As a teacher, it is my job to be a support system for my students and to acknowledge their successes. I will help them find the light in their darkest moments and I will praise their achievements when they've embraced their light. There is no such thing as a student who cannot learn. It is my job to figure out why some don't...and teach them.

I believe that it is extremely important as an educator to get to know the students, so in a first session I want to learn about the student. I want to know their interests, hobbies, passions, and I want to know what they are struggling with. Together we can identify what needs to be worked on and how we should approach them.

Learning the skills to become an independent learner is important for future academic experience. Together we can figure out the best way to approach problems, we can figure out how to identify mistakes without assistance, and we can create a plan on how to study and learn in the future.

School can be tough and frustrating, so motivation is also very important. I aim to make education exciting by creating problems or lessons that relate to the real world and the student's interests. I will be encouraging for the entire process as to not discourage the student. It is important for students to understand that mistakes are ok because they allow us to learn. Together we will find a way to make learning exciting (as it should be)!

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, I would walk them through, step-by-step, how to solve the problem. Once we go through step-by-step, I will give the student a similar problem to try on their own. If they are still struggling on the concept, I will use manipulatives, graphs, visuals, hands-on activities, examples, or other tools to help the student understand the concept.

For students who are struggling with reading comprehension, we can walk through the sentence, paragraph, stanza, essay, etc., in broken parts. Then, we can discuss what we just read, make predictions, and talk about confusing vocab.

When working with students, I have found that patience and encouragement are key in making them successful. Talking through problems, using tools to help comprehension, and allowing students to self-check their work are also important in a student's success.

In order to get a student excited/engaged in a subject that they are struggling in, the teacher/tutor should relate the subject to their interests/passions/activities. It is also important to teach the student to their strengths, no matter what subject it may be.

In order to be sure that a student understands material, I would use practice problems, authentic assessments, and maybe a quiz every couple of sessions. I would use practice problems, because it will give both the student and I the opportunity to see if the concept makes sense. I would use authentic assessment, because it gives the student the opportunity to explain to me what they understand rather than me testing them. Finally, I would use small quizzes to see what concepts needed further work. These would not be used to discourage the student; instead we could work through what mistakes were made (if any) and continue working on those concepts.

A student's confidence could be built up by seeing the progress they have made and by understanding concepts. Even if some subjects are still difficult, seeing progress from the beginning to the present is a motivator to continue to do better. Also, when a student truly understands a concept and is able to explain the concepts to myself and others, then confidence is gained.

To determine the needs of the students, I believe it is important to have a conversation about what the student believes he/she needs. Communication is key; if a student believes they need more help on a concept, then we may focus on that concept more. Likewise, if I have noticed that a student might need help with another concept, I can explain to them why and how we might go about that while listening to their input. I might do my own evaluation by starting off with a small quiz that will allow me to see a benchmark of where the student needs assistance.

Students have different strengths and styles in their learning techniques. As a tutor, it is my job to adapt to those needs as well as introduce other techniques that may benefit the student. I would adapt to a student's needs by including activities that would be aimed toward their learning ability. For example, where one student may need a visual on how to solve a problem, another student might need a hands-on activity.

During a tutoring session, depending on the topic, I would use the materials the students has been given by their school, find other sources of information to better prepare myself for the topic, and I would use manipulatives, graphs, examples, etc., that will allow for further explanation of concepts.