What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is that everyone has the capabilities to learn at any level that they wish, and finding a way to disperse the information from teacher to subject is the real key to learning. Once you find a way to relate to your student, then there is no telling how much they will be able achieve.

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

A typical first session would consist of getting to know where the student struggles, what their goals for the subjects are, and showing that anything is possible once we find the way they learn.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Helping a student become an independent learner is key for success. I am not looking for repeat clients; I am looking to help those with hopes and dreams make their first steps towards success, and being able to independently learn is the key to that success.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Finding new and exciting ways to make information more accessible always helped me stay focused in school, and that is one of my favorite ways to teach.

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

I would continue encouraging the student that success is close at hand, and try more and more teaching methods until we find an effective method of learning.

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

I help students with reading comprehension by reinforcing that the best road to success begins with being able to understand the material. Vocabulary is the base of any learning, and if you can make learning vocabulary fun, then success is just around the corner.

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

Taking an approach to gauge the areas which the student struggles most with a subject, and then applying a personalized attack plan on how to make the subject interesting, has been most effective with previous clients. I have had many students come to terms with the fact that some areas of study take more time than others to learn on an individual basis. My job as a tutor is to make that learning enjoyable so that they don't feel beaten down by a subject, and to give them the confidence to make strides towards eventual success in that area.

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

I have found that random trivia knowledge about a subject area in which a student doesn't find interesting can make the student become more interested in the subject, and can cause them to want to learn more or work harder to understand how the knowledge came to be. Many people inherently lose this lust for learning when they feel beaten by a subject, and finding material closely related to a subject that sparks interest can give them the spark of encouragement to learn more about that subject.

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

Repetition and vocabulary knowledge are key when it comes to learning. If a student gets an idea or concept from the very start, repetition makes sure that they can recall that knowledge when the time is necessary. If a student doesn't understand the vocabulary used to describe a concept, then they can't necessarily understand the subject matter in whole. Focusing on these two areas is very necessary to the success of the student.

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

Confidence can be built in a subject in many ways, but my favorite of those ways is by seeing whether or not they can repeat a process with a given example. If they cannot do so, then it will be a huge confidence booster when they finally succeed, and if they can, it will raise their confidence just as well. Another way that is very effective is to gauge the student’s response to positive reinforcement. Depending on the student, there are a multitude of ways to reinforce the aspects that they have been doing correctly as well as encourage them to remember the correct methods behind the subject matter.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Evaluating a student’s needs comes down to where their confidence lies. If a student is confident with one area of the subject matter but not another, then one must find a way to portray that their confidence is a good thing, and that can be used as motivation for other subject matter.

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

Adapting to a particular student’s needs is a necessary aspect of tutoring. When recognizing the areas of learning in which a student is struggling, it is key to find out what makes a student want to learn more about the subject matter at hand, whether it be using visual aids, educational videos, or by using a new approach to teach familiar information.

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

I usually use trivia knowledge as a means to interest the student in a subject, and positive reinforcement to show that they can do whatever they put their mind to, even if it takes a little more time in some areas while taking less time in others.