I believe that every child deserves an education no matter what obstacle or hindrance may come their way. By nature, children are very inquisitive. The goal of education should be to encourage the seeking of answers, as it is in this way that we advance. I seek to facilitate this advancement of knowledge. Whether in the classroom or in meeting groups of the general public, my goal is to encourage thinking in rational ways, so that this can be applied in other, unfamiliar situations. I particularly emphasize learning to think about trends and directions rather than rote memorization of facts.

The first thing that I would do on a first session with a student is introduce myself fully. I'd talk about my accomplishments, my hobbies, etc. I would then ask the child to do the same thing. By doing this initially, I am opening myself up to the child and allowing the child to get to know me. For a tutoring session to be successful, the student must be comfortable with the instructor. After a brief conversation with the student, I would then ask the child to define his or her goals. We would then discuss strengths and any weaknesses pertaining to these goals. This portion of the conversation serves to help me set up my tutoring routine. This will be my foundation for this session and other sessions to come.

The main part of a tutor's job is to foster an understanding of the content that will result in the improvement of skills. Students will become independent learners as they discover and find the answers to the questions they seek themselves. My job is to provide support and ongoing encouragement. This will increase the student's self confidence and motivation.

I would help a student stay motivated by giving constant praise, recognizing all efforts made (big and small). As a tutor, I set high expectations for my students. I like to give my students complete ownership of their learning. Their opinions matter to me, as they always should.

In this case, I would give the student all of the knowledge that I could that would help them to develop the necessary skills that would catapult them to the level of proficiency in that subject.

Text has to make sense. Children do not know how to do this. To start, after reading I would initialize a conversation about the text. Strategic readers address their thinking in a conversation to help them make sense of the text. My other route to solving this issue is to make connections; text to text, text to self and text to world. Other strategies are to infer, predict, find the purpose and etc....

I would help a student become engaged by having him or her recognize that there is more than one way to learn (auditory, visual, tactile) and by ensuring the child that the learning materials are rich and can be engaging. Students need to be empowered to take control of their learning.

The techniques that I would utilize to ensure that my student understands the material are manipulatives, handouts (if I am in person), or anything that can aid the student in understanding. There are so many things that surround us each day that we take for granted that are actually lessons in themselves waiting to be taught.

I would build a student's confidence by offering constant praise and acknowledging their accomplishments, setting attainable goals from the very beginning, projecting a positive attitude at all times, encouraging them to do better than before, and keeping a log of their progress.

I would elevate a student's needs by instituting a love for learning by providing each of my students with the necessary skills to help them succeed throughout their academic lives.

I would adapt my tutoring to my student's needs by building support and trust, not taking it personally when things do not go a well as I have planned, and always having a backup plan in case this happens. This is why getting to know your student is of the most importance. If you do not know whom you are dealing with, it will become almost impossible to know what that child's needs are.

The types of materials that I would typically use during a tutoring session are dependent upon the kind of session I am doing. For face to face sessions, I would normally use rexo sheets to reinforce the concept and/or manipulatives. For online sessions, I would ask the student to think about something concrete that he or she is aware of that can be connected to the concept that I am teaching.