Learning material should be fun and engaging- so I always do my best to incorporate entertainment with my teaching. And I'm a strong believer that proper stress and anxiety management is just as critical to academic success as standard studying techniques.

Get to know you! The most effective teaching sessions are those where there's a natural connection and comfort level between tutor and student.

To me, a good tutor should be like Mr. Miyagi- a guide that helps a student discover and develop his or her own innate talent and ability, rather than just lecture at them and forcefully supplant their own learning style. I like equipping students with an array of guidelines, techniques, and tricks to help them enhance and build upon their own studying styles.

It's often tough to maintain focus and motivation when staring down overwhelming amounts of tough material and feeling stress mounting. This is where learning effective stress-relief techniques are essential for combating anxiety and preventing mental burnout. My psych background equips me to incorporate psychological support methods for students to benefit from so they can maintain motivation regardless of the challenges they face.

Reading comprehension is a lot like learning how to swim- odd analogy, sure, but follow me on this. The initial flailing can feel overwhelming and frustrating at first, but with proper guidance on fundamental techniques and plenty of supervised reading practice, what was once a struggle turns into an ever-strengthening ability. Reading comprehension is one of the most fundamental elements of learning, and simply being told a method isn't effective enough unless it’s reinforced through copious practice.

There's three potent yet simple strategies that I like employing: 1) being receptive and adaptable to a student's changing concerns as our tutoring sessions progress, 2) offering genuine support and respect by treating students as my future colleagues, and 3) tailoring my teaching style to complement their strengths and maximize their engagement.

Speaking from my own experience with a lot of subjects I myself didn't find much pleasure in, the best way to engage with learning is to make it entertaining and enjoyable! Find fun and creative ways to relate material to a student's personal interests and voila!

Practice questions are always key for testing yourself to see if you've grasped the material, especially when you not only reinforce why the right answer is correct, but also review why the wrong answers are incorrect. The best way to ensure mastery of a subject is to enable students to become their own tutor and confidently teach it back to you.

Practice questions can often be a double-edged sword, boosting confidence when a student answers correctly, but also potentially demoralizing a student if they're wrong. This is where having a supportive and encouraging tutor is crucial! Even when a student answers incorrectly, so long as they understand their thought process and grasp where they may have erred, they'll surprisingly find that its their corrected mistakes that they remember best.

Communication is key- not just during the initial meeting, but throughout the entire tutoring experience across each of the sessions. Students’ needs can change, and a good tutor should be cognizant, responsive, and flexible to ensure confidence and comfort.

Find out where in particular in a student's thought process they're getting tangled up, and either guiding them slowly and more carefully through a concept, or approaching a concept from a completely different perspective.

This is where being an improvisational performer is perfect- my stagecraft is all about thinking on your feet and adapting to dramatically changing settings, characters, and environments. A student’s needs are much the same- if he or she need more time to digest and process material, or perhaps want to push forward with material he or she is already confident in, I as a tutor will be flexible enough to tailor my teaching to match the student’s pace and style.

I'm a very visual learner, and I prefer using diagrams, illustrations, cartoons, and graphs to teach material. On top of that, I utilize a lot of practice questions to reinforce and solidify a student's confidence and mastery of material.