After years of teaching in many capacities, my wife, LyNann, and I have launched an initiative to help students, both youths and adults, in the areas in which we have become really proficient. You might even say that we are "experts" in some fields. Our website is at YourTutorTeam.com. My wife is a great teacher of the subjects found in our elementary classes, K-5, including language arts, math, science, history, etc., and I have become equally proficient at English and Spanish. I have a BA and MA in English and Spanish, as well as an MBA. I have taught English at all levels, from ESL beginners to graduate students studying business writing. I have never taught high school full time, so have never needed a Credential, but I have taken the world famous University of Arizona 120-hour Teaching English as a Foreign Language TEFL/TESOL Course, and I have tutored hundreds of students in English and Spanish using the Tutor.com platform. I love English and Spanish, I love teaching, and I love questions from my students, because that is when they are most likely to learn. See below for my specialties and experience, and give me a call if you want to learn or improve your perception and production of these two great languages.

I suppose that every English and Spanish teacher must know, first of all, English and Spanish. But there are a few things in my history that make me a great tutor: (1) Patience: Many teachers may know the languages they teach perfectly well, but that may not translate to their bein great teachers because they get frustrated when their students don't learn "fast enought." In my case,I REMEMBER how tough it was when I was learning Spanish, and I vowed (if I every were to teach other) that I would never forget how difficult it is to learn a new language. If you are a Spanish speaker, you will find it hard to pronounce "railroad," because you didn't learn the "r" sound when you were a baby; if you are an English speaker learning Spanish, you have just as great of a challenge saying "ferrocarril" because you didn't learn the trilled "r" in Spanish when you were a baby. If you need someone to work with you for 5 minutes, 10, or 30 minutes once, twice, or 15 times to learn these sounds perfectly, you have come to the right place--give me a call, 888-258-2560, or send me an email at [email protected]. (2) Competence: I started learning English when I was born :) and my learning has continued to the present day. I started learning Spanish in high school, then continued getting more sophisticated education in college, then I actually lived in five Spanish-speaking countries for a total of five years, and during two of those years, I was teaching at a Spanish-speaking university (University of Puerto Rico). However, my competence didn't come from the classroom--it came from my friends :) I would tell my Spanish-speaking friends, "When I make a mistake, you must correct me!" Of course, they would all agree, but then I would commit an error in my next sentence, and they would say nothing. So, I would review with them what they were supposed to do if I made a mistake. After 3 or 4 times, they would get the idea: "When David makes a mistake, we must tell him" :) I suppose there are a lot of elements that make a person knowledgeable, but it was my friends who made me powerfully competent in Spanish. (3) Personal Fit & Comfort: I know that patience and competence may be abstract and hard to define, and there are even more of my specialties that are invisible; my friends tell me I am a good communicator, I listen, I am culturally aware, and I don't embarrass people, especially my students. Other qualities I have gotten high marks in include (a)fair business practices, like pricing, (b) good organization, (c) consistent scheduling, and (d) clear lesson structure. I think what my students want as much as competence is that I be serious, honest, and dependable. You will find that both my wife and I fulfill these characteristics.