language for two other different sites, VIP Kid and Amazing Talker, but I decided I would rather be independent. Additionally, I’ve had years of experience teaching in various church ministry outlets to youth of all ages from Kindergarteners to junior highers.
I’ve been preparing for tutoring by gathering and studying different materials for different niches of English study.
You can look on this page to see more books I have read and collected in my library as resources for teaching students.
In addition to writing and reading, I enjoy singing in my church choir and puppetry. I have several characters and have always written my own puppetry material. I like to cook healthy and delicious foods and do dance exercise. You can find blog posts on practically all of these subjects on various parts of this site. I have various language related posts in the Wonder of Words section of the blog and will be posting things there from time to time that you might find helpful. I’m also beginning to do YouTube and hope to upload more videos that will be helpful to students.
Here is just a start to that, with a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” This might not be a teaching video per se — it’s coming! — but it can be beneficial for learning. Here is an article that points out that older kids and teenagers can still benefit from hearing a story or book read aloud.
I am working on creating my own themed slide presentations for online teaching. Here are some examples.
A short grammar lesson on a particular aspect of subject/verb agreement
A color and fashion themed lesson for intermediate ESL
This one loses a little something with no sound, but it was designed to use with live teaching. There are song lyrics towards the end of this, and I intend to use music and singing in this lesson. I used an illustration from ReachFarHigh on Deviantart for the “Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces” song. This should give you some idea, but I may post an update with sound later.
Soon, I hope to add some more YouTube content that will give helpful tips and lessons.
If you are interested in tutoring services for any of the niches mentioned, contact me at SusanJClark72@comcast.net or with the contact form at the bottom of this page. My rate is $35 an hour for the services named. The first consultation is free. Once we’re in contact by email, we can arrange a free consultation via Zoom or Google Hangouts and can talk about your English learning needs.
I hope to open up for test prep tutoring at a future time.
