Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Watkinson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started? I moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles almost 30 years ago, originally hoping to find success in acting. After some fun but uneven years, I realized pursuing a career in movies was like hoping for a winning lottery ticket, so I decided to rethink things.
An educator friend said she thought I’d make a really good teacher and recommended I go back to college for my teaching degree and credentials. I took her advice. I started off doing sub work in both the LAUSD and Burbank USD before landing at the Westmark School in Encino. Their population of students was composed of really bright, highly motivated kids who had all had some sort of learning difference: dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, executive functioning challenges, etc. I immediately found the work wonderfully challenging and incredibly rewarding.
After working for years as a fifth grade classroom teacher, I was asked to move into middle school social studies. I went from having about 20 students to 70. I realized that with the level of time and attention I like to give my students and their parents, there’d be no way to translate it to that many kids. So I decided to open my tutoring business, and as cliche as it is, the rest is history!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s honestly been a relatively smooth road. I was lucky enough to have a lot of parents familiar with me from Westmark, and right away many of them asked if I would work with their children. From there, I built into a practice. My roster of students comes almost entirely from word of mouth: recommendations from current or past students and their parents to people they know who need help. I’m really thankful for that, because I don’t advertise and am horrible at trying to solicit work!
I guess it can still be kind of a struggle to fill up some of the daytime hours. Afterschool hours book out immediately, but earlier in the day, most students are of course in school. To make that time productive, I either find schools willing to provide classrooms for me to work with their students, or I support homeschool students. It’s doable, but it just takes more work to arrange.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the owner/operator of Watkinson Tutoring, and it’s basically a one-man operation. So if you’re working with Watkinson Tutoring, you’re working with me. I specialize in supporting students with learning differences, although the techniques that are highly effective with students who have special needs are generally also very effective with the general population of students as well. What sets me apart from other tutors is probably knowledge and experience. I’m very good at what I do. Parents looking for tutors for their children, especially children with mild to moderate learning differences, aren’t likely to find anyone who is as familiar with not just the needs and challenges of the students but also with what they can and cannot expect from local schools. I’ve been doing this long enough that I have some experience with almost every school within a 5 or 10 mile radius from me!
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is happiness. Success is loving what you do, loving where you are, and loving those around you.
Watkinson Tutoring 