
Marta B.

Teaching Locations:

Can you learn bridge on line? Take a look at my reviews. 33 happy students, and counting--I'd answer "yes, you can"!
If you already know the game a little, and would like to do some playing--grab a partner and a deck of cards, and let's meet on line to play the grand daddy of all card games. It is an absolutely wonderful time. For these lessons, you'll meet my husband AND me, and we'll play bridge "virtually" with YOU!
Note: If you are a beginner-- I recommend either one 90 min lesson or two 60 min lessons for your first lesson. It will take that long for the first lesson. After that-- depends on your card sense. Most people seem to need 4-5 lessons before they can manage to do a lesson in only 45 minutes. It is difficult or impossible to teach the complicated bidding and play of bridge in less than an hour, initially. If you wish to have 45 minute lessons, ask me. I sometimes make them available for special needs/accommodations. After you become more familiar with the basics of play, we can likely accomplish all you need in 45 minutes--but we will not have a lot of time for your questions. Hope that helps you as you decide what level to invest in this activity. :)
ALSO-- If you want to do lessons as a group of two or four-- I would be happy to accommodate, and adjust the price a bunch for you. Let me know if you would like to sign up with this option.
About Marta B.
***COVID-19 Announcement: If you need a rate adjustment because of current outbreak, please ASK. I will do what I can***
Hello! I am a science and math teacher who loves to teach. After teaching many years in traditional and non-traditional classrooms, both in the USA and overseas, I began to teach on-line. One of the big surprises to me has been the number of students who have wanted to learn the card game Bridge. I LOVE teaching bridge, and have had 20+ students take lessons from me in the last year. Bored because of COVID-19? Learn a new game, online.
If you are reading this, you may be looking for a tutor for something academic. Do you have a middle schooler who struggles with math? Pick me! Are you someone who would like to jump out of traditional school and complete your GED or ASVAB? I've helped many students/adults do this over the last 10+ years. Do you have a young high school student who struggles with writing or science or even just keeping organized? I'd love to help. Are you homeschooling because your schools are closed? I can help!
Another thing that you might want to know about me is that I've won teaching awards. And, I've also been filmed for a documentary known as "This American Land" with my students about 8 years ago. I've linked it below in the Photos and Videos section. It's described like this: "On a small island off Washington's coast, high school students create barriers with oil-absorbing mushrooms to filter stormwater runoff that drains into the ocean." The whole program is about an hour long, but the section of me and my students can be found at Minute marker 15:08. If you watch the video you'll be able to see me talk, and hear my students talk about some of what they learned that year.
When you look at my profile picture, you might notice a funny looking window above my face. That is the window in the ocean submersible named "Cyclops" which I got to visit in September 2018. Cyclops was visiting Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands in Washington State, which is near my home. I love to be outside, and I have taught science in the outdoors for much of my career. I have run outdoor schools, taught swimming, sailing, rowing and canoeing, and also taught in traditional classrooms at elementary, middle school, high school and college levels. I have taught mostly math and science, but I've taught all subjects at one time or another.
I hope I get a chance to meet you and work with you on line -- either teaching you a new game, or helping you with other things you (or your children) need to learn.
Sincerely,
Marta
Reviews
Write a Review
Every Sunday we look forward to spending an hour with Marta learning bridge. She is a delightful person, super patient with beginners like us and an excellent teacher. She makes bridge so enjoyable to learn, provides great learning resources and sets you up to practice online. We highly recommend her as a teacher! Wish we had been blessed with her as our math teacher way back when!
John and Stacey

I thought learning bridge would be too hard, but Marta's weekly lessons have been easy to digest and very thorough. She has been very accommodating to me and my friend and also provides supplemental materials after class to continue learning.

Marta is an exceptional bridge teacher. Her teaching style is organized, clear, concise and engaging. She is patient and takes time to explain complicated concepts and strategies in an easy to understand and encouraging way that makes the game fun and interesting. Marta is very pleasant and positive, and has a deep understanding of and love for the game. I would recommend her to all levels of bridge players. She is an expert!

Marta is very accommodating and thorough! Each lesson builds upon the previous, and there's plenty of material to review outside of the lesson.

Pace of the beginning lessons is very good. Marta is offers thorough explanations and is very patient when teaching both me and my friend. She also provides excellent supplemental materials for additional learning outside of her lessons.


Marta is an amazing, patient, flexible, knowledgeable teacher that smoothly adjusted to my learning needs.
I highly recommend Marta who can teach beginners and more advanced students. I am glad I found her on Take Lessons

I’ve really enjoyed my bridge lesson with Marta. She’s very knowledgeable and a great teacher.

Marta gave an excellent, organized and easy to follow 1st lesson.
We are looking forward to our next one.

Marta is a gifted teacher. Bridge a *really* complicated game, and she’s got a terrific approach that makes it approachable, gradually building up a student’s knowledge and understanding of the underlying precepts and their practical application. I feel extraordinarily fortunate that, of all the Bridge teachers in the United States, I happened upon her through TakeLessons. Thanks, Marta; thanks, Take Lessons. Diana, Richmond, Va.

Enjoyable first
session

GreT teacher

Marta is great! We enjoyed our first lesson very much!

A wonderful teacher! Marta is a knowledgeable and enjoyable— a great combination!

Very helpful

Marta is an excellent teacher. She was right on target assessing my level and I really enjoyed learning from her about this fascinating game. Time flew by!
I highly recommend her, she is very pleasant, very smart and very knowledgeable.

very patient and thorough.

Marta is an excellent teacher and kept the lesson interesting and fun!

Great

Marta was great! She is very knowledgeable and patient.
I am excited and looking forward to learning bridge and she is a good fit for my skill set and personality.

Marta was very knowledgeable and patient! Her teaching style fits well with my skill set.

Marta is the best. So look forward to my lessons. Learning so much and we have fun together. We are becoming friends! After 4 lessons I joined my first ever Bridge event and "survived with a little help from my friends". I look forward to many more lessons.

Very good experience, I learned a lot!

Learned so much and it was often fun to boot.....when I wasn't thinking too hard!

Marta is a wonderful teacher. She has so many natural gifts. I recommend Marta wholeheartedly!

Marta is very personable and has made learning less intimidating and more encouraging to me.
I look forward to more lessons with her!

Marta was patient and v understanding!

Excellent !


Marta and I played a few hands and discussed several points in Bridge of bidding and play of the hand. She was flexible in choosing our first topic. I found the set up somewhat confusing at first and didn't have time to jot down several points Marta suggested. All in all, it was a good experience and well worth the time and effort. I look forward to next week's lesson.
Marta is an excellent instructor. I highly recommend her.

Marta - thank you for patiently instructing my 11-year old in algebraic equations. He enjoyed his lesson and gives you two thumbs up. On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing him so engaged..


Very helpful, patient and clearly knows the game.

Typo edit:
Because of Marta’s help**, I successfully got my GED, High School diploma, and passed the ASVAB with a good score.

The most important thing about teaching is reaching your students. You could have a world of knowledge locked away, but until you can learn to meet a student's needs and learning styles it will be just that, locked away. Marta has this quality of compassion and intuition about her students that separates her from your average teacher. She saw clearly what my needs and goals were and allowed me to find the solutions from inside myself. Many will attest to this fact. "She was my favorite teacher" is a very common remark from her past students even outside this platform. I observed my own enjoyment working with her as well as noticing her ability to integrate her teaching style with all kinds of students. For the fortunate to the most troubled Marta has a teaching quality that is frankly not found enough in the academic world. She is a teacher of the people and you would be lucky to learn from her.

Marta was my teacher for a few years, she helped me in many ways. First she helped me to get my GED when I decided that was the right path for me. Then a few years later I decided that I wanted to join the US Army, which I learned that I needed my high school diploma to join. So I went back to Marta, and she set me on the path I needed to be on tocomplete the rest of my high school work to get my diploma. Through all of that, she was also helping me study for the ASVAB, which is the entrance exam for the military; it covers a wide range to subjects from general science, arithmetic reasoning and mathematic knowledge to mechanical comprehension and word knowledge. Because of Marta’s hell, I successfully got my GED, High School diploma, and passed the ASVAB with a good score. I would absolutely recommend Marta, she makes learning enjoyable and sets people up for success!

Marta to this day is still my favorite teacher, for any subject! I took Marta for two years, first in marine biology and then advanced marine biology, they both changed my life. These classes helped me cultivate my love for marine life and the ocean while also motivating me to want my career to revolve around marine life and ocean health in some way. She is a very motivating, engaging, genuine, and caring teacher and I would 100% recommend her and her classes!

Mrs. Branch was my teacher for 3 years on Orcas island. Due to family and health struggles I often wanted to give up on ever graduating. However thanks to her dedication and passion for education not only did I graduate but she also relight my dream of one day teaching. I now teach in the very rooms she taught me and encouraged my education. The math lessons that I once despised her for assigning are now ones I used on a daily basis and am so glad she did not let me stop until I fully understood them.

Marta was my marine biology teacher as well as my senior project mentor. She helped me stay on track, edit papers, research and apply myself. She is patient and understanding. Marta has a vast knowledge of marine species and really makes her students fall in love with the subjects she teaches.

Marta was my marine biology teacher at Orcas Island high school. Her charismatic energy made being in the class so enjoyable. She never left a student behind, and always made sure that we would all succeed in her classes. By far, Marta was one of my favorite teachers to have.

Marta was an amazing teacher always so fun to learn with. I was very sick at the time an she was very helpful with working around my pain. An her way of teaching is easy to understand. Best teacher i have ever had.

I had Marta for Marine Biology in high school and can say hands down it was one of my favorite courses. The way Marta teaches is amazing and refreshing in that she is patient but strong, knowledgeable but always welcoming to a challenge (as long as you can back it up). She makes you feel encouraged, challenged and always intrigued. No matter in or out of the classroom, she is always available for a good lesson.

Marta is an incredibly great motivator and listener. She takes her time to ensure she understands better ways to help or communicate information to each student. She harnessed each students passion and even offered information on extracurricular activities to take part in to help motivate the students with real world application of lessons taught.

Marta is a great teacher. It was a pleasure to be in her class.

Marta was my favorite teacher in High School! I took her class (Marine Biology) not expecting to be amazed by the subject or the material. But, by the end of the class I had already signed up for another one of her classes. Marta engages her students and facilitates the growth of a newfound passion by sharing her own enthusiasm and vast knowledge on whatever subject she is teaching. I always have appreciated how patient she is and her willingness to spend as much time outside of class in order to make sure her students really understand what is being taught. I highly recommend Marta as a teacher, but only if you are prepared to learn a lot and become passionate about whatever subject she teaches you.

Marta is the reason I graduated High School. The amount of effort she put into helping me graduate really showed me the power of having a good teacher. By giving her students the right tools and the right space to do their work and really understand their subjects allowed many kids in my school to graduate with their diplomas. For her I will be forever grateful. Oh! She also made biology and history fun!

Marta Branch was my mentor when I did my teaching certification for Biology. She was the utmost professional in that she did all the little things to help me like keeping records of our tasks, times, and evaluation results with detailed rubrics and spreadsheets. At the same time, she always inspired me with a big picture view of both the subjects we were teaching and their impact on students and the world but also on teaching itself. Her warmth, humor, knowledge, and experience made just being around her a pleasure and an education in and of itself!

Marta is an exceptional teacher! I have seen her engage students in the classroom, lead wonderful field trips, design hands-on laboratory activities, and provide one-on-one lessons for non-traditional students. She cares deeply about her students and subject material, and is personally invested in pupil success. In the classroom, Marta cultivates an atmosphere where students are comfortable asking questions and expressing themselves. She provides clear explanations to questions and provides appropriate goals for student learning.
Photos & Videos
7 Photos & VideosExperience
STEM Teacher (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)
Jul 2016 - Jun 2018Busan Foreign School
At an elite International School in Busan, South Korea, I taught Urban Agriculture to grades 6-8; Pre Algebra to grade 7, Environmental Science to grades 10-12, and Marine Science to grades 9-12.
Teacher
Jan 2002 - Jun 2013Orcas Island School District
Teacher, Science (Marine, Environmental), Math (Algebra 1, Applied Math, 6th grade math, pre Algebra), Career and Tech Ed (Marine Technology, Computer Science, Applied Math, Math with Business.)
Park Interpretive Specialist
Aug 2001 - May 2005Washington State Parks
Park Interpretive Specialist and Director, Moran Outdoor School: Ran the outdoor school program where we taught classes in the park to students who traveled there from the ten western states of the US. Moran State Park is located on Orcas Island and has over 6,000 acres and 26 miles of trails. I hired, trained and supervised a staff of 25.
Education
Career and Technical Education WA State Certification
Sep 2008 - Jun 2009Central Washington University
M. A..; Curriculum Design and Administration
Jun 1992 - Jun 1994Gonzaga University
B. S.; Environmental Sciences
Sep 1973 - Jun 1977Cornell University
Languages
English
Fluent / Native Proficiency
Certifications
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
Feb 2018TEFL Institute
CTE (Career and Technical Education)
Jun 2009Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI)
Biology, Agriculture, 4-12
Jun 1994Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI)
Awards
2012 Stewardship Educator of the Year
Jun 2012Stewardship Network of the San Juans
Baggley Award for Educational Excellence
Jun 2008Baggley Family Foundation
Affiliations
National Science Teacher Association
Mar 1998Let Our Student Counselors Help You
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