John Weatherspoon

Since graduating from the University of Central Arkansas in 2014 with bachelor’s degrees in English and Traditional Spanish, I have devoted my career to improving the lives of others through education. In fact, even before graduating college I gained experience at my university as a Supplemental Instruction Leader. I was tasked with helping our incoming freshman build study skills to prepare them for the upcoming semester. Afterwards, I completed a year of service as an AmeriCorps volunteer with a non-profit called Reading Partners. Our organization provided tutoring to elementary school students reading behind grade level. 

After my year of service with AmeriCorps, I worked for two years as a Bilingual Home-School Advisor with the Little Rock School District at Baseline Academy. I assisted our school's families with basic needs, facilitated communication between parents and staff, and counseled our students on study skills and good classroom habits. During this time, I also served as a TRIO English tutor with the Bridge2Success Youth Center.

In 2017, I began teaching English. After completing a 120 TEFL course, I taught English in Colombia from July 2017 to December 2019. My time abroad allowed me to immerse myself in the Spanish language and Latino culture as well hone my skills as an educator. Since June 2020, I have worked as a private online tutor, assisting students with both English and Spanish. I have tutored over 1,700 hours online and received over 700 five-star ratings.

My experience as a student, tutor, instructor and educator have prepared me to work with people from different backgrounds. I have taught children, adolescents, adults, and even teachers and am dedicated to meeting the individual needs of my students. I look forward to working with you or your student

Of course, my teaching style varies depending on the course my student needs assistance with and their level of fluency.

For Spanish lessons, I primarily focus on grammar tenses and vocabulary. Spanish has many more tenses than English that can vary simply by one letter. It is imperative that learn how and when to uses tenses in order to communicate effectively. Once students have demonstrated knowledge of our target area, we will complete activities to practice using our new skill with reading, listening, speaking, and writing activities. This way, the student can see how the language is used and try to construct conversations of their own. 

ESL lessons are similar to Spanish lessons in that they are grammar based.  Using activities from the text book and online, students will learn vocabulary and tenses required to achieve high scores on the IELTS exam.  Also, we will complete various activities online to practice grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and writing.  

Writing tutoring includes support with all phases of the writing process. This includes detailed planning drafting, editing, and revision of academic essays.