What is your teaching philosophy?

Every student has a unique style of learning. My goal is to help the student discover their 'style' and to help them learn using methods tailored to them.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

The first session is focused on establishing rapport, discovering the student's objectives and finding out what they have and have not already tried.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

People are born learners. Sometimes, a student needs to be reminded that they were born with incredible gifts of memory and problem solving. Keeping a log that shows progress is one way of clearly demonstrating improvement over time.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Everything is possible if broken into small enough pieces. Many students do poorly due to anxiety around passing a big test or scoring "high enough" on the SAT, ACT or GRE. I help them shift their focus to one question at a time. One question is very do-able.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

There is always a new way of approaching a question. I excel at finding analogies from a student's own life that open doorways into challenging concepts.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

Reading comprehension is often a question of relationships - between words, between ideas, between characters. Everyone is good at seeing relationships. Reframing the question as discovering relationships often helps students see the connections.

How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?

Often a real-world application of the material will help a student be more focused. Even the most abstract math or literature have real-world analogs that students could find relevant.