Geri

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Dr. Geri is an inspiring educator with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies and over 25 years of teaching experience. She began as a piano and violin instructor and now tutors English, writing, philosophy, and humanities with creativity and warmth. A lifelong learner herself, Geri understands ADHD firsthand and adapts her sessions with flexibility and empathy. She holds multiple Excellence in Teaching awards and has taught around the world, from Jamaica to Jordan to Germany. Now based in Nebraska, she lives with her Coton du Tulear, Jami, and still fills her days with music and curiosity.

9-7 pm Central

My approach is student-centered. Students give me the most accurate feedback about our success or need to explore other ways of communicating.

Oral Roberts University, Bachelors Music ed; University of Nebraska, MMus.; University of Nebraska, MA, English; University of Nebraska, PhD, Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies

I began tutoring in my undergraduate years as my contemporaries asked me. I continued one-on-one interactions with students, teaching and tutoring throughout my 25 years as a piano/violin teaching. Since then, my other tutoring responsibilities were to university students, usually remotely on Zoom.

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Geri
$85.00 USD

Subject Expertise

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Civics
Civics
Creative Writing
Creative Writing
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking
ELA
ELA
GED
GED
German
German
Humanities
Humanities
IB English
IB English
Instruments
Instruments
Latin
Latin
Music
Music
Philosophy
Philosophy
Piano
Piano
PSAT
PSAT
Public Speaking
Public Speaking

My mission

I am inspired by my students and their successes. It energizes me.

My Story

Because I grew up in Jamaica, swimming was a big part of my life. My mum and papa met in an orchestra so music was always an important part of our soundscape, especially classical music. I started playing the violin when I was 7 and the piano when I was 10 and that was what I decided to study in college first. After studying music through a Master's degree, I decided I also liked to read and write so I took an MA in English and finished with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Medieval studies. Ever since then, I have taught all over the world beginning with Jordan. Then I went to Lithuania, Lebanon, Okinawa, Japan, and Germany.

Now I live in Omaha, Nebraska where my niece and her children live. My dog, Jami, and I live right on a beautiful park downtown where we can walk every day and meet other dogs. Jami is a Coton du Tulear and there aren't many like her around here but people say she looks like a Maltese.

Cognitive Diversity

How I adapt to students with diverse intellectual needs.

I was diagnosed with ADHD and never realized how much I had learned to accommodate my own challenges through sheer grit and determination. Since then, I have had students requiring individual approaches to my lesson plans because of their own diagnoses such as ADHD, PTSD, CPTSD, cognitive challenges, visual and hearing challenges.

In my experience, there were no special programs in Jamaica. Teaching gifted students can be as challenging as teaching differences in learning and neurodivergence. Creativity is one of the ways to engage gifted students--not more work but challenging questions and activities that can keep them engaged and making progress and quickly as they feel mastery.

ADHD--my own experience and the accommodations I had to make. As well, I have had numerous students who have needed the extra stimulation they required to stick with one activity at a time. When that is not possible, I make it a point to have several other possible activities that will accomplish the same goal of learning the material.

I have had students with dyslexia and found several strategies that work including large print, separated syllables, separated lines, bold and normal text, and slowing down.

Geri Sample Lesson

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