Schools & Tutors in Orinda

Are you ready to take your Spanish to the next level? Just like a professional athlete has a personal trainer you can now have a personal Spanish instructor. Reserve a 50 minute lesson that fits your schedule then enjoy a Spanish lesson that is personalized just for you.

Recently profiled by The Atlantic for its members' innovative inventions, TechShop’s supportive community of inventors, artists, technicians, and alchemists share their excitement about the next big idea in an environment limited only by their collective imagination. The 17,000-square-foot smorgasbord of inventive creativity beckons people of all skill levels to its DIY confines, where members can wield tools not found in most private workshops, slicing through steel with a plasma cutter or accessing 3-D design software to finally realize the goal of crawling inside the Internet. Hands-on classes jump-start creative juices, introducing students to vocational skills including welding, soldering, and woodworking. Neophyte inventors aged 12–17 are welcome but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to ensure they don't break physics.

Knowledgeable instructors at AcademyX help to keep students ahead of ever-changing technologies through a comprehensive listing of public courses. With sessions centered on Microsoft Office, Adobe graphic design, and web design, students acquire and develop new skills to apply toward career advancement. Classes pair students with dedicated experts and a host of accompanying learning materials. In addition, students work on dual-monitor workstations that display instructor presentations and provide ample screen space for applying new skills and writing haikus in binary.

Alex Leader’s namesake glass-blowing outfit aims to equip curious artists with the tools and guidance to craft their own handmade glass art pieces. Alex relies on thousand-year-old techniques and skills learned during his two decades of experience to assist students as they create their own blown vases, ornaments, and bowls. Prior to starting on a masterpiece, students can glean inspiration inside the master craftsman’s showroom, where he displays his own collection of artisanal bowls and lighting fixtures.

Bearing the titles of Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsman from Professional Photographers of America, David and Ally McKay embody the keen vision and aesthetic prowess that separated good photographers from great ones. They share these skills during classes at McKay Photography Academy, where they train eyes, fingers, and imaginations to work in tandem as a snapshooting dream machine. Their classes help aspiring photographers progress from neophytes to seasoned pros; the Beginning Digital Photography course teaches students to harness the intricacies of their instruments, and the Pro Academy offers inside tips on how to successfully snap wedding portraits, pose recent grads, or tease out candid emotions. When not busy instructing the next generation of shutterbugs, David and Ally also devise photo safaris, which send small teams of photographers to capture shots of famed landmarks including San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge; the Lincoln Memorial of Washington, DC; or Yosemite's 60-foot statue of Yogi Bear.

Trapeze School New York’s expansion west meant Angelenos no longer had to cross the country to join the circus. At two locations—an indoor studio for silks classes in Santa Monica and an outdoor studio on the Santa Monica Pier—highly trained instructors teach beginner, intermediate, and advanced maneuvers during classes on the flying trapeze, aerial silks, lyra, trampoline, and Spanish web. All of Trapeze School New York’s countrywide facilities in New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago, and LA hold themselves to high safety standards that account for everything from equipment to instructors and life preservers. In an effort to bring their flying-trapeze instruction to surrounding communities regardless of funding, the school also gives lessons through their nonprofit branch of operations.