What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is one that is flexible and customized to the student. I believe that every student is different and learns at his/her own pace, therefore it's important that lesson plans and teaching styles change to accommodate for that. Also, I believe that patience, review, and integrated learning are most important for getting the student to truly absorb and assimilate the information.

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

In a typical first session with a student, I would normally introduce myself and get to know the student and their academic goals, wishes, and any target areas of weakness that they already know. The first step is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the student and help them achieve their end goal, so making a study plan and route map with them is essential to their success. Also, identifying any target issues from the start will ensure that more time and review is spend focusing on those areas than other areas. From the first session, I will be able to gather a lot of information about the student - how they learn and their learning style, and from this I will adjust my own teaching style to accommodate them.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I can help a student become an independent learner by teaching them healthy learning habits that will help information assimilate into their long-term memory rather than short-term. Some ways that can be achieved is through slow but often repetition through studying a little bit each day and utilizing that information in everyday life. Thus, students form life-long, healthy studying habits that they can apply to any future material education-wise.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I would help a student stay motivated by encouraging them to not be discouraged when they don't succeed and to learn from their previous mistakes and try again, but also to praise and applaud them where they do well and succeed. I believe that this kind of conditioning and reinforcement helps them to not give up when they are discouraged and be more self-aware about their strengths and weaknesses so they can evaluate themselves on a realistic scale.

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

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, I would go over problem examples and exercises with them and review that material many times, also assigning a couple of problems a night for them to learn slowly, making sure to really give a lot of time to each question. I would work through some example problems with them first and then have them attempt to do it on their own, and if they are still finding it difficult to do, then change up my teaching style or integrate some different teaching mediums into the lesson plan.