Theresa Collins

Description

Theresa Collins joined the Southport School community in 2014 as the director of the tutorial program.  She has spent nearly 30 years using the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach students with language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia, and ADHD.  She first developed her interest in learning differences while pursuing her B.A. in Psychology at Colgate University.  She later earned her M.S. in Educational Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany.   From 1987 to 2014, she was an Orton-Gillingham tutor and later Director of Language Training at The Kildonan School.

As a Fellow of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, she is certified to train and mentor teachers in the fundamental content and implementation of the Orton-Gillingham approach; she is currently developing and overseeing the Orton-Gillingham teacher training institute at The Southport School.  She has presented at various conferences, including the Annual Conference of the International Dyslexia Association, the New York and New Jersey branches of the IDA, the annual conference of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, the annual conference of the Assistive Technology Industry Association, and the Assistive Technology Conference of New England.

Outside of school, she enjoys spending with her husband, an assistive technology specialist, and son, an aspiring musician/programmer/scientist/teacher/artist.  She loves to write, and in her endless quest to find the perfect book for every student, reads middle grade and young adult literature voraciously.  She dreams of retiring to a farm in Vermont to raise sheep, spin her own yarn, knit, and operate a yarn store.