A Different Tutoring Experience with EFM Educational Consultants
Rochelle Matthews-Somerville, PhD
January 2021 | Finding Support
Are you wondering how your children are going to manage to work independently as we navigate back from these uncertain times? Our tutors have been working with students virtually over the last 13 years and are ready to jump in and help!
When we launched EFM Educational Consultants in 2010, we set out to create a distinctly different educational experience for families in the Washington Metropolitan area and beyond. As an integrated, preemptive multidisciplinary team, we engage in a planning process that involves serving not only children, but school systems, which include teachers, administration, and professional service providers.
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With a professional membership in the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC), Autism Society of America (ASA), The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH), and Autism Speaks as well as Eileen possesses 37 years of experience in the field of education as a teacher for the Deaf, Executive Director of Diversity and University Assessment and Associate Dean of Student Support Services, we are committed to providing excellent service. We both have a background serving college students as tenured faculty members at the university level. Our goal has always been to grow with our families over time and the populations that we have served.
We believe that the most effective form of consultation is collaborative, reflective, empathetic, understanding, and open to doors to two-way collaboration. It is a commitment to lifelong learning and professional growth at all stages of the collaboration. We love to collaborate to creatively problem-solve, brainstorm strategies, and learn new programs and approaches to serving all families. We believe that in many situations, teachers are the key to the puzzle. They are the dedicated entity by which children and families are served. Teachers seek knowledge to better serve their students. They care deeply about their students’ success and will approach the academic work in any number of ways to make it transparent, meaningful, and accessible.
The term tutoring does not fully capture the experience we provide our families. It is such a limited concept that fails to encapsulate the full service we provide to every family. Our tutoring team is composed of educational specialists with concentrations in early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school, special education, and practice professionally as reading specialists, math specialists, college professors, and subject-matter experts. Our learning specialists are professional educators and professionals with degrees and certifications in reading, math, special education, speech and language, occupational therapy, and/or behavior analysis. These service professionals have often worked in fully inclusive settings and/or collaborative teams in public and private industries, including homeschooling. All our learning specialists have very different professional backgrounds. Therefore, the process of matching the student to the appropriate professional is a vital part of the process.
As an executive team of learning specialists and therapists, our interest goes beyond the subject matter itself. We are most concerned with a student’s self-awareness, learning preferences, and strategies utilized that impact learning outcomes. The social and emotional well-being of every child is also a priority for us. After every weekly session with every student, our tutors collaborate with a member of our Executive team— composed of Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville and Eileen Matthews — to discuss strategies and approaches while information regarding the family and sessions is fresh. Therefore, each of our families benefits from the collaboration of professionals with pedagogical, special education, and subject matter expertise.
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Regardless of what surfaces for our families on their educational journey, our families are never alone in navigating educational decision-making. Our broad expertise allows us to identify and serve, regardless of the educational path. This teamwork leads to an entirely different tutoring experience — and educational experience — for our families.
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Are you looking for more community to support your homeschool journey? Consider joining our Facebook group. Be encouraged and equipped with resources in a community with other like-minded homeschoolers on the same journey as you!