Ken
Certified Tutor
As an educator, the parallels one can make with students regarding excellent study habits and techniques is that they are quite similar to excellent habits and techniques that occur within physical exercise. An individual can lift weights for an extended period of time, but without proper form, the benefit gained would be minimal. A runner can train solely by running twelve miles the day before her thirteen mile race, but that would be highly ineffective. The best athletes know to seek out the proper techniques for improvement, and apply their efforts towards utilizing those techniques.
Similarly, for you, the student, practicing repeatedly without any structure is not sufficient for success or excellence in your academic pursuits. Having the right techniques and skills in your study toolkit is vastly more effective. Success comes not only from applying yourself, but in directing your efforts in the correct ways. You need both proper from and exposure when it comes to how you study and practice, and that is what my tutoring can provide.
As your personalized tutor (and an avid runner) I can assist you with directing your effort towards the right areas to ensure optimum success. I have taught critical reading, writing, and thinking skills at the university level for the past 5 years, and can transfer these skills to you to assist you with improving your performance on standardized tests at multiple levels, and/or your quality of writing on academic papers. Further as a highly capable instructor with several degrees between humanities related disciplines. I can enhance your understanding of what many students have found to be highly challenging subject material. I look forward to working closely with you to create a plan for your future academic success.
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Undergraduate Degree: Sacred Heart University - Bachelors, Philosophy; Religious Studies
Graduate Degree: Catholic University of Leuven - Masters, Philosophy
Running, Yoga, Photography, Board Games, Reading, Depthful Intellectual Conversation,
- Clinical Psychology
- College English
- College Essays
- English
- English Grammar and Syntax
- Essay Editing
- Graduate Test Prep
- GRE Analytical Writing
- GRE Verbal
- High School English
- High School Writing
- IB Philosophy
- Philosophical Ethics
- Philosophy
- SAT Reading
- Social Sciences
- Writing
What is your teaching philosophy?
First and foremost, I strive to determine effectively the current capacities of you, the student, and your comfort level with the material. From there, we collaborate to enhance your understanding and confidence with the skills or material you wish to improve.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Typically we start with some agenda setting: identifying what an ideal outcome or series of outcomes would be for you. From there, we determine where you currently are in terms of reaching these goals, and plan a course of action for attaining them. Once this preliminary work is complete, we get to work!
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
An important aspect of the tutoring relationship is that I try to enhance your capacity for using specific sets of techniques (in reading, writing, critical thinking, etc.). Together, we work to get you more comfortable with using these skills autonomously, and eventually, later in our professional relationship, with minimal interaction or guidance on my part. Once you can firmly utilize these techniques on your own, you'll find it becomes much easier to apply them to future scenarios.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Motivating students for me is largely a matter of emphasizing current strengths and improvements. It becomes easier to persist when one has a clear indication of the progress one has made towards a personal goal.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
With learning difficulties such as these, it is often quite useful to provide several formulations of the concept or skill. This is something I frequently do in my classes, where there are about 30 students, not all of whom will understand an idea in the same way.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
A common strategy I would utilize is working with them to grasp the meanings of difficult aspects of passages by context, and difficult words by analogy, rather than (for instance) consulting a dictionary.