Educational leadership
Andreea Schwimmer, M.A.
Founder & Lead Educator, Peak Online Learning · Credentialed California elementary teacher · 13+ years in elementary education
Thirteen years in elementary classrooms teaches you to recognise a particular expression on a child's face — the one that arrives about half a second after something they had decided was impossible turns out not to be. Producing that expression on purpose, repeatedly, is more or less my entire job description.
Those years were spent planning and delivering standards-based, research-based instruction to classes of genuinely mixed learners, which meant constantly rebuilding the same lesson three different ways so it would land for three different children. I built support strategies for the students who were behind, designed enrichment for gifted and talented learners who needed somewhere further to go, and ran structured, individualized academic intervention for the students whose needs the regular schedule could not absorb.
Several of those years involved special education, including an extended period of fully individualized one-on-one instruction with a student with special needs. That experience is the reason I do not begin with a curriculum. It taught me to keep adjusting the instruction until it fits the child, rather than expecting the child to adapt to instruction that was designed for someone else.
Peak Online Learning grew out of that work. As Founder & Lead Educator I set the instructional approach our educators follow, and I remain closely involved in how students are supported — so that the same standards apply whether a family is two miles away or two time zones away.
Education
- M.A., Education — Pepperdine University (2007)
- B.A., History — University of California, Berkeley (2003)
- Credentialed California elementary school teacher
The principles our instruction is built on
- Differentiation — instruction shaped around how an individual student learns
- Skills review — ongoing attention to where a student actually is, shared plainly with parents
- Social-emotional learning — confidence, coping strategies and regular check-ins
- Positive behavior management — structure that feels safe rather than strict
- Communication — parents kept informed about what is being worked on and what comes next
Why I stayed in the elementary years
Secondary teaching was never tempting. What happens between transitional kindergarten and fifth grade is foundational in a way that later schooling is not: this is when a child works out whether text is decodable, whether numbers behave predictably, and — the part nobody writes into a standards document — whether being confused is a temporary condition or a permanent verdict on themselves.
That last question is the one I care most about. A child who believes confusion is survivable will keep attempting things. A child who has concluded otherwise stops, and stopping is what actually ends learning. Most of what looks like ability at this age is really the accumulated residue of that one belief.
One-on-one work is where that belief can be affected most directly, which is why our whole programme is built on it. A classroom teacher differentiating for twenty-five students is making constant trade-offs, and knows it. Working with one student, far fewer trade-offs remain — the pace is theirs, the examples can come from whatever they happen to be obsessed with this month, and nothing they do well passes unremarked.
That last part is not softness, it is technique. Children tend to take more risks in front of an adult who visibly expects the risk to go fine, and taking risks is how most learning happens. Building a room where that is true is much of the work, and in our experience it can be built over a video connection as readily as across a table.
Working directly with Andreea
Every Peak Online Learning tutor follows the instructional approach set out on this page. Programs with Andreea herself are available at a higher rate and may be subject to availability — families interested in that can discuss options during the complimentary consultation.
FAQ
Questions parents ask about our educators
What are your qualifications?
What does your special education background mean for my child?
Do you work with advanced students?
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Which educator will work with my child?
Can we work directly with Andreea?
Is in-person tutoring available?
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