What is your teaching philosophy?

I take a collaborative approach, working with the student and parent(s) to decide what methods of improvement will best work. I work hard to establish clear goals and expectations for students and parents by which they may motivate themselves and judge their performance.

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

In a first session, I typically discuss strengths, weakness, goals and expectations with the student and their parents. I also often test the waters with the student regarding their learning style and current knowledge.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I try to encourage the student to develop positive, constructive habits for proactive organization, note taking, studying, writing and test taking.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I try to use positive reinforcement as well as to emphasize goal setting, orientation and completion.

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

I try to help the student see a skill or concept from multiple angles so that they can better grasp it. I emphasize the necessity of practice for mastery of a skill or concept.

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

I often work through passages with students segment by segment, theme by theme, plot point by plot point, etc. I try to demonstrate how or orient students in the direction to become a detective and connect all of the dots. I also emphasize that reading comprehension, like a 3-point throw or a ballet move, is a skill that requires practice, focus and patience.

What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?

Students generally respond well to a combination of honesty, positive reinforcement, demonstration, and Socratic appeals to their own insight or prior knowledge.

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

Breaking a difficult subject or concept into bite-size pieces helps increase the frequency of correct answers, which boosts confidence.

What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?

I test comprehension multiple times from multiple angles, e.g. vocabulary definition, use, antonyms, synonyms, etc. to prove comprehension of a word.

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

Honest, critical, yet constructive positive reinforcement often helps a student believe in their own abilities to master a subject or surpass a goalpost.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I regularly discuss a student's needs with the student and his/her parents. I also often share my own insights into the student's needs based on my own perspective from sessions and similar prior students.

How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?

My tutor approaches are not pure routine, but a constant adaptation to the needs of my student, based on my student's progress. I also check in regularly with my student to ask for their own personal assessment of the tutoring sessions.

What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?

I use a mix of online interface hand-drawn figures, PDF problem sets, video concept reviews, and books.