Nicole
Certified Tutor
I am a current high school biology teacher with a passion for leaning and helping others understand. While I know that content knowledge is the focus I believe that personal development and the journey one takes to reach personal goals is the most important aspect of life.
I am active and enjoy participating in sports, working out, spending time with family and friends, cooking, and playing with my Aussie, Koda! I continue to improve my knowledge and education by reading and developing myself mentally and personally.
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Undergraduate Degree: Florida Gulf Coast University - Bachelors, Criminal Forensics
Working out, dancing, reading, spending time with my Aussie, going to sporting events
- 6th Grade Science
- Anatomy
- Anatomy & Physiology
- Biology
- Cell Biology
- College Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Elementary School Science
- General Biology
- High School Biology
- Life Sciences
- Microbiology
- Nutrition
- Science
What is your teaching philosophy?
Every student deserves a quality education that is tailored to his or her learning style. All students should not only be taught content but how they need to approach content to learn how to take ownership for their education.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I will get to know the student and start to learn their learning style. It is important to begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the student early.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Once the tutor becomes aware of strengths, weaknesses, and the type of learner a student is, the tutor should share the information with the student in a positive way. Help the student understand how they can approach content so they can understand the material. The tutor can also give the students step-by-step homework to help them develop becoming an independent learner over time.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Staying positive is the most important thing to do when motivating people. Share with the student some personal experiences about how you stayed positive and adapted. It's not always about content, sometimes it's life skills too!
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
I take content out of it and approach it by using something the student loves and already understands. This is why it's important to get to know the students early in the sessions.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Helping the students to identify vocabulary that they don't understand would be the first thing to do. Many times the student's don't understand prefixes and suffixes so a quick lesson on those will help. I could also spend time developing skills with the student such as marking the text and eliminating information that isn't important to the overall understanding.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
Building a relationship with the student is the most helpful. Making sure they understand that they are in a safe learning environment and it's ok to not understand or get something wrong sometimes.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
Simply relating the subject to something the student likes could help them engage more. Also, people tend to like a subject more when they feel like they are getting better at understanding the information and they have a positive influence.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Reading, questioning, flash cards, drawings, diagrams, games, coloring, physical activity, and anything else possible. The goal is to do whatever it takes for the student to understand.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
I would help build the student's confidence by remaining positive and encouraging. At no point should I create negative energy for my student.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
Short question sets that are diverse and cover the material in many different ways will allow me to observe the strengths and weaknesses of the student.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
It's not about how I learn or like to teach but more about how the student learns. Therefore it is important to observe and understand the student's needs, strengths and weaknesses early in the sessions.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
I will use reading passages, models and diagrams, games, worksheets, practice problems, and videos to engage the students and ensure the content is presented in a variety of different ways.