About Us
Where we came from
Derman Enterprises Inc. is a business that has evolved from Derman Holdings Inc., which was formed in 1997. We've always had a strong services orientation with a significant portion of services being education services. One of the other founders of the business also has an education degree, so this focus was somewhat natural.
For multiple years, I've been evolving techniques and materials focused on helping students overcome particular learning blockages. This effort is now at the stage where it can be shared with others.
Where we're going
I'm on a mission. I've seen far too many students suffer far too much because they're unable to get over a few "learning road-blocks." With this site, my goal is to help others do what I've been doing on an individual basis for many years...
Improve learning abilities early – Improve family and school life – Help assure a child's future.
Children are unique individuals with unique minds and they all learn in their own unique way. By discovering your child's unique learning abilities and then using those to teach your child how to succeed in school is an educational opportunity that's not to be missed.
My particular talents:
- Figuring out how/when/where a student is “blocked” and turning it around by using the student’s intrinsic means of thinking to teach in a way that is easily understood by the student.
- Understanding problems of creative, "right-brain" thinkers and how to overcome/use this giftedness.
My Story
"Blending known teaching techniques with a few of my own teaching discoveries."
I earned an Honors Degree in Education. I had a career, a husband, and then had two beautiful children. My oldest, a son, was incredibly clever -- he was an explorer, taking things apart, getting into everything. Those early years came with great expectations. However, those expectations were crushed. As a former teacher, I was devastated to discover that my son wasn't gifted in school; in fact he was the opposite.
Well, he was a premature baby perhaps he just needed time to catch up. When his kindergarten teacher wrote in his November report card that he might fail the year, not only was I distraught but I was also angry. How could she "write-off" my child so early in the year!
I had never given up on any of my students – I thought of their failure, as my failure as a teacher.
I was fortunate that we lived in an area, at the time, that had lots of testing facilities. I had him tested at Stanford and other educational facilities for IQ (which was, as I thought, very high), for hearing, for sequencing, etc. My son was smart, very smart so what was wrong and why couldn't anyone help us.
I started going to conventions that dealt with learning disabilities. If I couldn't get to a convention, I ordered their tapes. I read over 200 books on learning disabilities and on the brain. In short, I turned myself into an expert. I then turned learning into a fun time spend with my son. As my son got older and I had to help him in so many areas, I decided to at first concentrate most of our time on just one. I decided that if he was good in one subject area, the teacher's couldn't "write him off" as being slow. I chose math as it was a subject that was concrete, the answer was right or it was wrong.
I mixed some of the teaching ideas I had picked up from others and I added a few of my own. To make a long story shorter, my son so excelled in school that by the end of elementary school, he had won a Presidential academic award. When he entered university on an early scholarship, he was constantly on the Dean’s list.
As an educator, I have worked with children and adults who were either having problems in school or just wanted to improve. There has always been a significant improvement in a fairly short time. As rewarding as it is to see my students reach their full educational potential, I often feel distressed by the number of children who are like my son and have not been able to reach their educational potential mainly because they did have someone to help them figure out how to be successful.
For years and years, people have told me to share this gift and so I am hoping to do just that with this website. I would love to help you change the future for your student or your child and thus your family – and take what the school system deems a failure and turn him or her into a scholar who loves school and loves to learn.
Qualifications:
- over 25 years working with students as a high school and college teacher, as well as, a tutor
- background in industrial education, business education, communications arts, business writing, public speaking, grammar, TESL, ESL computer listening and conversation
- Honors Bachelor of Education Degree
- Cooperative Learning Completion of Training Certificate
- TESL-CALL Certificate
