What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that genuine connection and awareness of the student as a whole person are at the core of excellent teaching. As such, I listen actively to my students and join with them to meet their goals at their pace. Furthermore, I do not simply assist students with their work, but instead empower them to ultimately manage it on their own. We work together to develop the skills, strategies, and confidence needed to become effective readers and writers. Finally, I believe that good study habits, organization, and communication are the foundation of academic success; I am practiced at helping students improve in these areas.

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

I generally get to know the student and discuss what their goals for tutoring are. We then make a plan for accomplishing these goals.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I do not provide students with answers, but rather with skills and strategies. We start out using these together, and gradually work towards the student applying them independently.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

We start out our tutoring relationship with goals and a plan in mind, and reference these if we get stuck. Furthermore, I work with students to pinpoint aspects of the material that interest them.

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

I would try a different approach to teaching the student that skill or concept.

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

First, I assess the root cause of the problem. Depending on what the cause is, we might resolve it by drilling vocabulary words, taking notes when reading, approaching a text with specific questions in mind, or any number of other techniques.

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

To me, it is important to get to know a student when I first start to work with her. I ask many questions to find out who the student is as a person, what she excels at, what she struggles with, what she finds frustrating, etc. Gathering this knowledge provides the foundation for the work we will do together.

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

I work to find elements of the subject that the student is interested in. For example, I might have a student write an essay about a sport she loves to practice writing skills. I always spend time discussing the student's favorite aspect of any reading material, even if this is not the aspect we ultimately need to focus on.

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

The only way to gauge this is through a lot of questions! I ask students to summarize reading material, to explain work that we just did together, to rephrase text in their own words, etc.

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

I give students assignments that are at just their level, and break assignments from their teachers into manageable chunks. I don't overwhelm them with tasks that are much too hard, but I challenge them nonetheless. That way, they can get experience in overcoming small challenges. Before they know it, they've made drastic improvements. I also make sure to give them plenty of verbal reassurance, encouragement, and praise.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

At the beginning of our work together, I talk extensively with my students, their parents, and (when I can) their teachers. I also give them small assignments to assess their reading and writing levels. I ask numerous questions to pinpoint where the difficulty lies. I then continually assess their progress as we work together.

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

I generally stick with assignments given by teachers as much as possible. However, sometimes I bring books or writing assignments I have picked out especially for a student. For standardized tests, I work from test prep books.

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

I will focus on the area the student needs to focus on. For example, recently I was asked to tutor a sixth grade student in writing. After one session, it became apparent that her difficulty lay in a lack of organization. Thereafter, our sessions focused on organizing and maintaining her study space, making plans to manage her time, and organizing her writing. I did not work with her on other writing skills, because she did not need help with them.