Episode 138: Supporting Students with Learning Challenges with Emily Levy of EBL Coaching

Dr. Emily Levy is the founder and director of EBL Coaching, a specialized tutoring program that offers individualized one-on-one, home, virtual, and on-site instruction using research-based multi-sensory techniques.

In this episode, Levy shares about her journey from Wall Street to education, the so-called “family business.“ She also discusses her multi-sensory approach to tutoring and how she finds new clients. Tune into this informative episode!

Find Emily Levy on LinkedIn.

 
 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

Dr. Emily Levy is the founder and director of EBL coaching, a specialized tutoring program that offers individualized one on one, home, virtual and on site instruction using research based multi sensory techniques. Welcome Emily, so nice to have you here.

Dr. Emily Levy  

It's so nice to be here, and thank you for having me.


Lily Jones  

Absolutely so I always start with the same gigantic question, which you can take in any direction you'd like, which is to tell us about your journey as an educator.


Dr. Emily Levy  

Sure be happy to do that. I have sort of a unique, circuitous journey, I would say, as an educator. So I actually grew up in the field of special education. My mother was the founder of a school for students with learning disabilities down in South Florida, which is where I grew up. So I really spent a lot of my childhood working at her school, working with kids, observing kids, but thought I wanted to carve my own path and kind of not live under my mother's shadow at the time. So went to Brown for my undergraduate degree, and then I actually did two years of finance of all things. I did, a year of investment banking, I did a year of private wealth management, and quickly realized that while I learned actually a lot of valuable skills from those experience, it wasn't my calling, it wasn't my passion, and I just remembered how gratifying and fulfilling it was to work with kids and to work at my mother's school. So that became my educational journey. I then started tutoring kids myself. I received my master's degree in special education and my doctorate degree in general education, and then very slowly and organically grew what is now EBL coaching, where we have a large team of tutors who specialize in providing one on one tutoring to special education students using all research based multi sensory techniques.


Lily Jones  

Wonderful. I love hearing about the family business too. Like it's so interesting. My parents were both teachers at various points in their career. My dad was a college lecturer, and my mom taught elementary school before she went to real estate. But it's just so interesting hearing about these families of educators, and I totally relate to being like, maybe I'll do something completely different. And then coming back to that first experience that you had, so I'm curious a little bit about EBL coaching. And you mentioned that it offers sessions with a variety of different teachers. Did it start like that, or did it start with just you? Like tell us about that.


Dr. Emily Levy  

Back in the day, it started with just me. I had a little apartment in New York City, in Union Square, and I had students come to me and finally hit a wall where I said, I need I need separation of church and state. I need an Office Personal life. So I rented a very small office, then a larger office, and now we have a large Learning Center in New York City. And so it started very small, and then I just slowly started to bring on tutors who specialize in different skills. Some specialize in early childhood reading. Some do high level math. Some do executive functioning skills. And so at ABL coaching, I typically, personally, will start by meeting and evaluating each student myself, and then we'll hand match that student with one of our tutors who specializes in what they need the most, most help with, and, of course, who's qualified and trained to work with students like that. And then the tutoring itself can either take place in person, in the New Jersey, New York, Connecticut areas, or we do a lot of virtual tutoring now with kids, not just nationwide, but really worldwide, who may not have access to these kinds of specialized multi sensory research based tutoring sessions in their local area. 


Lily Jones  

Wonderful. And tell us a little bit more about the approach, you say multi sensory and I'm curious, kind of, what is your approach that you use with students? I'm sure it varies, and kind of just more generally, how do you support students with learning differences?


Dr. Emily Levy  

Sure. Well, there's a lot of research that tells us that for students who have learning challenges and attentional challenges, using that multi sensory approach really helps information to stick in their long term memory. So what that means is integrating the visual, the tactile and the auditory sort of approaches simultaneously, as we teach integrating tools, like, for instance, with reading colored sand, magnetic tiles, audio visual car drills. So lots of those kinds of multi sensory tools in very much of a structured and systematic approach. So kind of that combination, and it's really done wonders. We work with kids as young as the preschool level and go all the way up through adults, and we've just seen amazing results. And we use this kind of systematic multi sensory approach that's


Lily Jones  

awesome. And so when you bring on other teachers or tutors, do you train them in this approach, or do you look for people who already have that that training?


Dr. Emily Levy  

Most of them really have that training and that expertise before they come on board with us. 


Lily Jones  

Great. And so I'd love to hear kind of a little bit more about where you. EBL coaching going next?


Dr. Emily Levy  

Yeah, great question. Well, we're continuing to grow and evolve. I think since COVID Really, as I kind of alluded to, I can't believe it's been five years, by the way, but really, in the past five years or so, we've expanded our virtual tutoring, and that's just continued to grow and evolve. And we've developed some amazing resources and technology that we use for our virtual sessions, so the tutor and the student can really engage together, basically as though they were in person, sitting next to each other. So that's been really exciting. I think we'll continue to grow and evolve that that virtual piece. And then I'm also working, actually, with my oldest daughter, who's 16, on a software program that teaches students writing and integrates a little bit of AI to give them direct feedback, to score their writing and to really help them develop those skills. So developing some more softwares in the pipeline as well, but always looking to expand and grow and keep up, keep up with the times.


Lily Jones  

How cool! And the family business continues with your daughter.


Dr. Emily Levy  

Indeed. 


Lily Jones  

And so I'm curious a little bit. We have a lot of folks in our audience who you know are educators. They might want to start their own business, and often it can feel overwhelming thinking about, where do I find clients? So could you talk to us a little bit about how have you found your customers, and how is that process different for in person versus digital or like online customers?


Dr. Emily Levy  

Yeah, well, I would say at EBL coaching, we do get a lot of referrals from evaluators, from schools, from parents. So I think it's great to sort of spread the word. Certainly reach out to evaluators in their local area, who may evaluate a child, and then the child needs tutoring services. Social media. They can, you know, put information about themselves on social media. I also write a lot of content, a lot of articles that are on our website, which I think helps with just organic searches. So I think just putting a lot of content out there, spreading the word, being on social media, reaching out to schools, reaching out to evaluators, are all just great ways to get clients


Lily Jones  

absolutely and so thinking more about kind of like your entrepreneurial journey, right? Of being like, well, you've started this whole thing right, and I'm curious what you've learned about yourself through that process. 


Dr. Emily Levy  

That's a great question. I think that one of the most profound parts of my journey, I think, is how much I've pivoted and just allowing myself to go with it, like, for instance, when I graduated college, I worked at Lehman. Brothers at the time, no longer exists, but investment banking, and I had committed myself to a two year sort of stint there, and I remember pretty much immediately feeling that it wasn't right for me, but I felt torn because I had committed to this journey, and I didn't know if I should stick it out or go with my intuition and what to do next, and I just sort of allowed my my intuition to take me to where I felt I should go, and that ultimately was education, and for me, it was the right journey. But I think I've had a lot of those moments where I have to really think about, Does this feel right? Is this? Am I in a place where I'm happy? I'm doing what I'm passionate about? I'm making the right move or not, and kind of those moments of reflection and just sort of following my intuition, going with those pivots, and, you know, ultimately, just That's how I've ended up where I am. Now,


Lily Jones  

I appreciate that and absolutely relate. And I think sometimes, like, we don't know until we're in whatever it is that we're trying out whether it's the right thing or not the right thing or kind of the right thing. You know, you have to take those first steps and be like, Oh, actually, not this. And then allow yourself to make those changes. And I think that, you know, ideally, we're always, constantly evolving as people, as business owners, you know, as the world moves on, and so being able to make those adjustments and pivot set is really key and also really hard. You know, sometimes we have in our heads this idea of, like, okay, and then I'm going to work at this place for two years, and then I'm going to go do this thing, and I think particularly educators, like we're often planners, and we want to have everything all planned out, and so allowing yourself some grace and flexibility when things just don't quite feel right.


Dr. Emily Levy  

Exactly. And by the way, sometimes I've made decisions that ended up not being the right ones, and I just take that as a moment of reflection. What can I learn from this? What would I do differently, and then just move on? And I think that's another lesson I've learned along the way, like, it's okay to try something that ends up not working out, you're always going to learn something from it. You're going to grow from it. And you know, to do things differently next time.


Lily Jones  

For sure. And I think it's like only in those times where we end up in this perpetual like beating ourselves up about something that didn't go right, that can be paid. Paralyzing, right? So I love that. It's like, Yeah, feel your feelings, right? Feel disappointed, feel whatever it is, learn from it, and then keep moving. Because I see that it's like, really, the stuckness is the most dangerous part. It's not making a mistake, like making mistakes is how we learn, but it's really when we feel stuck Exactly. So thinking about our audience of educators who are maybe trying to think about what they can do beyond the classroom, in addition to or instead of teaching, and they might want to start their own businesses. What advice would you give them? 


Dr. Emily Levy  

Well, there are a lot of different options outside of the classroom. Of course, tutoring is a great one. There's curriculum development, there's materials development, there's software, there's so many other elements of education that are so important outside of the classroom. And I would probably say, before taking a giant leap out, maybe dabble a little bit on the side and see if that's something that could really turn into a full time gig, or enough income that might replace teaching before taking that plunge. That was what I did on the side. I started tutoring kids myself before I took the full plunge in and I think it just makes you feel a little bit better, a little less scary, jumping into something where your feet already wet in it, and it's not totally that cold feeling. 


Lily Jones  

Absolutely agree. That's how I started with curriculum development many years ago too, doing projects on the side while classroom teaching, kind of testing the waters, but also giving yourself a chance to try something out, that if you don't like it, it's not like, Okay, you have to totally change direction and change all the things again. So I love that advice. Yeah, wonderful. Well, Emily, it's been so nice talking with you. Can you tell people where they can connect with you? 


Dr. Emily Levy  

Absolutely great. Great talking to you also. Well, first off, our website probably is the most information, which is EBL coaching.com, lots of articles I've written, information about our tutoring program, different podcasts, and then we're on, really, on all of the social media channels under EBL coaching as a handle, Facebook, Instagram, my teenage daughters are helping me with Tiktok videos. Oh, nice. They're really pretty much and LinkedIn, all of all of the major platforms.


Lily Jones  

Wonderful. Thanks again, Emily, 


Dr. Emily Levy  

Thank you. Bye.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai



Lily Jones