The Sentence Center

Burlingame, United States

5

20 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 650-993-4003
Website:
www.sentencecenter.com
Address:
433 Airport Blvd Ste 423, Burlingame, CA, 94010
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Today

Today 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Local time (Burlingame) –

Business hours

Monday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Thursday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Saturday 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

The Sentence Center offers writing classes, private tutoring, and test preparation. Our Masterpiece Writing Method and personalized approach have helped students succeed in English class, prepare for standardized tests, and write strong essays.

Through one-​to-​one tutoring and small group classes, we help writers focus, organize, and express their ideas clearly. We also prepare students for the English section and essay portions of standardized tests (ISEE, SSAT, SAT, ACT).

While we are located in Burlingame, we serve students from the northern part of the Bay Area: San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Hillsborough. Additionally, most of our families are from the Peninsula: San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City /​Redwood Shores, Atherton, Menlo Park, and Los Altos.

Visit our website to learn more about our writing sessions (including our summer writing classes), one-​to-​one tutoring, and test preparation sessions.

History

Established in 2012.

The Sentence Center was founded by Chino Baluyut, an English teacher with over 15 years of experience. To date, we have helped hundreds of students improve their writing skills and prepare for standardized tests.

Meet the Business Owner

Chino B.

Business Owner

Chino is a writing teacher with over 15 years of experience, and his mission is to help students become better writers.

He currently owns The Sentence Center, an educational service that offers writing classes, private tutoring, and test preparation.

Prior to The Sentence Center, Chino was an English teacher and academic mentor at top Bay Area schools such as Nueva School, Fusion Academy, and Katherine Delmar Burke School. He taught students how to be effective writers and worked closely with their parents, guiding families to success at the middle and high school levels.

Additionally, he previously served in key leadership roles at The Marin School and Xavier School for over eight years. He served as English Department Head and Team Leader, enhancing each school’s Language Arts curriculum, with a focus on their writing programs.

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20 reviews of The Sentence Center

No registration required
Place rating: 5
San Carlos, CA
Let me start by stating that its our teenage child who loved and benefited immensely from their experience at the Sentence Center, and specifically with Chino.
Chino has an amazing style of communicating with kids, very personable, and really pulls it off as a «coach» and a confidant, in addition to being a teacher. With an even keeled demeanor and empathy that clearly shows, he is able to inspire kids to reach their full potential. He got to learn about our child and suggested that they read magazines on topics that they were already interested in, thus ensuring that our child not only followed Chino’s suggestion, but did so with enthusiasm.
Reading and writing are sometimes asymmetric: some kids love reading but not writing. Chino was able to encourage our child to view writing as an expression of their thoughts and ideas: which made the words flow smoothly.
Our child did a set of 1 – 1 sessions with Chino, which were well planned in advance, and focused on preparation for upcoming writing and other linguistic aspects of school applications. The sessions were spread over weeks, and were well executed. Chino was always awaiting our child, always on time, and at the end of each session, provided specific feedback and suggestions on what to do next. He was able to engage with our child at a level that brought up the level of confidence that our child exhibited in day to day interaction, not just in writing or in «school”/“exam» situations. It did help though that our child is full of ideas, experiences and interests, that Chino was able to tap into.
I whole heartedly recommend Chino, especially if your objective is to inculcate a passion for the english language and writing. Needless to say, subsequent to their session with Chino, our child has really jumped right into a variety of activities needed to fulfill the school applications process
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
We discovered The Sentence Center on Unilocal as we were browsing for resources to help our son improve his writing skills. We felt our son was not getting enough writing assignments at school despite having a great English teacher. With the outcome we’ve seen after 10 classes/​15 hours, we are thrilled to share our thoughts about Chino’s writing classes for the benefit of other interested parents. Today, our 13 year-​old son just completed Chino’s 15 hours Fall session writing class and he expressed desire in returning for Chino’s upcoming Winter session in December. ‘Why?’ we asked our son. ‘Because Chino’s classes were engaging, fun, and helpful,’ he said. Chino truly has a special and effective way of talking and engaging with his students; he engages his students with interesting topics and anecdotal stories turning writing into a personal & fun process for them. Our son definitely looks forward to Chino’s class every week. So today, we’ve signed up our son for a second round of writing classes with Chino. We love the fact that Chino has his students write their draft thoughts on pencil and paper (the effective old fashion way) before getting on to the computer to transcribe their final draft onto WORD.
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
I signed my daughter and son up for the writing class this past summer. They had such a great time that we continued the sessions during the school year. The classes have made them both more confident writers. They are able to write and gather their thoughts more efficiently with the help of Chino and Tina. My son even had private lessons with Chino and he loved the one on one time. We can’t say enough great things about The Sentence Center.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
We enrolled our incoming 5th and 6th graders for the summer writing clinic and due to the great success we also enrolled them in the current fall session. We noticed that both our kids are now empowered by their improved ability to write effectively and to be more expressive with words. It gives us such pleasure to see how much more they enjoy writing. Chino taught our kids the fundamentals of essay composition so now they have a «toolkit» for writing. He makes it fun, simple and cool. Our kids are proud and enthusiastic of their masterpieces. It has been an enriching experience thus far and our kids have decided to continue as we head into the winter quarter!
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
Chino is an exceptional instructor, who integrates effectively a passion for teaching writing with a sensitivity to the subtleties of children. He brings a framework and sense of structure to his approach without being excessively doctrinaire or prescriptive. Our child’s experience at The Sentence Center has been unambiguously positive, and we look forward to scheduling our other kids so they can similarly benefit from Chino’s talented instruction.
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
My daughter’s writing is more organized, creative and expressive, thanks to her classes at The Sentence Center. The student-​teacher ratio is small, and Chino really gets to know your child. Also, having peers contribute to reviewing her work helped create an inviting and accepting environment, making my daughter more confident in her writing.
Place rating: 5
San Carlos, CA
I forced my son to take a two week summer camp before starting High School in a fall. At first, he was fighting every step of the way and resisted the idea of doing a writing class. By the end of the first week he stopped complaining and during the second week started sharing what they did in class and even admitted that he was enjoying going there. He ended up doing the second session and it was a great experience with very visible progress. I was particularly impressed by Chino’s insightful feedback. His comments on my son’s papers were very practical with a good mix of compliments and very specific tips and suggestions on how to improve any given paragraph or sentence. But most of all, I greatly appreciate Chino taking the time to call me on a weekend to discuss my son’s progress and challenges and giving a regular detailed feedback through email. I feel like my son learned so much more over the summer from four weeks with Chino than during the entire year of school.
Place rating: 5
Redwood City, CA
I signed up my son and daughter for the writing class this summer. My kids throughly enjoyed the writing class and looked forward to it every afternoon. They really enjoyed Chino’s teaching style and how he made the class personal and fun. The kids came out of the two week class with a sense of confidence as writers.
I highly recommend The Sentence Center. We are pleased with the progress that our children made and will be signing up for the writing class offered through the school year to further increase their writing skills.
Place rating: 5
San Mateo, CA
My daughter took a two week summer camp at the sentence center, and I was pleasantly surprised to witness a big breakthrough. She wants to be a writer, but even with biased and subjective view as a parent I couldn’t see her writing as her strongest skill so my expectation of the camp was moderate. After first week of camp, however, I couldn’t believe that the essay I was reading was written by the same person. Somehow the school cracked the shell she was confined in and let her thoughts and feelings expressed with much more eloquence, that it was as if she grew two feet overnight. I am very satisfied and grateful that the sentence center was able to ignite her potential as a writer. I just hope my daughter wouldn’t see this review to make fun of my writing now :)
I would highly recommend the Sentence Center to anybody who wants to enhance his/​her writing skill.
Place rating: 5
San Carlos, CA
Found the Sentence Center online after striking out on recommendations from my son’s ninth grade English teacher and guidance counselor. Cautious, and characteristically skeptical of the consistently positive reviews. So I was barely short of astounded when my son came home after each of the first three sessions talking about what fun he was having, how much he was learning, how nice, friendly, and engaging he found Chino. The enthusiasm never really waned and, most important, his writing clearly improved– his presentations increasingly were organized, thoughtful, and effectively descriptive. It didn’t hurt that Chino chose topics about which my son and his peers (and apparently Chino) had strong interests. By the end of two weeks my son was even looking forward to presenting his work verbally– much more confidence in his writing. My wife and I would not hesitate to send him back to Chino’s class in the future.
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
I am a student of Mr. Baluyut’s class and I really like his class. When my dad first signed me up, I was reluctant to join since writing wasn’t my favorite. After a while, I started to get used to the essay-​a-​week routine and I have started to tolerate writing more and more. Every week, he gives us interesting assignments that are very mature. He would give us tips on our writing when we start our pieces in the time that we have. Then we would read our writing to the rest of the class and we would get tips from our peers. I find that he helps us improve greatly.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
So happy my daughter took Chino’s series of essay classes in preparation for the SSAT. Although she was a strong writer, she had issues with writing in a timed test-​taking environment. Chino’s help and pointers enabled her to feel much more confident and she did extremely well on both the test essay as well as her high school application essays. She got into two of the top private high schools in SF. I will definitely bring both my younger children to Chino’s classes.
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
This program is worth every penny. My son entered the program skeptical and mildly resistant to writing in general. By the eighth session, my son had the writing skills and the confidence I was hoping he would develop over time. Chino tapped into my son right away and that made all the difference.
Place rating: 5
San Mateo, CA
We have been fortunate to find Chino and The Sentence Center a few years ago. Our son has benefitted greatly from the sessions we’ve had with Chino, and has learned better writing techniques over the years. It’s a joy to see our child improve his language arts, writing and study skills, and we attribute a lot of the progress to Chino’s assistance and efforts. Chino has been a great listener and has worked to address any concerns we’ve had. We’ve been very pleased to have him be a part of our son’s academic success.
Place rating: 5
Redwood City, CA
I found The Sentence Center on Unilocal and was a little unsure of what to expect. My daughter was a fine writer but she did not enjoy writing and sometimes struggled with getting her evident creativity onto the paper. She also is applying to private middle schools and I wanted to help her get comfortable with the essay writing required on the applications, as well as get a little sharper on the timed essays that are a part of the ISEE tests. We signed up for private sessions because the classes did not match our schedule.
First impression of Chino was that he is so NICE. He has a great demeanor that my daughter (age 10) immediately responded to. He made it fun with word games at the start of every session. And he always was very positive with his feedback. And very patient!
I think Claire is a more confident writer now, with a more mature way of writing. I think she continues to work on including more detail in her essays, but she has definitely come very far in a relatively short time. I think she is well prepared for her ISEE essays and I have seen evidence of her having learned to «dig deeper» and go beyond the standard responses in her school application essays. I credit Chino with much of this progression.
I recommend Chino and The Sentence Center hands down for anyone who is looking for some great, focused coaching around writing. I feel it was time and money very well invested.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Our son worked with Chino in his writing on SSAT prep, he gained more confidence in his writing, able to express more details, able to do outlines and more organization in his writing. Chino works very well with different age group and we would come back to working with him in the future.
Place rating: 5
Burlingame, CA
My daughter had to take the ISEE earlier in the application process than expected, and Chino’s prep classes weren’t scheduled to start in time to give her adequate preparation time. Chino worked with both me and my daughter to set up a series of private lessons to ensure that my daughter got the attention she needed to feel prepared for the ISEE. My daughter enjoyed her time with Chino and found the experience to be (in her words) ‘extremely helpful’. She explained that he gave her lots of techniques to take into the ISEE with her. She feels more confident about the test and has made rapid progress under Chino’s gentle instruction. Bravo!
Place rating: 5
San Mateo, CA
I did a lot of research for several months to find a good writing class for our daughter. I found «The Sentence Center» and liked what I read on the Unilocal reviews along with its Website, so we enrolled her during the summer session. Our daughter is a good writer, but of course, she needs to be challenged to become a better writer. We wanted her to get prepared for the first year of high school. Even though the program lasted two weeks, my husband and I felt that she has a better understanding on what to expect as a freshman. We were surprised that our daughter was placed in AP English and is doing great in her class! Thank you very much Chino!
Place rating: 4
Burlingame, CA
Our daughter gained a lot more confidence in her writing as a result of the summer program with the Sentence Center. Chino applied different tools to help her gain a greater range of expression as well as confidence in her writing. As a dyslexic, writing and spelling are a big challenge. The tools that Chino applied helped Mia break this down (while not worrying about her spelling) and express herself with confidence! Chino works perfectly with this age group both empowering teens and engaging their parents in the process. We look forward to working with him again. (the four stars are only because this is the first writing tutor we have worked with)
Place rating: 5
Pacifica, CA
I sought out Chino’s help for my 8th grade son’s Private High School applications. I never realized how competitive the process was until I started to attend Open Houses. Chino was very familiar with the process and helped my son to create impressive applications. His one on one approach is truly interpersonal and he offered constructive yet positive feedback. My son left their sessions knowing exactly what he needed to work on before their next meeting.
I highly recommend Chino for tutoring, Standardized Test Preparation, or any assistance your child may need!