What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that all young people are innately curious about the world, but when a young person begins struggling in school, that natural wonder and yearning to learn can shut down. It is our job as adults to provide the resources and environment so that our youth can thrive and truly enjoy the discovery experience of inquiring and critical thinking.

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

In a first session with an older student, we'll get to know each other a bit. What are the student's interests? Where are the areas in life that the student thrives and has passion? And what are the student's goals and wishes for him/herself academically. He or she is encouraged to ask me questions, too. With a younger student, I'd love to learn about what games or sports he or she loves to play, favorite books, etc. After getting to know each other, we'll talk about our plan moving forward together to offer the support needed to reach certain goals.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

In my experience, students become independent learners when they have the environment and tools to succeed. Practically, this often means giving each student simple and easy organizational and time-management tools to use. That creates an amazingly basic foundation for any learner to succeed academically.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Find out what naturally motivates a student! From there, a student and mentor can work to see what feels like a genuine reward when a success is achieved. If a natural and simple positive reward can be associated with an academic success, it encourages a student to keep going, until the confidence is built enough and the success, in and of itself, is the reward.

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

Pause and take a small break. After a re-group, we can backtrack and figure out what a student does understand and at which point the student starts getting confused. By understanding where the gap is, we can find a metaphor or some other set of tools to express the idea in a new way.