Christine Heaton

I am a private tutor and mentor for children. I'm passionate about bold transparency and individual accountability in education. My educational prophets are Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, Oliver DeMille, Henry B. Eyring, Jeffrey R. Holland, Sally Shaywitz, and The Arbinger Institute.

My educational background includes a BA in Art History and Curatorial Studies from Brigham Young University. I also minored in German Language. My art history and language training provided me with extensive writing and research opportunities that have uniquely prepared me to teach students how to connect symbols to meaning.

I have eight siblings, and 29 nieces and nephews. I substitute teach K-12 and teach six- and seven-year-olds at my church. This life of children has given me a great deal of practical experience in communicating and teaching.

My husband (best friend) is also a teacher, and works for the National Outdoor Leadership School. We have both worked for Outward Bound and have adopted many of the values and strategies of these outdoor leadership schools. For more on their educational philosophies you can visit their websites:

http://www.nols.edu/about/values.shtml
http://www.outwardbound.org/about-outward-bound/phuilosophy/

My approach:

Explicit and aggressive treatment of spelling and coding rules
Explicit modeling of good reading habits: predicting, inferencing, clues from context
Multisensory practices such as large-muscle motor repetitions (writing with whole arm in the air, writing with finger tip on textured paper, etc.)
Standing, sitting, snacking, stress balls, rubber bands

No one curriculum, method, or strategy will work on its own. I am first and foremost a mentor, and experience tells me children teach themelves when they are inspired. I am simply a resource full of helpful tools, and when they're ready, I willingly share these tools.