What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe in the Socratic method - I prefer to ask questions and help the student get to the answer on his/her own. Learning is done through critical thought, and the Socratic method achieves this best.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

My first session usually consists of getting to know my student's study habits - most problems arise from study habits rather than an actual lack of knowledge of the subject.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I find that a lot of learning problems arise from a lack of interest in the subject. I help a student become an independent learner by finding a way to make the subject cross-applicable to a subject that the student IS interested in.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

First, I try to make the subject as interesting as possible by making it applicable to a number of different subjects. I also try to help the student think about how the subject might be applicable to his/her future. When I was in highschool, calculus was the subject I struggled with the most. Once my economics class began to apply some of the concepts from my calc class, I took more interest in calculus.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

Rather than continue pursuing the concept with the same strategy, I try to determine which studying strategy best suits the student for this particular concept. Usually I'll try to break down the concept into as many simpler concepts as possible, and work through each concept individually.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

I teach students to start from the top, go to the bottom, and back to the top. First, the student has to read the title and predict what the reading consists of. After that, the student actually does the reading. I ask the student to step away from the reading, think about it for a few minutes, and then read it again. After that, the student should compare what he/she has read with his/her prior predictions based off the title.