My teaching philosophy is to make sure students know, first and foremost, that they matter, and that their learning matters. I love to see what students are passionate about and help them make connections with the subjects they're going over, and I do that by getting to know them and listening to them, but also by putting the pen in their hand. I love to teach students techniques to learn, now and in the future, and to excel at that, rather than just teach a certain set of problems. Because at the end of the day, students do matter, profoundly. Their learning, and their voices and experiences and the space we give them to fill, so beautifully, is what the future will look like. So if I can teach to make that future brighter, and confident, and accepted, and fair--that's the coolest thing I could hope to do. How can you help a student become an independent learner? If you equip a student with techniques to their learning that can apply not only to the subject you're teaching, but also to a wide variety of subjects, then they start to grow in their ability to learn independently. One of the best ways to start this is to put the pencil in the student's hand, always, and let them ask questions and make mistakes, rather than do problems for them.