Hello! I’m Tanya Bearson and I am passionate about teaching a variety of topics including visual arts, ultimate frisbee, english, math, and fun camp-like activities. I love creating innovative, interactive, captivating, and inclusive activities that inspire learning and are fun. I believe everyone is capable of learning whatever they put their mind to and developing a passion for learning!

I have worked with children ages three through eighteen in a variety of camp, school, after-school, and leadership settings. From my experience and being a current student myself, I know how to teach in an effective, engaging, fun, encouraging, and creative way. Below are highlights of my academic and professional experience.

Visual Arts:
I am a passionate visual artist. I attended Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) for three years and specialized in visual arts. At OSA, I received intensive visual arts training including learning how to draw realistically, paint with watercolor and acrylic, work with charcoal, sculpture, printmaking, pen and ink, and more. I furthered my skills by taking an advanced drawing and painting course, a ceramics course, and illustrating for The Jacket, Berkeley High School’s newspaper, for four years. My visual arts training has prepared me well to be a fun, engaging, responsive, and effective art teacher. 

Ultimate Frisbee:
I have been a competitive ultimate frisbee player for over six years. I currently play for Bruin Ladies Ultimate, UCLA’s nationally ranked women’s team, and have played for numerous other teams including Berkeley High Coup Red, high school national champions. I have captained five teams and coached at frisbee summer camps for five years. 

Academics:
I love learning and always challenge myself academically. At UCLA I am majoring in psychobiology with a minor in disability studies. I have taken courses in biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, calculus, public affairs, disability studies, and english. In high school I took AP classes in calculus, english language and culture, Chinese language and culture, physics, US history, economics, chemistry, and computer programming. My strong academic background makes me well suited to teach a range of academic subjects. Because I am a student, I am very familiar with what makes someone an effective and stimulating teacher. I know that so much of learning comes down to whether teachers are passionate about what they are teaching and whether they support their students’ specific needs and learning styles. I am grateful for all the hard-work I put into my early education and the support I received from teachers which has given me a solid foundation and made such a difference in my ability to learn complex concepts in high school and college. Because of this, I am incredibly passionate about teaching others and especially helping them build this crucial foundation. 

Camp Counselor: 
I have been a summer camp counselor at ultimate frisbee camps, a circus performing arts camp, sports and arts camps, and camps for people with disabilities. I have also captained sports teams and volunteered for Headstart and other preschools. Each of these experiences not only gave me a toolbox of fun team bonding, leadership development, and skill building games and activities, but taught me how to engage, support, and nurture children.

A fun fact about me: 
I am inventing a brand new sport, unicycle frisbee! I’m an avid ultimate frisbee player and unicycler. I thought it would be exciting to combine the two. So far, I can catch a frisbee while unicycling and am figuring out how to make it a team sport. I need your help! I’d love to hear your suggestions and other ideas you have for creating new sports or funny things to do on a unicycle in class!