What is your teaching philosophy?

As a tutor, my teaching philosophy is a simple one: to ensure that my students have a deep understanding of the concepts they are learning. To me, this means making certain that students aren’t learning the material just to pass an assessment coming up in the near future, but are actually gaining a deep understanding of the information presented to them. To do this, I present useful learning techniques that will help students excel in their current courses, as well as any courses they may experience in the future. I give my students the ability to confront their hardest courses with the confidence to succeed. To foster this confidence, I impart my enthusiasm for my subject knowledge of chemistry to the student. I believe that when students see my excitement for the subject, they will grow to become more interested and engaged in the subject matter themselves. By promoting excitement and presenting useful techniques, I hope to encourage students to become the best they can be.

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

In a first session with a student, my main objective is to get to know the student on a personal level. Hearing about their extracurricular activities, learning about their interests outside of school, and getting to know what they do in their free time gives me the opportunity to become a friend and mentor, rather than a formal figure, in the student’s eyes. In the long run, this opens the lines of communication and allows the student to be more candid about the challenges they are facing. After taking the time to get to know each other, I delve into the struggles the student is facing in their classes. After the session, I take the knowledge that I have gathered and develop a plan that will help the student excel. The first session is the perfect opportunity to get to know as much as possible about the student. Taking these few extra steps at the beginning will help immensely in the sessions to come.

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

I use the strategy tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them. This may sound confusing, but it’s actually a very effective learning tool. If a student is struggling with a word problem, I start by giving an overview of my strategy to solve the problem. I introduce basic concepts that they will need and review the basics if there are problems. Then, we work through the problem using the strategy I described before. After solving the problem, we review the techniques and thought process behind our problem-solving strategy. I believe that this process is an effective way to introduce a topic, then reiterate the subject to the student, along with guiding the student through a problem with the separate techniques needed.