Over the Bar Instruction Inc. - Instructors

Lorri Wilke

Lorri Wilke earned her B.A. from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, majoring in elementary education and earning a double minor in English and social science. As a certified teacher, Lorri taught in a public school before becoming a stay-at-home mom, eventually having four children whom she home schooled until her youngest graduated from high school. Lorri has more than two decades of experience working in a variety of educational settings and in grades from preschool through 12th grade. As an administrator, Lorri has provided a wide variety of consultations including the areas of curriculum, testing, special learning needs, organization, learning styles, writing, and more.

Lorri earned her M.Ed. in educational therapy at Regent University. She maintains a private practice as a professionally certified educational therapist working with children and adults who learn differently, in addition to teaching English composition and grammar through The Potter’s School online school. As an educator, Lorri believes that all students should be equipped with the tools necessary to continue to educate themselves for the rest of their lives. Discovering God-given gifts and developing a lifelong love of learning in students is Lorri's passion. Lorri lives just outside Chicago, IL, and enjoys spending time with her family, reading classical literature, learning, writing, gardening, taking long walks, and drinking vanilla chai.

Disciplines:

Testimonies:

"Lorri Wilke has been an incredible blessing to our family. After my son received a diagnosis of Auditory Processing Disorder four years ago at the age of 9, he started to work with a speech pathologist. After almost two years of this therapy I saw little to no improvement. While enrolled in a writing class with Lorri as his teacher, I shared with her my concerns regarding Dalton and his learning struggles. That is when I learned about Educational Therapy. As a certified Educational Therapist with her own personal experience and success in dealing with learning disabilities, she had great insight and a multitude of resources to share. With her encouragement I found an Educational Therapist in my area who has helped my son achieve significant results in a relatively short period of time. In addition to the therapy, Lorri has been invaluable as his English teacher for two years. She took a young man with minimal writing skills, and through her structure, gentle guidance, positive reinforcement and inspiration, developed him into a confident writer who now seeks to publish his work and pursue English and writing as a career. I will be forever grateful for Lorri's expertise and for the enormous, positive impact she has had on my son."

- Debra Jones, M.Ed

"I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Lorri Wilke through The Potter’s School online school. She was most kind to recognize a strong budding writer in my daughter. I noticed Lorri’s credentials and expertise (professionally certified educational therapist). I discussed my son with Lorri, who is a bright boy but seemed to not be performing to his potential. She was prompt, professional, very warm, inviting, and funny when we connected. I had not known whom to speak with or what even to say in conveying my concerns and observations about my son. He had started to become “exhausted with trying to learn” because it was so arduous and without a lot of success. Lorri listened compassionately to my heart and reassured me of the different things I had tried to help foster the love of learning with my son. She made some recommendations that helped immediately, and then directed me to some tests that would help gain a greater spectrum of information of his strengths and weaknesses and learning style. She gave me names and numbers of educational therapists who were local, so we could start the journey of having our son’s learning process strengthened.

As a parent, I cannot convey the joy of realizing that with some further therapy and better understanding of how the brain works, strategies that I can implement for my son, and now with his brother; learning is an exciting journey and growth has been measurable. For one, the sparkle returned in our son’s eyes almost immediately, and the way we structured our day was more conducive for his learning style. His grades are markedly improved, with the icing on the cake being higher achievement test scores.

I am grateful to have gained a new friend and am very inspired as a mom and home schoolteacher by Lorri’s example, methods of teaching (I used to sit in the on-line classes with my daughter), and from reading her blog.

Lastly, this mom was exhausted when she first met Lorri, and I wanted so much for my son. Lorri helped me be a mom once again and directed me to answers and therapists so I could be my son’s number one cheerleader and learner with him."

- Missy Gudz