February 2024

As the second half of the school year continues, I hope everyone was able to weather the recent snow squalls! Our intakes have continued to pick up pace, which means that we have more hours to offer those who are looking for additional students.Please let us know if you have availabilities and we will be glad to provide!On an additional note, I'm working on a new tutors-only portal through our website! It will likely launch in the coming weeks, and will feature a monthly "blog" that will take the place of this, theemailed version of the LINKZ-Letter. More new and exciting things are around the corner, and I'm eagerly looking forward to sharing them with all of you!

Best,
Jake

- As mentioned above, we're looking for availabilities for new cases - feel free to put that availability into TutorCruncher! If you need help doing so, please let me or Michelle know.

- Important: Please check in with your case manager (me, Jenn, and/or Carolyn) about your cases, especially if you plan to take any major leaves of absence or make any major adjustments to your schedule (dramatically scaling up or down in the number of times you meet per week, for example). If you're having issues following the to-do list, please make sure to let your case manager(s) know, so that we can provide guidance and support. And please, DO NOT communicate any of these major changes or issues with your clients until first talking with your case manager(s)!

- Important: We're looking for more in-person Orton tutors at LINKZ Columbia and LINKZ Midwest! If you know anyone who might be interested (we're currently looking for folks who are already Orton-trained), please let us know.

- As also mentioned above, I'll be sending out login information for our tutors-only portal; I'm sure I don't need to explicitly say this, but please don't share that login information (or anything in the portal) with anyone else!

- I neglected to mention this in the last LINKZ-Letter, but the new calendar year is often a good opportunity to consider raising your rates (unless you've specified that you won't raise rates until the end of the school year). I've noticed that some folks have set rates far below average; if you're nervous about raising those rates, please let me know, and I'd be happy to provide guidance and/or language.

- Important: Now is the time to send Jennifer any OG-related games and/or questions you'd like discussed at our next Learning @ LINKZ. Also, please bring your favorite OG-related game!

- Another reminder that we're working on summer programming for 2024 - if you'd like to make some extra money over the summer, please let me know!

- Here is the Learning @ LINKZ calendar for the upcoming months:

Friday, February 23rd @ 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EST
Topic: OG Rules & Lessons: Tips, Tricks, & Strategies
Led By: Jennifer Wheat
Where: LINKZ Columbia

Saturday, March 16th @ 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST
Topic: Paragraphology Walkthrough
Led By: Nora Fitzgerald
Where: LINKZ Columbia
Important: If you have questions or specific points you want addressed, please let Nora know in advance.

Monday, March 18th @ 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EST
Topic: PMT & Apps: Checking In
Led By: Jennifer Wheat & Carolyn Coletti
Where: LINKZ Columbia

Saturday, April 20th @ 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Topic: ADHD & The Work We Do
Led By: Jake Ferentz
Where: Virtual (Zoom link to follow)

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- A reminder for all of our community events coming up (more information on our website):

Sunday, April 7th @ 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
JCC Block Party
Where: Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC
3506 Gwynnbrook Avenue
Owings Mills, MD 21117