What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that every student can succeed with the right strategy. Part of my job is to work with my students to figure out their academic, intellectual, and emotional needs that will all combine to help them become the best possible student. It's only when we know where we need to go that we can begin our journey.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I believe that as a successful tutor, I'll eventually work myself out of a job, and helping students become independent learners is part of that. An important step in students becoming independent learners is making sure they have strategies in place to help them understand new or challenging material. Sometimes, this involves teaching students reading and note-taking techniques. Sometimes it involves brainstorming answers to the question "What would you do if I wasn't here?" when a problem comes up. All of these approaches help students develop independence.

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

If a student has a hard time learning a skill or concept, I would break down the skill into its foundational parts. Then, I would make sure that the student understands each of those parts before we put them together into a bigger skill. I might also try teaching it from a new perspective, or try a variety of examples--I usually have whiteboards handy to draw pictures or diagrams for visual learners, for instance. Ultimately, my approach depends on what a student needs. Sometimes, the best approach is simply to switch gears to a different subject for a little while and come back to the problem with fresh eyes.

How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?

I think that recognition and praise are really important parts of developing a student's confidence in a subject. Recognizing what students already know how to do, and do well, is helpful. I also think that recognizing when students have the courage to ask for help is really important. Combined, this approach helps students realize that one mistake doesn't undo all of their past successes. Finally, praising positive work habits or approaches helps students keep doing what they're doing right, instead of feeling like they need to throw out everything they're doing when something doesn't go well. As a result, students begin to build the perseverance and confidence they need.