What is your teaching philosophy?

Find out where the student lives and build up from there. Never neglect an opportunity to relate the material to practical application. Get a purpose in mind for learning the material that's real to the student.

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

Find out what the student wants to accomplish in tutoring. Set a goal for that first tutoring session and if nothing else, make that goal and have a win.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Challenge the student. Ask the student questions that instill a sense of responsibility for his/her own education.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Remind the student his/her reason for learning the subject. Keep the student winning.

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

Have the student talk about it to get a sense for where he/she is tripping up. Get it ironed out until it's so plainly obvious, he/she could teach the concept to someone else.

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

Work with them and find out what words or nomenclature they're having trouble with. Most of the time, they have no idea what is giving them the trouble, but you clear up the troublesome nomenclature and it makes reading a great deal easier.

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

Realizing that each student is individual and has their own hang-ups and difficulties. Never assume you know what's wrong until you actually sit down with them and work through it.

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

First, get them over their difficulties they're having with it. Usually that's an accomplishment big enough that they'll get excited enough to want to know more.

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

Ask questions about the material, particularly real-world type or application type questions. A swift, full answer would give me confidence the student is getting it.

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

Reinforce the wins. Students can get so hung up in their confusions and difficulties with the subject that they skip over their accomplishments. The wins are more important than the difficulties.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Just ask. See if it matches up with the expectations of the subject to hand as well as observation of how the student is doing with it.

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

You just adapt. It has to become second nature. The most important thing here is to really listen to the student so you can best help.

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

The required text for the subject. Sometimes the assigned book is not too good though, so you have to draw from other texts or from online sources.