Donte Wylie, who worked as a volunteer with an AmeriCorps development initiative in Waverly, is the newest Special Education Math Teacher at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School in Pikesville. He has been assigned to work with the school’s special needs students in 6th through 8th grade.
“I teach students in a variety of special needs categories, including developmental disabilities, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, emotional behavioral disorder, and traumatic brain injury,” Wylie said in an email.
A 1992 graduate of Baltimore City College Senior High School who earned a bachelor’s of science degree in History in 1999 and a master’s in Criminal Justice in 2007 from Coppin State, Wylie earned his teaching license in Special Education in 2016.
“Whatever their challenges, I believe that all of them can embrace the fun and beauty of mathematics, and I’m happy to facilitate that understanding,” he said.
In 2016, Wylie earned a MEd in Special Education at Loyola University’s School of Education.
After graduating from Loyola, he taught reading and math intervention, social studies and general science, art, and life skills/vocation components at the Chimes School in Northwest Baltimore, which serves students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and co-occurring disabilities.
Later, he signed up for an anti-poverty and youth enhancement initiative with AmeriCorps that was run in tandem with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern and the Waverly Improvement Association. In August, Wylie was hired by Sudbrook Middle School.
In addition to his new full time job, Wylie recently joined the newly launched Sylvan In-Home, which provides personalized one-on-one instruction for kindergarten through high school students.
He tutors math, reading, and robotics to 3rd through 12th grade students who live in East Baltimore (including Edison and Belair) and Southeast Baltimore County (including Nottingham and Essex).
“Sylvan In-Home provides a specific, strategic, and custom tailored solution to learning,” Wylie said. “What sets the program apart is the mental and emotional confidence and happiness that students develop when they begin to improve and excel. The SylvanSync digital adaptive learning platform, which I use in my sessions, plays a big role in attaining these positive outcomes.”
As in all of his work with youngsters, Wylie says he enjoys when his students begin to see results from their hard work.
“Not only is it rewarding to see the children understand the subjects that I’m tutoring, it’s also cathartic,” Wylie said. “When the techniques that I’ve learned over the years provide them with the necessary skills and reassurance to help them master what had previously been really difficult for them, we all feel great and we all win.”