Will: St. Charles tutor
Certified Tutor
Look, learning can be toughbut it's rewarding in the end, and done right, it can be a lot of fun. My goal is to help students learn and succeed, but also to help them have a good time while doing it.
Part of what I love most about being a journalist is breaking things down and making them understandable to the massesbasically, teaching people new things. If they don't comprehend and retain that knowledge, I haven't succeeded in my job, just like a tutor. I've been informally tutoring people for years, whether it's helping children study for classes while babysitting in high school and college or helping classmates learn and prepare for school all the way back to my elementary school days. In one form or another, I've been helping people learn almost as long as I remember.
A great tutor needs to be intelligent, with a comprehensive, intuitive understanding of the subject matter. It's not enough to just know the answers to questions; a tutor needs to understand why the answers are what they are. A great tutor needs to be compassionate, patient, understanding, and kind, to help create a safe, creative and comfortable environment for the student to learn. And a great tutor needs to be empathetic, to be able to put him/herself in the student's shoes and understand why he or she might be having trouble.
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Undergraduate Degree: New York University - Bachelor in Arts, Journalism, Anthropology
- SAT Composite (1600 scale): 1450
- SAT Verbal: 800
Writing, science, nature, hiking, running, biking, exploring, reading
- Biology
- College Biology
- College English
- College Essays
- College Geography
- College Level American History
- Creative Writing
- English
- English Grammar and Syntax
- Essay Editing
- Geography
- High School Biology
- High School English
- High School Geography
- High School Level American History
- History
- Journalism
- Life Sciences
- Science
- Social Studies
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
Guide students through the material by asking questions, pointing them in the right direction, and always offering positive feedback.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Get to know them--where they come from, what their likes and dislikes are, and where they feel strongest and weakest in their learning (and why).
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Show, don't tell--lead them to the answer and then show them the methods used to get them there.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
By offering positive feedback, keeping things from being monotonous, and giving him or her short breaks when he or she starts to feel burnt out.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Find another way to teach the concept to them using topics, issues, or passions the student can relate to.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Patience, coupled with plentiful amounts of positive feedback.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
Being kind, friendly, open, and honest.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
Find a way for them to relate to it so that they begin to find it interesting.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Asking them to teach the material back to me, quizzing them, and having them explain the subject to someone else.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
Constant positive feedback--minimizing setbacks and maximizing successes.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
By talking with them, speaking with their parents or guardians, and looking at where they did well and/or poorly on their past work.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
Listening to them, observing which methods I'm using work better than others, and then favoring those methods going forward.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Appropriate books, pencils, pens, and paper. The Internet should only be used as a last resort.