About Rebecca

Rebecca Wanagel
My Teaching Philosophy and Style

I’m good at math (up to and including pre-calc) and I’m really good at teaching. I excel at breaking skills down to their simplest forms and presenting it to each individual in a way that will make sense to that person. That means I figure out the bottom line of what kids need to know and show them the most straightforward way to get there. I also show them why things work. For the younger kids, that usually means using manipulatives, for the older ones it involves showing them graphs or comparing things they don’t know to things they do so they can make the connections.

Yes, I do have a degree in teaching. My Masters is in Special Education (Syracuse University, 1991) and I spent about a decade working in the public school system as a learning disabilities specialist, before realizing I prefer the one-on-one of private tutoring. Most of my skills come from trial and error, and fine tuning myself as a teacher for many years as I learn more and more about how people learn.

“Life is more than just math.”

Life is more than just math. I relate well to the kids, especially as they grow into teenagers. I listen to them: from their frustrations to their celebrations, I’m there for them and most of them stay with me year after year (which is why it’s hard to get in with me). I just watched a dear friend graduate from high school, a boy whom I had tutored since 3rd grade. I watch kids grow up. We like each other, laugh together and share life stories.

One time a friend of mine sent me an email. It was a description and a link to a website of a tutoring company in New York City whereby the tutor was charging an exorbitant amount of money because they were incorporating counseling and life coaching into their math tutoring.

Huh? That made me laugh! Incorporating counseling and life coaching into math tutoring is what I do every minute of every tutoring day! That’s simply who I am. The kids and I like each other. As they stay with me over the years, they trust me and confide in me. I advocate and mediate for them when necessary, they ask me for all kinds of advice and share their firsts: their first A on a math test, their first day at a new school (middle school, high school), their first boyfriend / girlfriend, their first time driving themselves to tutoring…

“Kids want help on more than just math.”

Kids want help on more than just math. They need help navigating life, and I am a positive adult role model in whom they place their trust. Yes, the main focus is math, but even multiplication of fractions can’t stop us from developing a trusting relationship and laughing along the way. Kids look up to me and view me as another adult role model in their village. The boy who just graduated? He called me one of his “three moms” (mom, grandma and me).

If you or your child needs help with math, please contact me.

Who I Am

Part of the reason I’m so good at what I do is because I read people exceptionally well. That is because all my life I’ve been on the deaf continuum. I used to be profoundly hearing impaired and now I’m completely deaf – yet I function like a hearing person due to the amazing technology of cochlear implants. I’m a hearing person by day, but deaf as soon as my human interactions are done and I take off my processors. This means, among other things, that I read body language well. When I’m teaching someone a skill, I watch their eyes and their body language. As a result, I can tell when they say they get it, but they really don’t. I also see when they have that instant of “OH!” and it’s time to move on because it just clicked for them. I know how to shift how I’m explaining something if they don’t get it the first time around, because I’m sensitive to the fact that we don’t all learn in the same way (just like the fact that we don’t all hear in the same way).

“I have a unique understanding of the brain and how it functions.”

Because of my lifetime of struggling with hearing in some way or another, I have a unique understanding of the brain and how it functions. I’ve had to learn to hear with cochlear implants, so I am acutely aware that our brains do not perceive things the same way from person to person. Due to this, I find it interesting to learn about each kid and how their brain works, and I adjust my teaching to that understanding.

Outside of being a deaf person, the other part of me that helps me be a great teacher is that I highly value physical fitness (Crossfit is a regular part of my life). I’m passionate about the mountains: both backpacking and volunteer trail work. If one of my hats is as a math tutor, my other one is as a volunteer.

“Maintaining trails throughout the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park is a passion for me.”

I volunteer as a trail crew leader in the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park and sometimes DNR. It also involves teaching, as I do instruction and evaluation for chainsaw and crosscut saw certifications. I use a chain saw to clear trails throughout the Olympic Peninsula. Clearing trees, though necessary and fun, isn’t the only part of trail maintenance. We also cut back the brush, fix the tread and drainage, and repair and rebuild bridges and footlogs. Maintaining trails throughout the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park is a passion for me to the level that many think it’s a paid job for me, yet I purposely keep that part of my life to the unpaid status.

Tutoring is my paid job. Trail maintenance is my unpaid job. My enjoyment of life and my passionate and energetic personality is the thread that ties it all together.

When I’m not working on trails, I’m using them all throughout the Olympic Mountains: the place that feeds my spirit.