Below are recommendations from educators and former supervisors:
"Michael worked tirelessly with students, helping them to understand the particulars of their writing-assignments, clarify their thoughts, and improve many aspects of their writing."
~Star Coulbrooke, Utah State U. Writing Center Director (2009)
"When Michael teaches, he makes it his every objective to engage students in active and meaningful learning... Michael is a teacher who cares about his students... Michael's lesson plans and assignments are tailored to the students' interests [and] abilities."
~John Engler, Assistant Director of Utah State U. Writing Program (2009)
"Michael came to me with credentials that seemed too good to be true in a nonprofit that values imagination and working with children... I think the part of the internship that he enjoyed most was working with students on their writing."
~Rachel Loeper, Program Director of Mighty Writers, Inc. (2009)
"When asked to review articles for our Best Practices book to mark Ateneo Center for English Language Teaching's [ACELT] 30th anniversary, [Michael] agreed without hesitation and welcomed the chance to learn more about English language and literature teaching in the Philippine context. He has also been a valuable resource for students who wanted feedback on their written work."
~Ana Marie O. Fernandez, ACELT Executive Director (2011)
"Michael is unusually thoughtful and creative, and though he has been teaching for only a couple of years, he has created some of the most innovative courses in our writing program... Michael has experience teaching a variety of academic genres, from the personal essay to persuasive research papers. He is reliable and well-organized."
~Brock Dethier, Utah State U. Director of Writing (2012)
"Michael is a truly good and great young man, in my view--one whose experiences and dedication to education will positively shape the lives of many young people in the future."
~Victor Narsimulu, Utah Valley U. Upward Bound Program Coordinator (2012)
7.6.13
Student Testimonials
Below are some more current student testimonials:
"I found [Teacher Michael's research writing] method effective as it ... prevented me from panicking, and guided me throughout the research process." ~M. Felizardo (2013)
"I had little confidence in the beginning because I was afraid of making mistakes, [but] I learned it's important to speak out loud and have confidence." ~Y. Bae (2013)
"I learned how to make a direction for writing a research paper." ~D. Park (2013)
"From what I saw, your students are so lucky to have a cool, funny, and smart teacher like you."
~from an Ateneo Student (2011)
"The advice you give and the willingness you show to help other people can only come from a person who is willing to learn and to share what he's learned to the rest of the world."
~from an Ateneo Student (2011)
"I found [Teacher Michael's research writing] method effective as it ... prevented me from panicking, and guided me throughout the research process." ~M. Felizardo (2013)
"I had little confidence in the beginning because I was afraid of making mistakes, [but] I learned it's important to speak out loud and have confidence." ~Y. Bae (2013)
"I learned how to make a direction for writing a research paper." ~D. Park (2013)
"From what I saw, your students are so lucky to have a cool, funny, and smart teacher like you."
~from an Ateneo Student (2011)
"The advice you give and the willingness you show to help other people can only come from a person who is willing to learn and to share what he's learned to the rest of the world."
~from an Ateneo Student (2011)
Rates & Contact Info
Rates
Per session*- 300 pesos
8 sessions- 2,100 pesos (Save 300 pesos)
12 sessions- 3,000 pesos (Save 600 pesos)
Location
Any cafes along Katipunan Avenue
Contact
Text Michael Diezmos @ +63-921-500-7623
Email him @ teachermekeedeee@gmail.com
Like 'Write Here Writing Center' in Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WriteHereWritingCenter
View his profile on LinkedIn
View his profile written by a peer
*Each session lasts from 30-60 minutes depending on difficulty of writing assignment or task. Some writing assignments will take more than one session (for example: writing a research paper will take more than one session). Each session will include: orienting student-writer about Write Here Writing Center's approach; reviewing student-writer's writing sample (if applicable); discussing recommendations and applications with student-writer; and creating a revision plan for the student-writer.
Per session*- 300 pesos
8 sessions- 2,100 pesos (Save 300 pesos)
12 sessions- 3,000 pesos (Save 600 pesos)
Location
Any cafes along Katipunan Avenue
Contact
Text Michael Diezmos @ +63-921-500-7623
Email him @ teachermekeedeee@gmail.com
Like 'Write Here Writing Center' in Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WriteHereWritingCenter
View his profile on LinkedIn
View his profile written by a peer
*Each session lasts from 30-60 minutes depending on difficulty of writing assignment or task. Some writing assignments will take more than one session (for example: writing a research paper will take more than one session). Each session will include: orienting student-writer about Write Here Writing Center's approach; reviewing student-writer's writing sample (if applicable); discussing recommendations and applications with student-writer; and creating a revision plan for the student-writer.
Services
Using writing as a process and a student-centered approach, Write Here Writing Center can help students with several writing projects. Each session will include: orienting student-writer about Write Here Writing Center's approach; reviewing student-writer's writing sample (if applicable); discussing recommendations and applications with student-writer; and creating a revision plan for the student-writer.
Academic:
- Scholarship/ Application Essays
- Research Papers/ Thesis
- Exposition/ Personal Narratives
- Literary Analysis
- Writings Across Curriculum (Engineering: Civil/ Chemical/ Electrical, and MORE)
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- ESL issues
Writing Process:
- Brainstorming
- Drafting
- Editing
- Revising
Professional:
- MLA and APA formatting
- Resume/ Cover Letter
- Grammar Review
- TOEFL*/ IELTS Review
*I scored a 110/120 in my TOEFL score. My TOEFL writing score was 28/30.
6.6.13
Mission
Write Here Writing Center's mission is to make writing F.R.E.E. Write Here Writing Center will accomplish this mission by empowering its students through motivation and equipping them with writing tools--teaching them how to fish (metaphorically speaking).
Writing should be:
Fun
Readable
Eloquent
Easy
Find the joy in self-expression, community building, and the art of writing.
Relate with an audience so both parties can have an understanding.
Employ basic rhetoric to be persuasive.
Equip yourself with an efficient* writing process.
*Being efficient will save you money, especially when you become so comfortable with a writing process that you no longer need the assistance of Write Here Writing Center.
Writing should be:
Fun
Readable
Eloquent
Easy
Find the joy in self-expression, community building, and the art of writing.
Relate with an audience so both parties can have an understanding.
Employ basic rhetoric to be persuasive.
Equip yourself with an efficient* writing process.
 |
| FREE to fly... |
Vision
Write Here Writing Center's vision is to help all students embrace writing as a process, while creating a worthwhile writing product.
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Teaching Philosophy
As an English and composition teacher, I want to help students become confident and critical readers and writers. I want them to be educated, rather than “schooled” as educator John Taylor Gatto outlines in his essay The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher. I believe that to be truly educated one has to take an active role in learning, which involves collaboration. This goal can be best achieved using a writing process supplemented by Aristotle’s rhetorical principles of ethos, pathos, and logos.
In the past, students revealed to me that a heavy emphasis on grammar rules stifled their learning ad their interest of the English language and writing. Gatto observes that this restriction made students indifferent; they became concern with solely getting the high grade rather than comprehension, clear communication, and expression thus failing to recognize the connection between the grammar and content in their writing.
In order for students to understand this connection and achieve balance, a true literacy learning environment needs to be nurtured where both “learning” and “acquisition” can take place. Stephen D. Krashen summarizes the definition of “Learning” and “Acquisition” in the article “Acquisition and Learning in a Literacy Learning Environment.” Learning is the formal breakdown of knowledge into parts, while acquisition is the informal way of learning through exposure. Learning grammar, for example, can provide students a template to express their abstract thoughts, and in writing, their abstract thoughts can be further clarified. Instead of being indifferent, students will then be equipped with a strategy to express themselves and thus be empowered.
One such strategy to teach to students is the importance of having a writing process. This strategy will engage them and make any writing tasks manageable. A writing process will take the strict focus away from grammar (which most students believe is the most essential in writing), and it will help them to explore topics they want to write about. As a result, engaged students will start recognizing the malleable nature of writing and thus start taking responsibility for their writing.
With ownership of their writing, collaboration with others becomes easier for students. I agree with Kenneth A. Bruffee’s writing pedagogy. I can help students learn to write better by helping them become “members of an active, constructive community of writers and readers” (A Short Course I Writing 1985, 1). For me, writing can be both personal and social, but when writing is in the classroom or any social event, writing becomes “an aspect of social adaptation … writing let us adapt our thoughts so somebody else can grasp them” (2).
Keeping this in mind, it is important to include collaboration in the writing process. In an article entitled “Collaboration: Developing Literacy through Group Interaction”, Lynn Langer Meeks, and Carol Jewkes Austin define collaboration in a general sense: “Any time students get together to interact about their reading, writing, or thinking” (46). According to them, group discussion helps students develop understanding, and encourage them to express and monitor their views risk-free and thus they learn that “truths are the product of evidence, argument, and construction rather than of authority, textual, or pedagogical” (46).
Students will not only collaborate with their peers through group projects, presentations, and peer review, they will work with me as well. As a fellow collaborator, I will offer advice that will further develop their ideas. My comments will continue to remind them about audience and help them become questioning readers. My assistance will also motivate them to revise. Once they are comfortable working with their peers and teacher, they are more prepared to collaborate with outside sources, such as professionals, specialists, and experts.
Students will recognize that the subject of English and writing is more than grammar rules. This subject is more than passively reading literature or writing sentimental poetry. English and writing can transform ones into critical thinkers, who are aware of ones’ ethos or character; who can sympathize with readers using pathos or emotions; who are logical about the logos or the message being communicated. If students develop a positive “can-do” attitude towards English and writing, and find the connection in their education through personal responsibility and teamwork in a community then I consider my teaching successful.
In the past, students revealed to me that a heavy emphasis on grammar rules stifled their learning ad their interest of the English language and writing. Gatto observes that this restriction made students indifferent; they became concern with solely getting the high grade rather than comprehension, clear communication, and expression thus failing to recognize the connection between the grammar and content in their writing.
In order for students to understand this connection and achieve balance, a true literacy learning environment needs to be nurtured where both “learning” and “acquisition” can take place. Stephen D. Krashen summarizes the definition of “Learning” and “Acquisition” in the article “Acquisition and Learning in a Literacy Learning Environment.” Learning is the formal breakdown of knowledge into parts, while acquisition is the informal way of learning through exposure. Learning grammar, for example, can provide students a template to express their abstract thoughts, and in writing, their abstract thoughts can be further clarified. Instead of being indifferent, students will then be equipped with a strategy to express themselves and thus be empowered.
One such strategy to teach to students is the importance of having a writing process. This strategy will engage them and make any writing tasks manageable. A writing process will take the strict focus away from grammar (which most students believe is the most essential in writing), and it will help them to explore topics they want to write about. As a result, engaged students will start recognizing the malleable nature of writing and thus start taking responsibility for their writing.
With ownership of their writing, collaboration with others becomes easier for students. I agree with Kenneth A. Bruffee’s writing pedagogy. I can help students learn to write better by helping them become “members of an active, constructive community of writers and readers” (A Short Course I Writing 1985, 1). For me, writing can be both personal and social, but when writing is in the classroom or any social event, writing becomes “an aspect of social adaptation … writing let us adapt our thoughts so somebody else can grasp them” (2).
Keeping this in mind, it is important to include collaboration in the writing process. In an article entitled “Collaboration: Developing Literacy through Group Interaction”, Lynn Langer Meeks, and Carol Jewkes Austin define collaboration in a general sense: “Any time students get together to interact about their reading, writing, or thinking” (46). According to them, group discussion helps students develop understanding, and encourage them to express and monitor their views risk-free and thus they learn that “truths are the product of evidence, argument, and construction rather than of authority, textual, or pedagogical” (46).
Students will not only collaborate with their peers through group projects, presentations, and peer review, they will work with me as well. As a fellow collaborator, I will offer advice that will further develop their ideas. My comments will continue to remind them about audience and help them become questioning readers. My assistance will also motivate them to revise. Once they are comfortable working with their peers and teacher, they are more prepared to collaborate with outside sources, such as professionals, specialists, and experts.
Students will recognize that the subject of English and writing is more than grammar rules. This subject is more than passively reading literature or writing sentimental poetry. English and writing can transform ones into critical thinkers, who are aware of ones’ ethos or character; who can sympathize with readers using pathos or emotions; who are logical about the logos or the message being communicated. If students develop a positive “can-do” attitude towards English and writing, and find the connection in their education through personal responsibility and teamwork in a community then I consider my teaching successful.
Why 'Write Here'?
When I was a sophomore at Seton Hill University, I'd spend countless hours in the computer lab writing papers for either my creative writing, literature, or other classes. I used up a lot of time writing "perfect" sentences in my head that by the time I actually typed my ideas down, I'd lose my train of thought. Then one day, a fellow English major told me about Seton Hill University's writing center.
At first I was afraid to go because I wasn't sure how talking about my writing for 30 minutes could help me out. To my surprise it did; I got a chance to experiment about ideas in a safe place. Over time I became confident and a firm believer of Writing Center pedagogy and the student-centered approach.
During graduate school at Utah State University, I continued learning more about Writing Center pedagogy as a writing tutor and composition instructor. After graduation, I employed writing center techniques in various teaching and tutoring jobs I had. I was reunited once again to a writing center when I became a writing assistant at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where I did an independent research in Writing Tutor Training involving history and best practices. I also learned other aspects of a writing center, such as operations and management.
I thought I would take a break from the Writing Center world as I pursue a Ph.D. at Ateneo de Manila University, but I realized that the savings I acquired from my former jobs could only last for at least 1 year. In addition to this new expense, I still have to pay current insurance and undergraduate student loans. So why not start a sideline of tutoring NOW. Any profit gained from this venture will at least slow down the depletion of my savings until I find a steadier and stable part time job. Maybe this sideline will literally put bread on the table, so I could complete my Ph.D. and be an even greater resource for present and future students.
Thus, 'Write Here Writing Center' is born on the 6th of June year 2013. "Here" is the key word, I'm using in the hopes of replicating the safe space that is helpful for every writer, both newbie and veteran. "Here" also emphasizes the importance of creating an environment that fosters motivation conducive for learning and mastery. There's no time, but now. There's no place, but here. Write now. Write Here Writing Center!
At first I was afraid to go because I wasn't sure how talking about my writing for 30 minutes could help me out. To my surprise it did; I got a chance to experiment about ideas in a safe place. Over time I became confident and a firm believer of Writing Center pedagogy and the student-centered approach.
During graduate school at Utah State University, I continued learning more about Writing Center pedagogy as a writing tutor and composition instructor. After graduation, I employed writing center techniques in various teaching and tutoring jobs I had. I was reunited once again to a writing center when I became a writing assistant at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where I did an independent research in Writing Tutor Training involving history and best practices. I also learned other aspects of a writing center, such as operations and management.
I thought I would take a break from the Writing Center world as I pursue a Ph.D. at Ateneo de Manila University, but I realized that the savings I acquired from my former jobs could only last for at least 1 year. In addition to this new expense, I still have to pay current insurance and undergraduate student loans. So why not start a sideline of tutoring NOW. Any profit gained from this venture will at least slow down the depletion of my savings until I find a steadier and stable part time job. Maybe this sideline will literally put bread on the table, so I could complete my Ph.D. and be an even greater resource for present and future students.
Thus, 'Write Here Writing Center' is born on the 6th of June year 2013. "Here" is the key word, I'm using in the hopes of replicating the safe space that is helpful for every writer, both newbie and veteran. "Here" also emphasizes the importance of creating an environment that fosters motivation conducive for learning and mastery. There's no time, but now. There's no place, but here. Write now. Write Here Writing Center!
Michael Diezmos
Founder of Write Here Writing Center
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