What is your teaching philosophy?

I have always enjoyed learning, so I try to project that into my teaching. Learning is and should be fun and interactive!

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

Being a teacher/tutor, it is crucial to understand what objectives you have to meet. So the first and foremost goal in a first time session would be to lay out a plan for what material exactly needs to be covered and how the particular student learns best.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

By making learning fun and interactive, it is my goal for students to be eager to learn the material. Once that goal is met, the battle is half won, and you don't need to worry about the how’s and what's of it all.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Providing relevant and interesting examples and inserting little jokes and comics into the material allows the mind to stay active and not monotonously wander through the material.

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

Hard as it may be, breaking down a subject into the summation of its many parts is sometimes the only way to get the main point across. By decomposing the material and making it less dense, often students may work their way towards the main point.

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

Being a wordmonger myself, I enjoy pointing out the roots of words as I go along. This simple task serves two purposes; first it makes the immediate material easier to work through, and second it provides a base of knowledge for future reference so that if similar words are encountered in the future they may be compared and conquered. Comparison is key. If they sound the same/they have similar parts, chances are they mean something similar.

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

As silly as it sounds, comic strips are often a fun way to introduce a subject, and I try to work them into every lesson plan. I once used a Mean Girls comic strip to introduce a microbiology lecture on Gram staining!

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

Asking questions is the key. Having the student rephrase what I have told them and/or work through practice problems provides them the opportunity to think through what they have just learned rather than sit idly by while the information flies past them.

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

Subjects can almost always be related to something the student is already familiar with. Finding that metaphor that the student can latch on to makes the subject more relevant and relatable, allowing the student to remember it better and immediately building confidence.

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

When I first start with a student, I think before anything else it is important to form some kind of connection. I find that by finding some common ground between the student and me, it is easier to move forward in teaching so that if the material becomes frustrating we can briefly talk about something else to ease the mind.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I love to ask probing questions. I think this approach not only tells me what the student is understanding, but also what approaches to use in the future.

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

I am very adaptable. I use whatever is available and necessary to get my point across.