the tutors – Rachel, Ashley B., Ashley T., and Michelle.
My name is Rachel Lonas, the founder of Maple Key Tutoring. I have been teaching and enjoying literature for over 19 years in some capacity. I have a B.S. from Bryan College in Literature with a Secondary Licensure (2006). I worked as an English teacher at Lookout Valley Middle/High for 3 years before coming home to have our first daughter. Since then my husband Justin and I have had 3 more daughters and I have continued to tutor either in the home or other tutorials and co-ops (most notably Ingleside Tutorial) in the Chattanooga-ish area.
Justin and I have been married for 19 years. He works for The Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College and just finished his M.Div. last summer. We have 4 daughters who range from age 16 all the way down to 7.
I love having built a program for the ‘whole child’ on the merits of discipleship and stewardship for girls through literature, art, gardening, communal learning, and nature study. Nothing excites me more than to talk about educational philosophy and I derive so much joy from what we all get to do together in our program each week!
Outside of Maple Key I do lead training for a program called Faith and Finances as well as celebrating community 8 hours a week as a librarian at our small city library.
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My name is Ashley Baird, and I am so excited to be a tutor with Maple Key this year! I have a degree in K-8 Education and have been a homeschool mom since 2012. I have been active in education in some way alongside homeschooling either by facilitating co-op classes, tutoring, leading Tinkergarten classes or teaching at The Blessing Place. I am passionate about education that honors the whole person, respects the learner as a child of God, and adapts and changes with the learner’s needs. I consider myself a life-long learner and I am always interested in learning more about child development and educational philosophies!
My husband Dan and I have been married for close to 14 years and have a blended family with three kids from age 12 to 27. When I am not working or with my family I can be found with my nose in a book, working with the littles at my church, or singing with my choir and community theater group.
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I’m Ashley Tanis and I’m thrilled to be joining the Maple Key team this year! I have a B.A. in English with a minor in Biology, and have experienced homeschooling both from a student and a mom/teacher perspective. I grew up on a farm in NJ bordering the Appalachian Trail and spent most of my free time exploring our property or buried in a book. As a bonus, NYC was only an hour away and we took full advantage of the museums, art, music, and shows not available to us in the country. This provided me with a lifelong love of learning, creating, and field trips of any kind!
My husband Paul and I have been married 21 years and have 3 children, all of whom have their own, individual neurodivergencies. Their unique needs, as well as our time spent as foster parents, opened our eyes to the many different ways a person can be gifted in learning, and how much better they will thrive when those needs are being met well in their educational setting. I am passionate about advocating for educators to be trained to understand and address how a student’s personal experiences, trauma, and brain chemistry affect them in the classroom, and in life. While most of my professional experience has been in nonprofit work, I have worked with children of all ages throughout my life and have loved getting to know each one and watching them blossom into the people God made them to be.
Every morning you can find me in my sunroom drinking my coffee and doing the NYT puzzles, praying it will snow, even in August. Otherwise, my free time is spent cooking, baking, crafting, reading, or hanging out with my kids playing video games, searching McKay’s for graphic novels, or vying for dominance in Uno.
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My name is Michelle Haddock. I hold a B.A. in English Literature from Kennesaw State University (2009) and have spent my career working with children across a variety of educational settings—from after-school and enrichment programs to years as a private nanny, and teaching in both traditional classrooms and an outdoor forest school. I currently serve at the East Ridge City Library and love to create engaging programs that nurture a love of literacy and learning in our youngest patrons. As a homeschooling parent, I’ve had the joy of educating my own children and teaching a variety of community classes. I’m also the mother of a disabled child with profound autism which has sparked a deep passion for supporting neurodivergent learners and honoring their strengths, needs, and unique ways of connecting. This perspective shapes my approach to education for all children.
Outside of work, I enjoy camping, hiking, traveling, gardening, yoga and snuggling with my cats. I’m a lifelong learner and bookworm and, most importantly, the proud mother of four wild boys—three earthside and one dearly missed. I believe in the power of community and love creating spaces where children feel safe, seen, capable, and valued. I’m thrilled to be part of the Maple Key community.
the name.
Botanically speaking, a maple key is the part of the seed that is covered in a papery wing. It’s the thing we all loved to play with as a child pretending they were little natural helicopters. I chose this name because it is a reminder of the stunning Japanese maples in our front yard. My girls climb in them as we watch them change colors from jade green to vibrant vermilion each year.
I also love the connotation of a maple key being the beginning of something that will mature into something that continues to glorify God as it grows and nurtures others through its presence. So similarly, the adolescent years are the beginning of that desire for self-discovery and identity. The desire is for the program to be the pruning, watering, and sunlight; for us all to be a part of the flourishing of one another.
PHILOSOPHY.
American culture can strip from our homes the idea of interconnectedness — that we are for each other. We depend on God to sustain us and we help each other to make everyone stronger. The communal aspect of the program is based on the idea of Little Women, 4 sisters who are each unique in their giftings, personalities, and callings but drop everything to support one another (even with their petty tiffs and blunders along the way. That’s real life!). They respect and love their community out of the foundation they have with one another. There can be no place for a “mean girl” mentality when girls can be accepted and known by others for who God made them to be.
Academically, this program seeks to integrate all the senses and thereby integrating the academic disciplines. Everything that is being learned in one area strengthens another area of the program. It’s symbiosis! For example, if a student nature journals a daffodil she will have more metaphors for colors, plant life cycle, life/death, heralding of the seasons; this will inherently strengthen her writing skills. If a student works with modeling clay to define the contours of a fruit she will be able to better describe the process of art because her senses were used in the act.
The more your child discovers in these areas of the humanities and science the more they discover about themselves and others in the world. We want our children to expand their capacity to empathize greatly with others so having a multi-cultural and multi-genre approach to literature gives them tools to do so.
Finally, a big component of Maple Key is for learners to be responsible for their own learning. We guide them and present material for them to ponder and work at individually and collectively as a group, but the outcomes are always individual as each student tracks their growth through the things we do together and what they choose to pursue on their own.
In order for this to happen, that means as educators we have a responsibility in how we teach and tutor. Here are some key principles for learning that I have already been striving to do in educational practice for almost 20 years, but have language for it now (thanks to Global Learning Partners):
– Accountability (holding myself responsible for appropriate student curriculum and prep)
– Autonomy (giving students choices/agency)
– Congruence (modeling what I am asking them to do)
– Engagement (no passive learning)
– Equity (recognizing not everyone is at the same starting block and adjust accordingly)
– Humility (not having a know-it-all posture)
– Immediacy (the learning can be used right away)
– Inclusion (making sure all voices and viewpoints are able to be heard)
– Reinforcement (finding ways to integrate learning into other areas)
– Relevance (making the learning connect to everyday things)
– Respect (valuing the learner)
– Safety (create a an environment that helps they feel seen and heard)
– Transparency (being upfront and clear about schedules and expectations)
– Vulnerability (be willing to share openly and appropriately with them)
Maple Key Tutoring 