Contact
208-559-5295
srsieker@gmail.com
2024-2025 Group Classes
Are you interested in a great literature class or structured writing class to augment your home-schooling curriculum?
Would you like your middle schooler or high schooler to understand our American Constitution and our civic duties as citizens of this great country?
Do you have a middle school, or high school student who needs an extra boost to inspire and invigorate his or her learning?
Would you like your child to be part of a small group of truth seekers with
like-minded faith and morals?
In-person small group classes (northwest Boise)
for middle school & high school students
beginning Sept. 9th, 2024!
Please contact me for more details:
Suzanne M. Sieker, M.A. Ed.
Teacher, Tutor & Educational Coach
(208) 559-5295
*Classes begin soon-Please contact ASAP!
Student Testimonies
"I loved my years studying under Ms. Sieker's guidance. Her courses gave me a love for literature, writing, and math that lasts to this day. I still miss sitting in circles and discussing books with my close friends. Because of her classes, I was ready to go to college several years early. Ultimately, that lead to going to graduate school and getting my master's degree. I started college with strong writing and reading skills that allowed me to succeed. College was less stressful for me, compared to others, because I already knew how to write at that level and read difficult texts. I am very grateful for all the skills I learned and the friends I made during the time I was in Mrs. Sieker's courses."
-Diana Costanzo
Mrs. Sieker was an exceptional teacher whose love and care for her students were evident in every aspect of her teaching. Her authentic concern for our well-being and her resolute belief in our potential made her a truly remarkable educator. Mrs. Sieker went above and beyond to ensure that each student felt valued and supported. She not only taught me academic lessons but also fixed in me essential virtues through her own actions. Her selflessness and willingness to go the extra mile were inspiring, as she gave up her personal time to teach and guide us. Mrs. Sieker's patience seemed boundless, as she took the time to understand our individual needs and tailor her teaching to accommodate our unique learning styles. Additionally, her teachings in religion were transformative. Through her passionate and knowledgeable approach, she brought us closer to God and impressed in me a deep appreciation for faith. Mrs. Sieker's influence on my life extends far beyond the classroom, as she taught me the importance of selflessness, patience, and a close relationship with God. Her love and care have shaped me into a better person, and I am forever grateful for her enduring impact on my life and the lives of all her students.
-Shane O'Neill
I am beyond grateful for my years of learning under Mrs. Sieker! TREC played an integral part in my development, not just intellectually, but in all areas of life. Mrs. Sieker always created a very positive environment with a healthy combination of freedom and fun, and the discipline and routine that we needed. The class setting always encouraged friendship, cooperation, dedication, and excellence! She truly cared about each and every one of her students, and worked tirelessly to ensure every person was always doing well and improving! I truly enjoyed my time at TREC, and I owe much of who I am today to the hard work Mrs. Sieker did in educating us so exceptionally well!
-Thomas Sower
Mrs. Sieker is an excellent teacher! What I enjoy about Mrs. Sieker’s class is that she teaches in a way that makes learning fun and memorable. The materials she uses are classical, in depth, insightful, and I feel are more useful and academic than what most schools are providing. I can tell Mrs. Sieker truly does care about what her students are getting out of her teaching. Her class has really given me the knowledge I need for my coming future!
-Maddy Hansen
Homeschool Coaching
Are you interested in homeschooling, but don’t know where to begin?
Have you begun the homeschooling journey but been waylaid by curriculum, time management, discipline, or student learning difficulties?
Do you need some encouragement or advice from a credentialed teacher with years of homeschooling experience?
I would love to help!
To learn more, contact me for a free consultation.
Tutoring
Barton System Tutoring for Children with Dyslexia
&
Executive Functioning Tutoring for students who struggle with focus, management, and discipline
- Helping children find hope as they discover they CAN learn to read and spell through an “Orton-Gillingham Influenced Simultaneously Multisensory Explicit and Systematic Phonics Program”, the Barton Reading and Spelling System.
- Assisting students with other subjects as needed – creating individualized plans to help students reach their learning goals.
- Helping students grow in competency and self-confidence!
I currently have a few spots open for tutoring— for students of all levels.
Meet the Teacher
Suzanne M. Sieker: Over 30 years' experience in teaching, tutoring, teacher mentoring, and classical Christian curriculum development. Experienced in grades K-12 in various school settings- international, Christian, public, Catholic, and homeschool. I hold a current Idaho Teaching Credential and a Professional Clear Multiple Subject California Credential.
My Inspiration
From my earliest years I have admired teachers. In second grade, I remember thinking my teacher was absolutely perfect; she not only knew everything, she also genuinely cared about me! Even now as I sit here at my desk, I can see the ladybug paperweight she gave so many years ago. I am sure Mrs. Montgomery taught me many things, but what I remember about her is that she loved me and that our classroom was like a family where I was safe and valued and where learning was the glorious life sustaining food that we feasted on every day. That ladybug paperweight, which has gone with me into various schools over the years, still inspires me today to create the same kind of environment for my students that Mrs. Montgomery created for me.
Throughout all my experience in teaching, I have also continued to love learning and to be a seeker of truth, which has led me to riches the world cannot comprehend. My desire is to share these graces given to me through my own faith formation and life journey to bless every child that enters my classroom – the way Mrs. Montgomery blessed me.
I am an avid reader, and an eternal student. I delight in all facets of learning – spiritual, academic, professional, social, emotional, physical (health), psychological, political, philosophical, and liturgical. When it comes to professional growth my academic record and my portfolio demonstrates that I have continued to take classes in all the core subjects as well as technology, classroom management, cooperative learning, student learning styles, and many other subjects related to teaching. As for my personal spiritual growth, I am committed to daily times of prayer and reflection, and regular participation in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. I meet regularly with a spiritual director. Yearly, I make at least one whole week of solitude retreat, usually at Marymount Hermitage; although there are other monasteries I have also made retreats at over the past 18 years. I find it essential to my well-being and the well-being of my family and my students to set aside time (daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly) to pray, reflect, read and meditate on spiritual readings, examine what is in my soul and readjust my mind and will to align with God’s. My deep desire is to keep learning and growing in all aspects of life as long as I have breath and the capacity to think, learn, and act. I desire to be a Saint and a Scholar. With St. Paul I admit, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have already obtained this, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
Mrs. Sieker's
Philosophy of Education
1. What does it mean to be a Christian?
The word Christian literally means “little Christ”. As someone who professes to be a “Christian”, I am willingly associating myself with Christ Himself, who is God incarnate, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is everything; I am nothing without Him. Originally, the term “Christian” was used by those who did not believe in Christ to refer to this new, radical group of men and women who were leaving everything, loving everyone, and even dying for their faith in The Christ.
Although the term Christian has been interpreted in many different ways over the centuries, I believe that the original meaning is the truest. A Christian is a “little Christ” – someone who gives up his life in order to live his true life in Christ and gain eternal life with Him and all the saints. To be a Christian is to surrender one’s own will to do the will of the Father, just as Christ taught his first followers to do through his own example of humility and obedience even to death on a cross. To be Christian is to follow John the Baptist’s example of laying down his life: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). To be a Christian also implies that we are part of the mystical body of Christ and that together we are to carry out the work Jesus gave to his first apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). St. Paul adds, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that … you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents (Phil. 1:27-28a). Therefore, to be a Christian means to be a “little Christ” – someone who has surrendered his will and his whole life to the service of The Christ, someone who strives together with the Church, the Body of Christ, to carry out all the great commission of The Christ, and someone who rests in the inexplicable assurance that no matter what happens on this earth, Jesus will keep his promise to be with us to the end of the age and will one day surely take us to be with him and the Father in glory!
2. Overview of what constitutes a classical and Christian education
A classical Christian education is a process of forming individual lives – the lives of our most precious children, our future. I have already defined “Christian” in the question above. The word classical has also been defined in a myriad of ways. For the past 25 years, I have been researching, implementing, evaluating, refining, and developing a Christian classical education. To put it as simply as possible an education that is Christian and classical must be based on the following:
- All truth is from God.
- A classical education seeks to inspire young minds to use their intelligence and their will to desire to know and love the truth.
- Truth is beautiful and good in and of itself.
- Beauty attracts the human heart and mind to what is good and true; therefore, exposure to beauty is essential to a classical Christian education.
- Children are inherently seekers of truth. They want to know what, when, where, how, and why. A classical education fosters this kind of seeking.
- Goodness is an inner essence and potential, a seed planted by God in every human being. A classical Christian education looks for this goodness in every child, waters and nourishes it, and trains the child how to also protect and grow this potential in himself. The formation of character is quintessential to a classical education.
A teacher who aspires to provide a “classical Christian education” will be grounded in the above stated principles and not merely driven by the wind of every new teaching strategy, curriculum, and pedagogy. Yet, this teacher will be free to use any strategy or curriculum that serves her purpose of teaching the whole child -- body, mind, heart, and soul -- to search out and love what is true, good, and beautiful.
3. How does my faith, philosophy of education and experiences equip me to teach today’s children?
My curriculum vitae delineates many of my relevant experiences and training. As mentioned above, I have been studying and practicing the pedagogy of a classical and Christian education for the past 25 years. I have read extensively, participated in classical conferences, developed my own classical and Christian hybrid school as a support for homeschool families, and helped to develop a uniquely classical and authentically Catholic program for a local Catholic School. This is in addition to the formal Christian liberal arts and educational training I received through my coursework and credentialing from Biola University and my Master of Education from Grand Canyon University.
With years of quality training, a wealth of experience, and a life-time of personal seeking of truth, I am enjoying the fruitfulness of God’s blessing in my teaching, mentoring, and tutoring. I would love to share the graces that have been given to me with you and your children!