What is your teaching philosophy?

~ All students can learn when they are accepted for who they are and where they are in their educational journey. ~ Effective learning requires teamwork between teacher, students and their parents grounded in mutual respect and trust. ~I believe that learning takes place in a positive, safe environment filled with laughter. ~

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

I want to make students feel comfortable and learn about what motivates them. My primary goal is learning about the student and how I can best help them achieve their goals.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

The goal is to teach students to find confidence and trust in their own unique ability to overcome challenges and become resilient, motivated learners. A teacher or tutor is there to ask the right questions and provide the support to help a student to take ownership of their own learning to the next level.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

One of the greatest challenges of a teacher/tutor is learning how to motivate a student. It is also the most important one. By providing positive reinforcement, praise and showing them how the concepts they are learning are connected to real life, students discover a different perspective about the learning process and can relate more closely to the subject matter.

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

If a student is having difficulty learning a skill or concept it is important to gauge their understanding or lack of understanding and then try a different approach to the lesson. All students are capable of learning. It is the teacher's responsibility to find the best method for differentiating instruction to meet the student’s needs.

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

Helping students become good readers is the most important thing because they will need to read in order to do well in almost every subject in school. The best way to help a student who is struggling with reading comprehension is to: - use strategies that address the specific problem, such as- finding the meaning of difficult words, thinking aloud about what we read and using graphic organizers to gather information in order to break down the story into smaller parts. - generating questions that require students to gather pertinent information from the text. - Helping student to recognize story structure -teaching students to summarize what they've read. In explicit reading instruction, teachers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use and how to apply them (often by modeling the behavior). Research shows that explicit teaching techniques are particularly effective for comprehension strategy instruction.

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

The strategies that are most successful when working with a student are: - inspiring an interest in the subject matter -showing genuine concern and care for students to gain their trust in the learning process -proper assessment of students skills and challenges -giving positive ongoing feedback -setting clear goals and challenges and -continually learning about the student while in the learning process and finding the best ways to help them learn.

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

The best way to get students excited about a subject they are struggling in is to find something that they are truly interested in and connect it to the lesson. Once students are engaged and interested- it is a lot easier to teach them the subject matter that was once difficult.

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

Ongoing assessment throughout the learning process is of the utmost importance. Here are some of the things I do to assess students level of understanding of what was taught: -asking questions that require a detailed answer -giving a short quiz -asking student to summarize -ask students to reflect on the lesson and journal what exactly they've learned.

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

The best way to build confidence in a student is to give ongoing positive feedback and praise every bit of progress.

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

Adapting tutoring to a student's needs is based on assessing their abilities and challenges and discovering their particular learning style in order to subscribe the best teaching methods.

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

I typically ask that students use their school textbooks or homework assignments when they come to tutoring sessions. As well, I would provide supplemental material when needed.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I evaluate a student’s needs by discussing with parents the things they are noticing their child is struggling with. I then, assess the student’s former knowledge or skill ability in the subject and offer other assessment tools to gather more specific details to pinpoint the exact nature of the challenge. Hence, I am then able to begin implementing a plan to help the student overcome the challenge.