Megan: Milford tutor
Certified Tutor
I was born and raised in Virginia, USA and attended college for English and Creative Writing at James Madison University. I have lived in Virginia, North Carolina, California, Indonesia, and am currently living in Indiana. I have taught in private and public school settings, as well as at the Korean International School in Jakarta. I am a grant writer for a non-profit education company here in Indianapolis. My main job as an English teacher for JIKS was to prepare high school students for the TOEFL iBT. I have my TEFL license, I graduated from James Madison University in Virginia, USA in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Minor in Creative Writing. I love to bake, do yoga, ride my bike, walk my dog, watch films, and spend time with friends and family. I am patient, easy-going, friendly, and I absolutely love to teach.
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Undergraduate Degree: James Madison University - Bachelors, English
Baking and cooking, tennis, yoga, reading, spending time with friends and family.
- College English
- College Essays
- Comparative Literature
- Elementary School Reading
- English
- ESL/ELL
- Essay Editing
- High School English
- Literature
- Reading
- SAT Reading
- Test Prep
- TOEFL Prep
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
I like for my students to feel that they are comfortable to make mistakes. We are not learning or growing unless we are making mistakes, and in turn - correcting them. I believe that we are all each other's teachers, and each other's students - and my philosophy as a teacher is to create a safe space to learn, grow, improve, and find joy.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Get to know the student, and ask questions to try and understand their learning styles and how much the student already knows about the subject.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
By giving them the tools they need to auto-correct themselves. It takes some dependence to create independence, but it can happen with time, patience and effort.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Change up the environment, or the subject, if things are getting frustrated. Attack the subject from a different angle, or use metaphors in the student's daily life to make a subject "click." Offer a rewards program.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Have patience and keep trying. Practice makes perfect!
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
If I have a student struggling with reading comprehension, the best way to help is to break up the paragraph, sentence, essay, etc., into smaller pieces. We do this over and over and over again until the student feels comfortable being able to do it on their own.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
Repetition, repetition, repetition!
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
It's easy to get stuck in a rut or become bored - especially when it comes to a subject that a student struggles in. It is important to find ways to make the subject relevant to the student's life in order to engage them.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Evaluation.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
With rewards programs, enthusiasm for a job done well, and practice - practice - practice!
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
By asking questions.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
By being flexible and patient, and by understanding that each of my students are individuals with different learning styles. By knowing that I will need to change it up to meet the needs of each individual student.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Books, auditory, and video.