Ana
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: University of California-Los Angeles - Bachelors, Biology, General
Listening to podcasts, playing basketball and soccer, working out, currently training for a Spartan Race
College English
Conversational Spanish
High School English
Homework Support
Other
Spanish 1
Study Skills
Study Skills and Organization
What is your teaching philosophy?
I believe that learning by association makes learning much more interesting and entertaining. I believe that even though a student will not love every subject, there are ways to make the subjects interesting, which will in turn make it much easier to understand and apply the information. Brute memorization should never be the default.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
If we were only doing one subject, I would ask them which topic they had the most trouble with, which one they had the least, and which one they were neutral about. We would start with the neutral one, just to get an understanding of the student's learning style. I would ask them if they knew what kind of learner they were, and if they did not know, we would test out different methods throughout the session to see which worked best. Once we covered the material in the first topic, in the form of a review session, we would move on to the hardest one. I would ask what they had trouble understanding, and if the answer was "everything," we would start off by going through each one of the sections. The goal is to eventually help the student pinpoint which areas they had difficulty understanding, because as they get older, recognizing where they have the most trouble will make it easier to pinpoint which questions they have and get them answered quickly (this is an especially useful skill in college). Throughout the session, I would ask the student questions about one of the topics we had just covered to keep them actively engaged, and to force them to consistently think about the topic they are learning about. I would also begin the process of teaching them how to predict test questions, in other words, how to pick out what is important in the lesson (another very useful skill to have).
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
By teaching them how to determine what they have the most trouble understanding, and encouraging them to break the habit of being scared or embarrassed to ask questions. I would see what tasks they where assigned by the teacher and give them a couple more I feel would be useful to their understanding of the material, and teach them to be accountable for completing them.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
By showing them how proud I am of each of their accomplishments, and showing them that they can feel proud too, no matter how small they feel the accomplishment is. I also love teaching kids fun facts I know about the subject they are learning, because I feel like it gives them a bigger picture about a topic, rather than just tunnel vision about passing a test.