FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CT READING TUTORS FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

Betsy is a first-grade teacher at Purchase Elementary School in the Harrison Central School District. She previously taught at a private school on the Upper West Side for nine years. She received her Master’s Degree in General Education from Hunter College for first through sixth grades. Betsy has a passion for teaching math and reading to first through third-graders, including those who are advanced and those who need support to learn these fundamental skills.

Betsy had taught through an inquiry-based curriculum and the Common Core curriculum. She loves to see her students take ownership of their math and literacy learning. She uses a variety of strategies through personalized instruction to meet the needs of her students. She believes in a game-based, hands-on, multi-sensory approach to mastering mathematical concepts. Her areas of expertise are helping students learn a number sense, building strategies to solve math word problems, and understanding math concepts (connecting abstract to concrete). She teaches using the Singapore Math curriculum and is trained in EveryMath, Exemplars, Mathletics, and Matific.

Betsy is also passionate about reading and believes in the importance of building students’ confidence at the elementary level. She has experience in the Teachers College Reading Workshop and Fountas and Pinnel reading programs. She loves to find ways to spark reading in young children and scaffold and develop reading strategies to support them in acquiring underlying literacy skills.

Derycka has a master’s in Special Education from Grand Canyon University and pursing a PhD in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis on Special Education. She has New York State certifications in Childhood Education and Students with Disabilities Grades 1-6. Derycka has been teaching and tutoring for nine years in many different instructional capacities, including a first-grade self-contained classroom, a kindergarten to second-grade integrated co-teaching classroom (ICT), and general education classrooms. Currently, Derycka is a 2nd grade ICT teacher at a New York City Charter School in the Bronx.

Derycka has taught students using a multitude of literacy and mathematics programs, including the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project, Bridges Mathematics, Ready Gen, Go Math, and the Engage NY ELA and Math modules. She has extensive literacy experience using Orton-Gillingham, Read Works, Wilson and Fundations for supplemental ELA intervention. Additionally, she has experience integrating instructional technology programs such as Lexia, Dream Box, Epic, and I-Ready into his daily small group and individualized classroom instruction.

Derycka has a strong understanding of how to support children with special needs through her work with parents and other special education teachers. Her experience includes advising parents on appropriate services for their children, leading workshops for general education and special education teachers focused on differentiating instruction in the classroom and presenting workshops for parents on reading comprehension and literacy strategies, which provided a plethora of strategies to support their children at home.

Derycka is also a literacy curriculum specialist, where she designs, organizes, and develops specialized instructional materials for 2nd-grade scholars. Her administrative work enhances scholars’ ELA critical and inferential thinking skills. Derycka is committed and will continue to support students and their academic growth.