This month we are speaking with Kim Prescott, owner of Grow Your Reading! She offers individual tutoring sessions helping elementary grade students find confidence in reading and writing.
Phil: What inspired you to start your business?
Kim: I’ve been a teacher for 30 years and I taught in elementary schools and additionally I was a Reading Intervention Specialist so I bring with me so many strategies that can really help children that are still struggling in reading and writing. I feel that there’s a need for helping elementary students right now, especially because so many students fell behind during the pandemic and are less confident in their reading and writing skills. I was working in Portland Public Schools for a long time doing some tutoring and realized that I actually have so many other strategies that I want to bring to the table to help children feel empowered with literacy again.
Phil: What did you do before you started this business?
Kim: I was a teacher, as I said, for many, many years in Northern California and then, when I moved here to Portland three years ago, I was a tutor for Reading Results which works with Portland Public Schools and, additionally, I work for Portland State University as a supervisor for student teachers. So I’m in classrooms all over Portland and surrounding areas and I see what’s going on in the classrooms and I see what teachers are struggling with, trying their best to help the children that are still emerging and not confident in reading. I see what can be done.
Phil: What do you enjoy about working with your clients?
Kim: I love working with kids and they are so unique and so individual and they bring all their background experiences and their cultural experiences and we build upon that to create some lessons to help them feel really engaged and successful as readers and writers. I have always also loved working with parents and I like to do parent education as well, and feel that I have a lot to offer in education for families.
Phil: What special services or products do you offer?
Kim: I offer families an initial assessment of what their children are doing currently and what avenue they need to go in order to build their skills. So I come in and specialize in really identifying their phonological awareness and decoding skills. My focus is really on confidence building and enabling the child or student to understand certain strategies that can be used in reading and writing every day that will help them accelerate their learning. I also want to focus on reading enjoyment as well as building their skills in comprehension, vocabulary development and fluency.
Phil: What differentiates your business?
Kim: I’m flexible….I can go to your home, people can come to my home, I can possibly even do an online tutoring session with your child, so there are a number of ways I can help your family and your students. I just bring so many years of experience and knowledge of what’s going on right now in literacy instruction.
Phil: What would you like the community to know?
Kim: Teaching has been my lifelong learning experience. I continue to grow and I continue to develop new ways of looking at teaching. I want to educate families in ways in which they can help their children at home, and I want to instill a love of reading and writing and passion for learning, enabling kids to feel really good about themselves as they continue to grow!
You can contact Kim at 831-566-4483/ksp1216@gmail.com