What is your teaching philosophy?

Everyone learns in a different way. I know that personally I struggled early on in school until my teachers started to work with me in a way that was conducive to how I learned. The best way to teach someone something is to work with them to address and discover what the best approach for them might be. Then, follow that avenue while keeping open a constructive dialogue about progress and understanding of the subject matter.

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

I would start a first session with a casual getting to know you conversation. It is just as important for the student to accept me as their tutor as it is for me to help them in their learning process! Having a simple conversation to start things off breaks the ice and allows us to form a relationship. The next step would be to assess where the student is at in terms of understanding of the subject that we are going to be working on. This would either be achieved with already existing school material or material that I bring in based on the subject and level. This might be all we do in a first session so that I can then come back the following week with a plan of attack for the sessions moving forward, based on what I perceived from our initial meeting.