Meet Jessalyn Burden | Special Education Tutor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessalyn Burden and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessalyn, every day, we talk about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Well I can’t say that the idea for my business was born in the middle of the night, or by a random thought one day. The idea actually evolved over a few years, these years including the pandemic, and my first two years as a public school teacher.

Early on during the first quarantine, my fiance and I were trying to come up with ways to be able to stay home but still make money. But then, wasn’t everyone in March 2020? At the time, I was supposed to be completing my final 6 weeks of student teaching. I was a part of virtual weekly meetings at schools while they tried to figure out how to continue teaching their students from their own homes without any of their supplies. I experienced first hand the fear from teachers and parents alike as they navigated virtual schooling for the first time.

So I thought, why not put my “almost” degree to good use and offer my assistance to families in this time of uncertainty. My fiance built me a website and we put a lot of work into what we wanted it to be.
A few weeks later, my family who lives overseas called me and told me they were coming back to the US due to shutdowns and regulations. We all went to my grandmother’s house in Mississippi and the 9 of us lived out in the country for two months until COVID restrictions settled a little bit and we were able to get our own place.

Sadly, with everything going on, my website and plans were put on the back burner. I thought about it sometimes, but with my fiance in grad school, I needed to find a full time job to support us for that year. My first teaching job was as a 3rd grade Inclusion Teacher in Petal, Mississippi. Now, that job is difficult enough by itself, but as a first year teacher, in 2020…well, all I can say is I probably grew a few gray hairs and my anxiety definitely skyrocketed. I also got married that year. It was probably one of the hardest years of my life, but I loved those kids!
Once my new husband graduated, he accepted a job in South Florida where we moved in the summer of 2021. Whenever I had had a challenging day, my husband would remind me of the website we had built, and my dream to help children outside of the constraints of public school, but we had just moved to a place that was much more expensive to live than where we had come from, and we needed a stable paycheck.
I worked that year as an ESE (Exceptional Student Education) Teacher at an elementary school. I had a caseload of 50+ students. I loved working with those struggling children, but it was absolutely impossible to give them the individual interventions and attention that each one needed as well as attending their meetings and completing their paperwork.

In February 2022, my husband and I had a long conversation about what the best course of action would be for our family and our future after I told him there was no way I could complete another year of what I had been doing. It wasn’t fair to those kids, the parents, and it wasn’t fair to me to be feeling the burnout at 25 years old. We decided to launch the website in the summer of 2022. After those 2 years, I knew exactly what Inspired Tutors was going to be. I was going to focus on those ESE and inclusion students who weren’t getting what they needed to grow and succeed in school. I would focus on their individual needs, go to their IEP meetings if needed, and best of all? The parents and I would get to determine the perfect amount of time for us to work together, as well as the frequency without any restraints. We would be a team, each with the goal of helping their child reach their fullest potential, no matter if they had ADHD, Dyslexia, Autism, or any kind of learning disability. I also ended up creating a Youtube channel with mini lessons and read-alouds for my students, as well as a blog to be a resource for the parents of these children. None of this was in my original plan, but things have evolved in the best way possible.
It is now 9 months since the launch, and I have to say, even though it doesn’t look exactly the way I thought it would 3 years ago, Inspired Tutors is definitely the best idea I’ve ever had.

What should our readers know about your business?
Inspired Tutors is not your typical tutoring website that focuses on test prep or homework help. It was specifically designed to help ESE/Inclusion students PreK-6 in the ways that they need it the most, whether they are in a public or private school, or even homeschooled. I feel as though it is set apart because the parents, the student, the tutor, as well as any other teacher, advocate, or therapist are one team. We communicate frequently to make sure that we are all on the same page, with the same goals. I have also tried to create my website to be a sort of one-stop-shop for parents and their children. I do not just offer tutoring, but I have student pages where they can login to different websites for extra practice, I write weekly blogs for parents, and I am always adding different resources to help make parents’ lives a little easier.

Inspired Tutors is still very young, but I got to where I am today with the help and support of my family, advice from friends in different areas of the business world, as well as amazing mentors who have helped me enter the world of being an entrepreneur. It has definitely not been an easy road, but nothing worth it is every easy. I have slowly learned to ask for help when needed and not only rely on myself. Because, sometimes there are just things you don’t know that you don’t know!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in West Boca Raton, however, whenever I have friends come to visit, I always take them to downtown Delray Beach. We usually spend the day at one of the nearby beaches, then head to Atlantic Ave for Happy Hour at Park Tavern. They have the best drinks and appetizers for an amazing price! There is so much to do on the Ave that there is never a dull moment. Another place that I like to take my friends and family when then visit is to Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise. The mall is the largest indoor outlet mall in the U.S and is so large that it is very easy to spend the day there!
We would probably also take a little day trip down to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, depending on the time of year and amount of people to go to the art museum or even just to visit another beach.
There are so many things to see and experience within a 30-40 minute drive that it is never boring living in South Florida.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband Patrick is definitely my number one cheerleader and I would not have been able to start this business without his constant support, love and encouragement.

Website: https://www.inspiredtutors.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredtutors/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessalyn-burden-616237213/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredTutoring

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Inspiredtutors/videos

Image Credits
Jessalyn Burden (Personal Photos Only)