What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe in order to fully understand a topic or problem, it cannot be done only once. I learn the best through repetition of steps and methods to approaching the problem.

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

Get to know the student and what they are strong or weak in, what areas they already have a strong basis in, and ones that need improvement.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

It is beneficial to show the student the methods of what to do, then provide a new problem that tests the same methods and let the student work it out themselves.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

To help students stay motivated, I would assure them that the homework is beneficial in the long run, and hard work now means that it gets easier down the road.

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

Seek extra help with outside research, and then come back to the student with the correct answer, or provide a new way of remembering the skill or concept.

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

I would inform them about some tips to improve comprehension that my teachers taught me. For instance, to summarize the most important points of the work.

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

Just establishing a basis as to what they know and what they could improve on to make school easier.

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

I would tell the student that excelling in subjects that they are uncomfortable with will make them a stronger student across all disciplines.

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

Repetition is a great tool to use. Especially in math, change numbers in the example and give the same question to the student to use their own knowledge to solve the problem.

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

Practice the problems they have been given and eventually a student will feel more and more confident with the subject material.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Evaluate a student's needs based on their type of learning. Some students excel with more outside material and practice problems. Some students excel with visualization; it all depends.

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

Based on the student's needs, I come prepared to each session with either outside materials for more practice, or answered questions the student has given to me prior to the session like a practice test or example homework problems.

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

Practice problems that the student is doing in class are a good fit. That way we can go over what concepts the student is struggling with.