Alexander
Certified Tutor
A dual citizen, I was born in Athens, Greece the eldest of two children but moved here 6 years ago to prepare for college. I now am completing my gap year and waiting to matriculate into the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in August 2017. My younger brother currently studies at UMD-College Park. Before moving to the U.S. in 2009, I lived in a quaint, homely townhouse in a northern suburb of Athens. Growing up, my brother and I became close with all our neighbors, playing basketball and soccer out in the large driveway. I spent most of my elementary, middle, and high school years at the American Community School of Athens (ACS), learning with the U.S. educational system in a Greek environment. I formed life-long friendships with several of my classmates and bonds with teachers, counselors, and administrators. In the 6th grade I served as a representative of my class, and by 8th grade I was President of the Middle School. I helped organize the school events, established a line of communication between the students concerns and the administration, and helped organize the first middle school graduation.
In middle and high school, I was also a part of the Junior Varsity and Varsity swim team, with which I participated in many local, regional, national, and international competitions, both at ACS and elsewhere in Europe.
Despite my attention to academics and school activities, I still reserved my summers to follow my passion and devotion to water sports. From a young age, I loved to swim, scuba dive, catamaran sail, and windsurf. Its also a great pleasure of mine to teach younger kids how to windsurf, and I always make a point of taking any new visitors and friends on the catamaran, near our village of Pylos, in the southeast Peloponnese of Greece. As I have grown older, I have participated in two international catamaran races in Leukada, Greece, and have continued practicing and racing catamarans near Annapolis, MD. I recently placed first in a long-distance, 35-mile race in heavy, +25 knot winds. These are things I have always treasured from my first adventure on the water at the age of 6, and I havent given it up since. I continued to pursue this passion and participated in the F16 national races in Sarasota, FL.
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Undergraduate Degree: University of Maryland-College Park - Bachelors, Biological Sciences
swim, scuba dive, catamaran sail, and windsurf.
What is your teaching philosophy?
"See it, try it, do it." "Learn it. Love it."
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Get to know them, their background, and their personal academic, and co-curricular interests. Then discuss some of the material and see where the weaknesses lie and determine the best ways to tackle them. Also, are the weaknesses more general (study-habit) or specific (content-driven)?
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Students should 1) find ways to engage themselves in learning the material, either the first, second, or third time viewing/reviewing it, and 2) learn to understand concepts rather than attempt continuous brute memorization.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Find ways to compare and incorporate material being learned to applicable life concepts that the student finds personally interesting.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Determine different ways to approach the material, find better examples or metaphors to teach it, or determine the most efficient way to acquire the information to continue learning all the other material.