What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that different students respond to different styles of teaching. and therefore promote adaptability of teaching styles to suit the needs to the students rather than sticking to any one hard and fast method.

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

The first session is an important one, as it is when I am able to get a feel for the student's abilities and learning style. In this session I might bring some basic problems in order to get a feel for the student's weaknesses and strengths so that I can better plan the rest of the sessions to suit their needs specifically.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I think that a good teacher is capable of helping students learn past three sessions. In the beginning this might just mean assigning homework questions, but in the long term I think this really boils down to ensuring that they have the tools to solve things on their own. This means the knowledge, as well as basic problem solving skills.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I think praise is important for keeping students motivated as well as just maintaining a friendly relationship. If a student likes you and can understand your teaching, then they are more likely to pay attention and try hard during the session.

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

It's important as a tutor to be able to phrase things in different ways and to break things down as much as possible. You never know what is going to click for someone. If a student is having a lot of difficulty though, I find it helps to check in at each step in the process and have them repeat each one to ensure their understanding. That way it is easier to diagnose what the issue is.

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

A lot of times for students the difficulty behind reading is that it is often a new way for them to think about a piece of text. While oftentimes the meanings gleaned from writing can be subjective, the tools used to defend them are not. Teaching these argumentative aides helps a student build an essay or ace a test, and I think that rather than teaching someone what a certain novel or poem means it is more meaningful to teach them how they can defend their own interpretation of a text in a way that is both logical and can impress graders.

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

I think that it’s important to get to know a student right off the bat and understand their strengths and weaknesses. This means talking to them, but also testing them, because most kids either don't know or don't want to admit what they're bad at.

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

I think this is one of the hardest parts of being a tutor, as it can change depending on the student. Overall though, I find that just engaging with the student beyond the material helps, as you get to not only understand them better as a person and what they like and dislike, but they find it easier to talk with me and tell me what they want to learn or how they are most comfortable learning things.

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

Review, review review. It's always important to check in with a student, but it’s also important to give them practice questions to ensure that they are understanding the concepts. Beyond that, I find assigning a few questions as homework lets them do the problems at their own pace and solidify the concepts, and it lets them know if they need to ask more questions or go over things with me more.

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

I think once a student is able to see their ability in a subject increase, there is little I need to do to boost their confidence. However, praise helps along the way and lets them shrug off the little mistakes that might damper their future confidence.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I like to ask students what they feel they need to learn, as they would know best, but oftentimes students feel uncomfortable answering this question. When that happens, I provide a variety of questions for them to go through, ensuring that they have a basic understanding of the different topics.

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

I like to use the student's own materials, as it is best suited to them, but to supplement this I often use the online tutoring material as well as online material.

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

I find that the best way to find out what works for a student is to ask. However, sometimes even the students themselves don't know; when this is the case, I just try a variety of different things, diagrams, talking through things, practice questions, and see what they respond to best. From here I can change my style in response to their needs.