Meet theTeachers


We are all committed to helping children with learning problems improve their skills in a context of love for reading and for books.  Each tutor has received specialized training in the multi-sensory techniques and programs that we feel (and science has demonstrated) work best with dyslexia and other reading problems.  Our sessions, while intensive, are low-keyed and without pressure.  We all agree that there is something special  about one to one instruction and that everyone's excitement in the children's progress becomes contagious.  We also all  participate in on-going teacher training conferences, and the workshops we offer for both teachers and parents are of great importance to us.


 
 
Jean Armus, B.A., M.Ed.

 

Jean Armus has been active in the field of dyslexia in the Toledo area for over forty years.  Her initial work at the Mental Hygiene Clinic, where she provided treatment for children with reading problems, led to her becoming Coordinator of the Learning Disorders Unit in Pediatric Neurology at the Medical College of Ohio, where she remained for about fifteen years. Since then, she has been operating a private teaching service for children and adults with reading problems, which provides various multi-sensory remedial therapies, including Orton-Gilllingham and Lindamood-Bell techniques. 

Jean has published papers and been a speaker at local, regional and national meetings.  She has been active in parent support groups and past president of the Toledo branch of the Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities. She has been a member of the board of the Northern Ohio Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, and currently is a member of their advisory board. Locally, she has managed to find, surround herself, and help train some really gifted and outstanding young teachers. She feels most fortunate to have found them, and you will too!  As a mother and grandmother, she has tried never to lose sight of the individual children behind the "label".
 

Sister Marcia Kiser, S.N.D., B.A., M.Ed.





 

Sr. Marcia received her master's degree in education from Bowling Green State University with emphasis in neurology and SLD/ADHD. She received additional training and certification in Lindamood-Bell techniques and taught in regular classrooms for twenty eight years. She became intrigued with how children learn, learning differences, and how to provide for individual needs.  That led to membership in the International Dyslexia Association and a phone call to Jean. They have worked together for  a great many years. Currently, besides being an associate in the Jean Armus Reading Clinic, she spends a few hours each day teaching struggling students in private and public school settings, providing curricula for homebound students, and in curriculum design for medically fragile, autistic, and behavior-disordered students. She is an active board member of the Northern Ohio Branch of the International Dyslexia Association.  Sr. Marcia has also done in-service training for several area school systems, providing specific multi-sensory training for teachers, and has been a speaker at regional and local meetings. Her boundless energy is obvious!

Tammy Alexander, B.A., B.Ed., M.A.


 

Tammy hails from Toronto, Canada, where she enjoyed a rewarding career as a teacher for over eight years.  For six of those years she taught students who required special education services (Gifted, Learning Disabled, Developmentally Delayed).  She moved to Toledo in 1999 to marry her husband and to start a family.  A year later she began working with Jean Armus.  Tammy tutors evenings and Saturdays and does testing  on Sundays.  Weekdays she takes care of her two young sons.
Like all of our teachers, Tammy employs multi-sensory methods including Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood techniques.  Her background in testing enables her to test and diagnose students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties.  Tammy particularly enjoys the one to one tutoring because of the progress she sees in her students and because of the close rapport that she develops with them.

Cherie Spino

 

After graduating from Northwestern University with a B.S. in journalism, Cherie worked for a publishing company in Knoxville, Tenn. She wrote and edited for a variety of publications, everything from travel magazines to dental-health materials. (She once interviewed Jerry Seinfeld about his flossing fetish). Reading has been a passion of hers since she was a child. She shares books daily with her four children, ages 9 to 4. Tutoring has been a natural extension of Cherie's love of words.  She also started a volunteer reading program in her children's school where she has organized more than 40 adult volunteers who go into the school to help students with reading.

Tina Sadowski


 

Tina grew up in Toledo. She is a certified K-12 special education teacher with a focus on Learning Disabilities.  Although she received her degree from Heidelberg College, she got most of her special education training from Bowling Green State University.  Tina taught for many years. In Ashland, Ohio, she was an Inclusion Specialist as well as an LD teacher.  She taught at St. Anthony School in Michigan and had a self-contained fifth and sixth grade Learning Disability classroom in the Toledo Public School system.  Teaching for Jean Armus has allowed Tina to build on her excellent background and further her knowledge with different teaching methods and strategies. It has also allowed her to stay home with her two young children during the day and continue teaching part-time. Tina feels that seeing a student catch on to a new concept and gain needed skills and confidence is a remarkable joy.

Amy Zajkowski

Amy graduated from Bowling Green State University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Specific Learning Disabilities and Developmental Handicaps.  After graduation, Amy worked at Pickett Elementary School for four years.  In January of 2002, Amy began working for Jean Armus and Associates, employing her already considerable skills as a reading teacher, as well as some Lindamood techniques, which were new to her.  Amy is currently working towards a Master's degree in Learning Disabilities and an Inclusionary Specalist certificate.  Like Tammy and Amy, Tina also has two young children.

 

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