PrepNow Tutor - Dima Z.
A tutor who is passionate about education, Dima loves teaching and seeing her students grow. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from American University and a master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins University. After graduating from college, Dima joined the Urban Teachers program and taught in Baltimore city public schools for two years. “This experience gave me the chance to both teach virtually and in-person,” she says. Since earning her master’s degree, she has been focused on tutoring.
Dima has been tutoring since 2016. While in college, she was involved in various organizations that provided tutoring services to students living in high-need areas. “I loved working with my students, who often taught me while I was teaching them,” she says. “I could see tangible results from how guidance and care pushed students to do better.” Both in-person and online, Dima has tutored reading comprehension and literacy for over three years and taught ELA and math for over two years. Her students consistently show growth, from recognizing key vocabulary words and being able to use them in a sentence to going from below-grade-level scores to at-grade-level scores.
“I see teaching more as a guiding process than a direct action,” Dima says. “As educators, we should strive to facilitate student learning, building on what they know and giving tools with which they can draw conclusions.” When tutoring, Dima starts with what the student knows and then they build up from there. “I also point out any clear patterns or tips to help the student the next time they face a similar question,” she says. “We will complete similar problems to check the student's understanding and ability to do it correctly on their own.”
In high school and college, Dima was involved in various diversity and inclusion communities and clubs, and she also enjoyed learning about art through watercolors and ceramics clubs; plus she volunteered as a tutor. She loves to travel, eat delicious cuisine, write, and paint. During the pandemic, she gained an appreciation for nature and the outdoors and loves hiking on sunny days. “I also love to travel and I have been to over fifteen countries across Europe and Asia and plan on traveling to more!”
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