What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that in order to be an effective teacher, a teacher needs to understand what a student knows and structure a lesson based on that knowledge. All instruction should be relatable to the personal interests and knowledge of the students.

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

I like to get to know my student and get a feel for what they like and what they already know about a subject. Even if it seems unrelated, hobbies and personal interests can be used to structure future instruction to ensure that it is interesting and applicable.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Showing a student resources with which to seek out learning and showing them how to inquire about questions can help build them to be an independent learner. If I can show a student useful websites and help them discover something new and interesting using that resource, it will engage them to seek information on their own time.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Continually challenging a student and discussing what drives him or her to academic success are strategies I use to motivate students.

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

First, I will break the skill or concept down into steps and figure out what step is causing the difficulty. Then, I can work with the student to understand the difficulty and overcome it. Chunking the instruction is extremely effective in these situations.

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

I have found that creating a stress-free environment and making a student feel comfortable making mistakes is the most important step when starting to work with a student. If a student is afraid to fail, it becomes a difficult environment to work in.

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

For reading comprehension, I prefer to focus on identifying root words and understanding context clues to improve the skills of students struggling.

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

I like to understand a student's personal interests to find ways to connect them to the subject that the student is struggling in. By building bridges, a subject that was once uninteresting or considered difficult can be seen as fun and challenging.

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

I use sample problems to practice concepts. Once a student solves a problem, I like to manipulate the variables so that they can see how each changing part of the problem can affect the result.