Michael DiSalvo, A+ Tutoring/Test Preparation
In what ways do you take particular pride in helping educate local students? I take pride in helping a wide variety of students. With my high-achieving students, we use advanced strategies in memorization and speed reading to get scores to the top 1 percent—but with my students who have learning disabilities, we use different modalities to streamline study skills and help them anticipate their success before they make it real.
When do you advise parents to begin considering tutoring services like yours? When the child is ready for the challenge. Working at a different tutoring center some time ago, I remember the terrible experience of seeing students who didn’t want to be there—it was a waste of resources to pretend they were going to improve when they weren’t willing to do homework or even their classwork.
And some of the specialized services you provide, are they difficult to find elsewhere? Normally, an ACT tutor is “good in math” or “good in English,” but I’ve been able to help students with the tools to get high scores regardless of the material—probably because of my degree in psychology, and my knowledge and experience with personal growth.
The challenges of the few past months—have they impacted how your staff serves students? The coronavirus situation—and the mandates handed down in response to it—have been a challenge. Luckily, I had experience prior to this in helping students online. I will always prefer the human interaction of traditional tutoring, but it’s clear that technology and trends are pushing people online. I’ve seen the strength of online learning in its flexibility of place, overcoming challenges in weather, schedules and even vacation plans.
APlusTutoring-TestPrep.com | 300 E. Business Way, Cincinnati | 513.939.9033
Tara Chiapelli, Kumon Math and Reading Center of Loveland
Why is it important for you to provide this service to our community? The Kumon Method is a mastery program, built specifically to smooth over and fill in the learning gaps so many children face. When situations like the coronavirus hit, learning becomes a challenge. The service I provide lifts the children of our community, working as a bridge to school curriculums and ultimately providing the community we live in with higher-educated residents. Children who overcome educational shortfalls will become successful adults.
Explain how your program benefits any student, regardless of school performance. Kumon works parallel to school curriculum and enhances learning, independence and confidence—because we don’t have timelines or requirements from the state, a child can advance depending on their need.
And has COVID-19 impacted attendance? We’ve chosen to keep both online and in-center learning available—but expanded hours of operation to keep our numbers in the center to 10 or less. We also offer a twice-weekly Zoom class where students are placed in a virtual breakout room to work one-on-one with an instructor.
But you’ve done even more to assist students in your program. We recognized that many families’ finances were impacted due to the virus—the franchise offered tuition assistance to existing families in need, so children could continue their learning without disruption. I feel lucky to have such a great support staff who adjusted quickly to the need for online learning, and assisted me with getting materials to students all over Loveland and beyond.
Kumon.com/Loveland-Central | 531 Loveland Madeira Rd., Loveland | 513.239.3000
The service I provide lifts the children of our community, working as a bridge to school curriculums and ultimately providing the community we live in with higher-educated residents.
