PrepNow Tutor - Kerris R.
A relaxed but passionate test prep tutor, Kerris holds a BS in secondary mathematics education from Purdue University. She is currently pursuing an MA in adult, professional, and community education from Texas State University. During her senior year of college, Kerris was employed by Purdue University to teach a section of college algebra. A Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award Recipient, she was on the Dean’s List four times and recognized by NCAA Academic All-American four times.
Kerris started teaching in high school when she worked as a teaching assistant for her calculus teacher. “I would actually teach the class when she was absent,” Kerris recalls. “From that point on, I knew that I had an interest in becoming a math teacher.” While there are many things Kerris enjoys about teaching and tutoring, one thing she particularly loves is seeing her students have "light bulb" moments when concepts come together. Kerris has taught and tutored college algebra, algebra 1, algebra 2, geometry, introduction to statistics, pre-calculus, and pre-algebra.
“One of the first things I like to tell people about my teaching style is that I am all about relationships,” Kerris says. “I believe that being able to connect with my students is a vital component of being able to effectively teach them.” She prefers to avoid lecturing as much as possible and instead works to find different ways for students to actively engage with the material. “I try to give students a foundation to work from, and from there allow them to grapple with concepts until they have developed a level of comprehension, instead of spoon-feeding them answers,” Kerris explains. “I feel like this works better because there is not only one way to arrive at the correct answer; allowing the students to work through problems themselves enables us to see different perspectives, ones that even I could learn from.” A majority of the different tools and strategies that Kerris uses to teach have been adapted from either her personal experiences or what she has experienced that worked well for others.
In high school, Kerris was involved in band, National Honor Society, track, basketball, softball, and prom court. In college, she was on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and continued to run track. Outside of work, Kerris enjoys hanging out with her friends and teammates, finding new recipes to try, and watching her neighbor's dog. She is currently teaching herself Spanish.
