Christian
Certified Tutor
I have extensive classroom teaching experience and a strong passion for education. With experience working at the United Nations, leading sales for an international pharmaceuticals company, and teaching students of a wide range of ages in Korea, I excel at connecting with people on a level that they understand.
As an educator, I seek to bring real-world value to whatever I am teaching, helping students to understand how the topic at hand connects to their everyday lives. I always strive to be engaging and make my lessons as fun and informative as possible.
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Undergraduate Degree: McGill University - Bachelors, Political Science and Government
- GRE Verbal: 166
Baseball, cooking, architecture, travel, history, books
- AP European History
- College English
- College Essays
- College Level American History
- English
- ESL/ELL
- Graduate Test Prep
- GRE Analytical Writing
- GRE Verbal
- High School English
- High School Level American History
- History
- Reading
- Social Studies
- SSAT Prep
- US History
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
Students are far more engaged when they can make real world connections to whatever they are studying. I strive to foster these bonds and help students understand why the topic at hand is relevant to their everyday lives.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
In a typical first session with a student I would work to evaluate the student's ability level, asking prompt questions at both ends of the ability spectrum, while also working to keep things light and develop trust and rapport that can help us facilitate learning as we move forward.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
As an educator, particularly in this context, my role is to ask the student the right questions rather than providing them with answers. This being central to my teaching philosophy, I work to help students learn how to confidently reason through difficult question on their own.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Engagement is absolutely key to maintaining student motivation. Students are unmotivated when they are bored, and it falls on the educator to assure that they remain engaged with the subject matter. In this regard, I maintain student motivation by assuring that my lessons are intellectually stimulating and fun while also being informative.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
The key to overcoming a student's challenge is to determine why they are having difficulty with a given subject. The best way to address this is by asking the student questions to help both the educator and the student determine what exactly the issue is, then working through that issue to overcome the challenge. This process helps the student build confidence that they can work independently while turning a weakness into a potential strength.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
Engaging students in subjects in which they are struggling is always a challenge, and the key is generally to make them understand why that subject has value to them and how it connects to their everyday lives. Academia is not a vacuum, and there is always a way to find something of interest related to a given subject.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
As an educator, I focus on central concepts over minor details. As such, when determining whether a student understands the material at hand, I focus most on asking questions related to those central concepts, and asking the student to explain these concepts in their own words. I proceed by asking more detailed questions, and pushing the student to think through the subject matter on their own.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
To adapt to a given student's needs, I first work to determine what they are interested in and what their weaknesses are. I then work to connect the material back to their areas of interest and focus on asking them the right questions to help them work through whatever it is that they find challenging.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
When it comes to reading comprehension, I try to avoid giving students the answer. Instead, I work with them to use context clues to allow them to figure out the answer on their own. The key here is that I, as an instructor, will not always be available, so I attempt to provide them with the tools to work through a challenging passage on their own in the future.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
Building a student's confidence in a given subject requires helping them work through problems on their own rather than providing them with answers. This requires analyzing the material, determining which part of the material they find challenging, and prompting them with questions that will allow them to determine the answer on their own.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
There are two facets to determining a student's needs. First, an educator must determine what the student is struggling with. Second, the educator must determine the student's learning style, how they are motivated, and the best way to engage the student. This is best done by speaking with the student one-on-one and having an honest assessment of where they feel they need help and how they prefer to learn.