Patrice Crooms

Getting to Know the Owner and Educator Behind PC Virtual Tutoring & Educational Solutions, LLC

Hello amazing, parents/guardians and students. My name is Patrice Crooms, and I have been an educator for over 12 years with various school districts in the sunshine state of Florida. However, I have had the opportunity to impact student achievement across the country via my online tutoring services. Ironically, at the tender age of 8, while in the 2nd grade, I started tutoring kindergarten and 1st grade students in reading and math at my elementary school in Jacksonville, Florida, but never thought in a million years I was developing skills and expertise to pursue my calling. Well it is over 25 years later, and I am still here and loving every minute of it. I specialize in assisting students who are struggling to grasp and retain information as well as those looking for a challenge in the areas of reading and math with research-based learning strategies. I have found that the best formula for student success is first building confidence and empowering students to own their learning through facilitating explicit instruction and providing opportunities for them to think critically and present their thoughts. With this formula, parents have raved about how their child is now in tune with self-identifying areas they need support and feel comfortable asking questions as well as advocating for themselves to ensure their needs are met. I like to think of myself as not only your child’s tutor or college/career coach, but as their lifelong cheerleader that will lift them up on tough days and celebrate with them on every milestone they accomplish, regardless of how big or small. Since college, I have worked with students via such programs as Junior Achievement and lead quite a few after school enrichment programs with at-risk youth during my first few years as a middle school teacher. Truthfully, it was in working with students who were projected to become a product of incarceration or high school dropouts that I developed programming to help them beat the odds and those programs became the foundation for helping students across multiple spectrums from various backgrounds with varying needs achieve successful outcomes. It was also in working with students that were diagnosed ADD/ADHD or had IEP’s/504 plans for other areas of focus , that my love for instructing out of the box became priority to meet students where they were and helped them get to places they never imagined. Collaboratively, they loved that we would set weekly goals and they were able to have a personal, printed self-correction and goal sheet with them to physically check in with themselves to see if they stayed on task, completed the tasks set forth, and asked for breaks when needed to accomplish the goals set, and of course we would celebrate and set new goal every week. I have embedded these strategies into my online sessions and parents have communicated that they feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of their shoulders. In addition, as a High School Graduation Coach I had the opportunity to help students see beyond the walls and hallways into their future, and with assistance, they would develop goals that would set them on a path to success. I would have parents calling the school asking to speak with me, because they never saw their child so excited about having dreams of attending college, trade school, or going off to the military as many of them would be the first generation to do so. Although I was hired to help at-risk seniors graduate from high school, somehow the word got out about Ms. Crooms giving students hope and helping students excel at accomplishing their dreams. It was then that my office would be flooded with all students from freshmen to seniors, students who were struggling and Honor Roll students, students who had goals and students that never thought they would make it across the stage on graduation day; because my schedule would stay so packed, they begin waiting in my parking space at 6:45 am to discuss establishing time before or after school to flesh out their college/personal goals, review essays and letters of intent, prepping for Ivy league interviews, hosting job interview sessions for part-time opportunities to save for college or help parents, studying for ACT/SAT, completing the FAFSA, work on obtaining scholarship dollars, and then evaluating the final decision and preparing for move-in day to their first residence away from their families (some moving near and some 1,000 or more miles away). It was definitely the best of all worlds that helped me develop the mantra “That if we work to prepare ALL students for their future, everything else will fall into place, because to get there, every goal met is an stepping stone to success, and if things don’t go as planned we come back to the drawing board and keep pushing”. All these experiences, just to highlight a few have developed me into the well-rounded educational specialist that I am today and continue to manifest my zeal for progressing student achievement. As I relocated a few years ago to work at a Top 7 Higher Educational Institution (University of Florida, Go Gators, which is hard to say as I am a die-hard Seminoles fan, LOL) to become an Assistant Director in the Career Connections Center, where I worked with college students to choose their major, plan for their career after college and connect with top recruiting employers across the nation, my clients at the time who were receiving face to face services cried that we would have to cut ties. It was then that I had an epiphany to offer online sessions, and with the impact of COVID-19 on in-school learning, I have transitioned to put my official business in place. I am 100% committed to converting every student and young adult that I work with into outstanding learners and positive assets to their school and personal communities via individualized, action plans designed for maximum success in the areas of K-12 reading and K-8 math. I am also a parent, of an amazing daughter and I understand that despite circumstances we want our children to be successful, but due to limited time and expertise, things get difficult and that why I’m vowing to help you make a difference academically and socially with your precious scholar!


Education:
HS: Stanton College Preparatory HS class of 2002
B.S. in Business Administration with Concentration in Marketing - University of Central Florida c/o 2006
Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Administration - University of Phoenix c/o 2012
Certified Global Career Development Facilitator