Square Peg Tutoring is the husband-and-wife team of Pete Vanderburgh and Grace McMillan. We are educators with teaching and tutoring experience in several private and public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Pete works mostly with elementary and early middle schools students and Grace with late middle and high school students. Pete was trained by The Lab School of Washington and specializes in tutoring students who struggle with learning to read fluently and develop foundational math skills. He is also skilled in helping older students grasp increasingly complex mathematical concepts, tutoring students through Algebra I and Geometry.

Grace teaches English and Jewish Text at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School Lerner Upper School and specializes in working with students who struggle with essay writing, textual analysis, and critical thinking.

Although we have different areas of expertise, we both believe in building a strong relationship with each student that will promote self-confidence, inspire interest in learning, and improve the student's academic performance.

About Pete

Tutoring Profile

Students I tutor: Grades 1 through 8

• I am trained in Orton-Gillingham based reading strategies, including the Wilson Reading System and Reading Roadway.
• I teach many basic language skills including phonics, fluency and comprehension.
• I am trained in Multisensory Math, an Orton-Gillingham based approach for mathematics instruction.
• I provide mathematics instruction from fundamental early-childhood concepts through middle school and high school math, including Algebra and Geometry.
• I work with children on organization, study skills and executive functioning.

Trained by the Lab School of Washington, I specialize in tutoring children entering or attending 1st through 8th grades. I have taught in a private school environment with small classes, and since 2012, have been tutoring children in both public and private schools. I tutor children in specialized programs as well as those in mainstream classes who need supplementary support, academic coaching, or skills reinforcement.

I take an individualized and creative approach with each student to determine his or her learning style, habits, and preferences. I often create tactile materials to address the specific needs of each student, including study aids, games and activities. Through distance learning I use a combination of virtual online activities, and tutoring supplies that I can send through the mail. While working in concert with a child's annual academic curriculum or summer curriculum, I create support structure that is independent but supplementary to a curriculum.

In mathematics, I follow the principles of Multisensory Math: I address each student's level of comprehension of cognitive math skills. I guide students through a concrete to representational to abstract sequence, and focus on specific instructional language. This method can be implemented with students working through Eureka Math, Jump Math, Singapore Math and numerous other curricula. In addition to addressing assigned "calculation tasks" I use creative strategies to reinforce number sense, spatial relationships, estimation, place value, sequencing and logic.

In Language Arts, I work with students on the their level of proficiency, regardless of grade. I use methods based upon Orton-Gillingham research, most typically the Wilson Reading Method and Reading Roadway. I have also used strategies implemented by Lindamood-Bell and Phonographix. I use a variety of strategies to address both reading ("decoding") and writing ("encoding") challenges, and will often focus upon specific challenge areas including comprehension, fluency, sequencing, handwriting and vocabulary, leading to skills necessary for organizing writing and creating a thesis.

Background

While I have taken an unusual career journey, I am thrilled that it has led me to tutoring! The transition to teaching happened just before I married Grace, who was already a teacher. As a teacher, I find that I love working one-on-one with students and discovering the strategies that work best for each individual learner. As for those former professions - after attending Drew University for two years, I started my career as a stage actor, performing with Creative Theater Unlimited, a professional children's theater tour out of Princeton, New Jersey. I later graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Communications and Theater from Susquehanna University. After receiving my degree, I acted in various productions in New Jersey and New York.

I left the theater world for a more stable career in Information Technology. Over ten years, I provided computer and network support for a law firm and for The Washington Post. While working in technology at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, I rediscovered how much I enjoyed working with children, and I met Grace, who would later become my partner. I attended the Lab School of Washington Tutor Training Program, working as an assistant teacher in a classroom for children with various learning differences. I continued this inspiring work at the Diener School, a private school in Potomac, Maryland, that supports children with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders and various social/emotional challenges. Realizing that I greatly enjoy connecting with students individually and creatively, I began tutoring full time.

I'm originally from Columbia, Maryland. After living in New York City for two years, I returned to the Washington, D.C. area, and have lived here since 1999.

About Grace

Tutoring Profile

Students I tutor: Grades 9 through 12

As a high school teacher for over a decade and as a trained social worker, I approach tutoring looking for ways to support the whole student. However, I specialize in specific subjects and skills, including:

• English essay writing (from basic mechanics to college essays)
• History essay writing (from basic analysis to AP essays)
• Jewish Studies (Jewish History, Tanak, Rabbinics)
• Beginning Hebrew

For students who need to work on writing, whether the basic mechanics or polishing college essays, I bring not only a teacher's background but a professional editor's experience and an Ivy League education to the tutoring table. Learning to write well is essential for any college-bound student. If one is not writing clearly, one is not thinking clearly. Any written work demands organizing ideas, developing a systematic argument, choosing the right words, and putting everything together grammatically. Whether a student needs extra help with one part of the writing process or the whole package, I will identify those needs and teach the student the skills she or he is missing to become a better writer and clearer thinker.

In addition to writing, my particular academic expertise has been in Jewish texts, and I enjoy working both with students who are unsure why they should be spending time learning "Jewish stuff" and with students who are passionate about learning texts. With frustrated or struggling students, I engage them with open, honest conversations about what does matter to them and then help them find the ways in which Jewish tradition speaks to their interests and concerns in life. For self-motivated students, I help them hone their textual reading and analysis skills and deepen their knowledge of the broad and rich tradition which we both love.

Background

Two threads run through and unite my varied life experience: A passion for learning and a love of helping others. How those threads have allowed me to weave the texture of my life is a long and complicated story, but sharing some of it here may help you know if I might be a good fit for helping your child discover how to weave the story of his or her life into the work of art you know he or she is capable of making.

I grew up mostly in Oregon, but after my parents moved to Upstate New York when I was 14, I chose to go away to boarding school for my last two years of high school. After graduating from Northfield Mount Hermon, I entered Oberlin College, graduating with High Honors in Religion. I then went to Harvard Divinity School, graduating with a Master of Theological Studies (essentially an MA in Religious Studies). While there, I worked as a Teaching Fellow for an undergraduate course entitled "'Without God, all is permitted': Theism and Moral Reasoning," a delightful romp through 2500 years of moral philosophy. After a year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on a joint Harvard-Hebrew University fellowship, I began a Ph.D. program at Stanford University. While I enjoyed being a Teaching Assistant for a course entitled "The Bible in Literature, the Bible As Literature" while at Stanford, it turned out my mother was right: I should have taken some time off from the academic track because I was ready to leave after two years there-and 10 years in higher education.

I returned to Israel for three years and worked at The Jerusalem Post as a copy editor, occasional reporter, and regular editor of the weekly entertainment magazine. When I returned to the U.S. in 2002, I continued my editing career at The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a think tank in D.C. When teaching a group of Afghan journalists about freedom of religion as part of a U.S. State Department program for foreign journalists, I realized that I missed the excitement and intellectual passion of teaching. Within six months, I started teaching at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, first in the Jewish History Department, but eventually teaching Introduction to Journalism, Introduction to Debate, multiple Jewish Text courses, and now senior and sophomore English.

During my time as a teacher, I found repeatedly that I enjoyed most the individual relationships I developed with students, listening to their personal problems and their academic worries. That led me to pursue a Master of Social Work at the University of Maryland, from which I now hold an MSW. I worked for JSSA hospice for a year after completing my degree, but I realized I missed teaching too much, and returned to the classroom in 2018.