What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that no student shall enter this classroom with hostility in mind and soul, and thus feel free to express themselves to overcome any obstacle, ask any question, and feed their intellectual curiosity. I believe that every person has a right to speak their mind on any subject, ask questions, doubt what can be doubted, and raise their minds to a higher level of thinking. They will open their minds and not be closed off from the world. I believe that every child is a unique heterogeneous being. Every student that walks into my classroom shall be guaranteed the opportunity to learn by their needs and requirements. They will not struggle and become repulsed from discovering something new. I believe that there is always opportunity for Problem Solving and Critical Thinking. A child should be taught to think outside the box, and approach every challenge without anxious difficulty. I believe that every child should not stagnate and should rather grow and develop in each classroom. The lesson should allow them to grow their minds and develop into the professional manner and adulthood for their future careers in the working world. I believe that students should be assessed in all conditions and in doing so, modifying our plans through differentiation to accommodate to all students. All students need to be evaluated to make sure they understand the material and are able to push further into the subject. I believe that passion for teaching will drive the classroom into inspiring towards a higher level of thinking, confidence to overcome challenging obstacles, and never striving for the easy solution but to the correct solution.

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

My first session will always be about getting to know the student; their goals, interests, hobbies, and what they want to achieve from our sessions. It is important to connect with the student as best as possible; sometimes they might have had experiences with most who seem as though interpersonal, uninterested, and even so hostile.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Our role as a tutor is not only to help them with their courses and subjects, but to allow them to eventually break off from us and achieve self-improvement on their own time. Think of us as physical therapists with professional sports players: We merely want our players to recover to feel confident to return to the playing field, but feel comfortable in coming back to us whenever there's trouble.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Always recognize and reinforce improvement in their work, whether it is a small or large improvement. Of course we as tutors need to be fair on positive reinforcement; as long as we perform our jobs correctly and professionally, then so shall the student improve with every session.

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

This goes back to knowing the student and his qualities, interests, and hobbies. Academics can say a lot, but it's their interest that really need to be looked at as well. The better we can connect the content to their interests, the easier we can tutor them, and the easier we can move on to further improvement.

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

For every student, I have four basic steps in solving a problem 1) Ask yourself, "What is the problem asking for?" 2) Recognize and write down the given information 3) Identify the appropriate strategy 4) Solve the problem accordingly and critically This works 95% of the time, and through a tutor we can cover the other 5%.