“As a school principal, I work closely with teachers and know good instruction when I see it. Ms. Tonya does not provide “good” instruction – she provides amazing instruction in a meaningful and caring way. Even though I have been in education for years, I am constantly amazed by Ms. Tonya’s instructional methods, expertise, and effect on my daughter. This, combined with her relationship-focused approach, has made Ms.Tonya one of the best teachers I have ever seen. We found Ms.Tonya toward the end of my daughter’s 1st grade year. At that time, she was reading well below grade level, only at mid-Kinder level, and about to start 2nd grade. After a year with Ms. Tonya, her reading grew to an early 2nd-grade level. As a former special education teacher, I knew the importance of closing my daughter’s reading gap early before it became too big. For a struggling student to reach grade level, their yearly progress has to exceed the year’s average expected growth. Having a student make more than a year’s growth in school is very difficult – even with good attendance and a long literacy block. In contrast, Ms. Tonya’s approach was so effective that my daughter made about a year and a half of reading growth by seeing Ms. Tonya only twice a week for 90 minutes”. Thank you, Ms. Tonya!
– Robert Suglia, Ph.D.
“Miss Tonya is a great tutor because she is very nice. She’s very positive. She is very very very very nice. She helped me with reading by printing words that I would read and also she helped me learn how to read a full book by printing little mini books for me to read. I’m glad she helped me because she made it really fun. And she is the nicest person I’ve ever met.”
– James, six years old
“I wish you could have seen Bryson’s smile when I told him he gets to see you tonight.”
– Bryson’s Mom
“Tonya has been an absolute game changer for our third-grade dyslexic daughter and our family! We were fortunate enough to find Tonya six months after learning that our daughter’s reading delays were not just from covid schooling disruptions. Those months were tough–I was trying to figure out how to give our daughter the help she needed, and nothing was really sinking in, so I felt overwhelmed and I think our daughter felt a bit lost, especially with all of the different strategies I was trying. We worked with other tutors, but they did not specialize in dyslexia and it seemed like more of the same teaching that wasn’t resonating at school. Honestly, our daughter’s first session with Tonya felt like such a relief, like we had finally found someone who understood and who knew how to teach in a way that made sense to our daughter. Tonya is unfailingly positive, supportive, and creative, and has developed a really tailored strategy to build our daughter’s literacy skills. We are so excited by her growth; at the beginning of this school year she was reading very laboriously and sounding out the sounds in each word, and as we approach the end of this year she is reading much more fluently, often reading entire sentences without stopping to pause, tackling multisyllabic words with confidence, and applying rules and tricks to all of her spelling, which has also significantly improved . Tonya is incredibly encouraging and open about her own dyslexia, and it’s really inspired our daughter and made her confident about her learning differences–this week our daughter’s special education teacher at school told us that she led her reading group in a chant, “Dyslexia is our superpower!” We cannot recommend Tonya enough, she is an awesome human, a passionate teacher, and an incredible ally!
– Katie Smith
Julie Zats is an extraordinary educator. She has taught our two children for a combined total of five years and during this time she has demonstrated an incredible breadth of skills. Julie’s teaching capacities move beyond expertise in subjects such as STEM, literature and creative writing, they include the ability to truly inspire children. Julie takes the time to understand each child’s personality and learning style and from this understanding, builds a relationship of trust and engagement. Julie selects highly engaging methods to deliver content to her students and this further encourages the child’s interest and motivation in learning. Julie has been (for both our children) the educator with whom they looked forward to learning most during the day. In communications with parents, she is responsive, flexible, seeks out parental engagement and is always constructive.
– Liv (Parent)
Julie Zats is a joy to work with–for students and parents alike. Julie tutored my 8-year-old son (who does not love reading or working on math on his own) this summer and made the tutoring sessions so fun, he never complained. With a session or two, I think he saw Julie as a friend. She took the time to get to know him and his interests and incorporated that into the curriculum (he got to read about BMX and tennis). At the same time, she pushed him to work beyond his grade level–challenging him without frustrating him. Beyond being a talented teacher and tutor, Julie is organized and professional. She is reliable and proactive. She never missed a session or rescheduled. After each session, she sent a thorough recap of the session with links to programs and games they worked with. I highly recommend Julie. It’s been such a positive experience. I am confident my son is ready for school in the fall.
-Tess (Parent)
