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Andrea Koenig finds multiple outlets for sharing her knowledge with students, in Tulsa and beyond.
Andrea Koenig’s midtown home is warm and inviting — just the way she wanted it for her new business. It’s dotted with a collection of children’s ceramics abandoned at the end of the school year, among them a plate of sushi and a flying bird that clutches her business cards in its beak.
It seems appropriate that she would have a place for these quirky keepsakes because she teaches fifth grade at Holland Hall and has opened a tutoring service for all ages across Tulsa.
While tutoring Holland Hall students for the past few years, she says she thought, “I could make a business out of this, and I’d really like to try.” It would be a way to open her own business and use her teaching strengths.
Koenig launched Tutoring Tulsa June 15 with the mission of helping students fill in the gaps where they had missed key elements of learning. She knows from 19 years of experience in teaching and tutoring that — for most students — the best learning occurs during one-on-one instruction with immediate feedback and structure.
Koenig tutors students of all ages from the Tulsa area, year round, in a variety of subjects, from math to writing and ACT/SAT preparation.
“Owning your own business is really creative,” she says. “It’s fun to see it flourish, to build relationships with clients. It’s very satisfying.
“When I’m with a student and we’re working on a series of problems and the lightbulb goes on, I feel like I’m being very useful in that moment.”
When she isn’t teaching at Holland Hall or tutoring, Koenig is working on her third book: “Kentucky Daisey & Her Gang: Women in the Oklahoma Land Runs, 1889-1893.” The nonfiction book details the life of Naunita R.H. “Kentucky” Daisey, who taught in the mission schools of the Indian Territory and played a prominent role in four of the five land runs. The work is in process, and Koenig is discussing a contract with a prominent university press that specializes in the American West.
Her first novel, “Thumbelina,” published in 1999 by Scribner, is about a young girl facing tragedy with an indomitable spirit. Koenig’s second novel, “Hello Life,” published in 2005 by Soho Press, follows two young women facing cancer and teen pregnancy.
Koenig combines opening her own business and writing by “working very, very hard,” she says.
“I learned to work in smaller increments of time: an hour here, an hour there,” she says. “I write on the weekends. I write all the time, whenever I can.”
