Golden Gate Tutoring Center

Flashback to the 70s

Celeste Ezell — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:07:20 +0000

70s Photo Booth, San Anselmo Art & Wine Festival 2010

This summer’s San Anselmo Art & Wine Festival was a blast! We got our groove on with the “Sounds of the 70s” in our free photo booth. Thanks to all the brave souls who made headbands, dressed in costume & posed in our sweet cardboard ride. And thanks so much to photographer Stephanie Pool, Candice Roper’s Fashion & Sewing School and Amber Smith, Le Petit Jardin French Immersion Programs for donating your time to making it awesome! Pictured (from left to right) Virginia Boyle-Valle, Celeste Ezell, Patrick Ezell, Amber Smith, Daniel Ezell & Jocelyn Ezell

Art in Community

Celeste Ezell — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:04:13 +0000

With wild eyes & hammer in hand the 11 year old boy carefully located the covered tile and…Whac… 2 pieces… Whack!…4 pieces…Whack!…8…Whack whack whack!…dozens! At the other end of the picnic table several students diligently glued broken tiles as well as circles, squares & triangles onto the mosaic pattern. Slowly the design emerged in full color…a beautiful creation, a beautiful experience. When everyone works together on one creation, the product represents the whole community; each artist adds his/her own unique contribution to one masterpiece.

YesFest 2010 Art in Community

We’re so proud of the Ross Valley students who contributed to this project at YesFest last Spring. Come see our beautiful mosaic table just outside the tutoring center!

SAT: Practice Makes Perfect!

Celeste Ezell — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:23:30 +0000

Great performance in the SAT boils down to getting all the questions done and all the answers right. We provide weekly dress rehearsals every Saturday: a complete practice test free of charge!

On each of the following Tuesday evenings, students grade their own tests to understand the scoring system, to adjust their pacing, and make a plan for improving their scores. We help the whole group understand their wrong answers and offer pointers for each section & type of question, but the majority of our effort is individualized to each student.

Our SAT reviews are customizable – from several hours of individual tutoring, to our five Tuesday reviews, to just taking our free practice tests and studying at home.

Our philosophy is simple: students will find the right pace & their best score through practice! We aim to provide the best circumstances and feedback to give your student the preparation he or she needs for a great performance.

The “Independence Curve”

Daniel Ezell — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:59:28 +0000

We’ve long offered group and individual sessions, but now that we have a brand new center, we can offer a long considered idea of ours: Drop-in Membership. Subscribers can stop in anytime after school to work on their homework or master plan to overthrow the world and mold it to their own nefarious purposes… or whatever. They have access to our resources and tutors as they come across snags or just need a little help getting started.

Inspired by Jessica Hagy, Celeste and I set out to create a graph that describes our vision of success. We like to fix things so they aren’t broken anymore, and, while working with a student might be a long-term commitment, we aim to send each student back into the world fully equipped, ready to conquer whatever comes their way. So we have created a little graph to show the three tutoring options.

Coming out of the Doldrums

Daniel Ezell — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:48:23 +0000

Summer vacation has a special place in our annual experience. While our students see the world or just spend days at the skate park, we take time to gather our wits about us and create the perfect opportunities for our budding scholars. Slow, quiet days quickly give way to brisk breezes in August! Our back to school prep and review courses help our students stand out in class from day one. They will already have a firm grasp of first concepts and walk into the classroom with a handful of pithy questions to impress the teacher. Be sure to stop by and learn about our back to school workshops. Your subject is our specialty.

Our passion. Our dream.

Golden Gate Tutoring Center — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:16:35 +0000

“What’s your relationship with math?” I asked my new student.

“I’m an artist, so the technical parts don’t excite me.”

I showed him a beautiful way to visualize algebra with a grapefruit and a piece of graph paper. His eyes lit up with curiousity and, after homework, we spent a little time each session exploring the beauty and wonder of numbers.

A mere three weeks later, his mom emailed me, “Here’s an email from his geometry teacher. Your work with him is paying off!” After failing nearly every test that year, he earned a 99%! Every student needs a little fascination to keep it interesting.

This is our passion. Our dream has been to create a space where students can feel free to discover new fascinations. This dream came true last May when we opened Golden Gate Tutoring Center in downtown San Anselmo just behind Marin Coffee Roasters! Swing by and see us!