
Neil
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: Roosevelt University - Bachelors, Theatre
Guitar, Piano, Songwriting, Mandolin, Harmonica, Juggling!
College English
Comparative Literature
Conversational Spanish
High School English
Spanish 1
What is your teaching philosophy?
Teachers provide students with the tools to continue to teach themselves. Rather than attempting to force a pupil to regurgitate information, the best teachers facilitate a safe and respectful learning environment in which students can arrive at their own discoveries, instantly rendering the learning process more powerful and memorable from the pupil's perspective.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Establish trust with the pupil through a demonstration of my expertise, and then invent a game using the required curriculum.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Teach him/her how to teach him/herself by encouraging self-reliance and cultivating discipline.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Show the student a visual representation of their progress, and contextualize where they are in their own educational process by asking what their future goals may be.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Create a visual aid in a different format from whichever one was previously being worked on by the student.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
I will slow them down, and use an isolation technique to visually block out all other lines on the page so the student can focus on one line of content at a time. Using auditory material might also help students who learn best with their ears.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
The most useful tactics in my opinion are those involving the student's self-discovery of concepts.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
I would frame the subject in a context the student can get excited about: a memory game, perhaps.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Through repetition, I can show any student that even the most difficult of concepts can be grasped quite easily over time.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
By encouraging self-discovery over regurgitation, a pupil can go from insecure to knowledgeable and proficient.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
I can easily evaluate a student's needs by listening carefully to the successes and shortcomings of the academic past.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
I can easily adapt by a simple trial and error process. If what I'm teaching is not being efficiently learned, I will change the pace of study and the methods therein appropriately.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
I like to use dictionaries and thesauruses primarily, and depending upon the age of the pupil, some sort of visual/auditory component.