What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that every student has the potential to excel at every subject. Often when a student is not succeeding, it is because the right method to teach the subject to that learner has not yet been uncovered. As a teacher, I excel in finding the methods that work for each individual student. I have worked with all ranges of learners, from students with special needs, to average ability students, to those who are gifted and talented. I have never met a student that I could not teach! I have a very student centered approach, not a teacher centered approach. This means that I am flexible and adapt to my student's needs willingly. I am persistent in finding the right method to work with all of my students. Having taught for 17 years, I usually can find the correct method quickly through some simple assessments. I believe that the student should be supported and scaffolded until they gain the confidence and skills they need to succeed without the additional support. As a tutor, it is my job to work myself out of a job! My ultimate goal for each student is success and independence. I believe it is detrimental to students to interact with them in such a way as to create independence on the tutor. It is my belief that I need to give them the skills they need to learn independently, not just to fill their heads with information. I teach my students how to assess their own learning, how to study correctly, how to monitor their own learning as they complete assignments, and how to accurately judge their own assignments. I teach test taking skills as well as studying skills, and subject matter. I employ the state standards for the student's grade level in the subject being tutored in order to ensure that the information they are learning is relevant and required for their grade level. If a student is working below their grade level, or above, I adjust how the material is delivered in order for it to be grasped. I do not water down the work or lower its level, I teach at grade level and use my teaching skills to ensure that the material is able to be learned by the student. If a student is above grade level, I will enrich the information being taught and teach more in depth. This allows for a broader scope of understanding of the material. I believe experience as a teacher is paramount to being a successful tutor and I am proud of my 17 years of teaching experience that allows me to teach all students effectively.

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

My first session with a student involves verifying the student's goals, expectations, and needs that will be addressed by the tutoring. I will assess the students and see what they already know, what they need to learn, and how they learn best. By the second session I will have developed a tutoring plan and I will introduce it to the students. I believe planning and regularly assessing student learning is the only path to success. I will develop goals and milestones with the students, and we will mark them as we continue through our tutoring sessions. As each goal is met, new goals will be developed and mastered.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Students often lack confidence and this hinders their ability to become an independent learner. If they do not trust themselves to know what they need to learn, or if they are actually learning correctly, they will not want to take on the task of independent learning. As I tutor, I also teach my students the skills they need to become an independent learner. I teach them how to know what subject material they need to learn, how to break that material into parts, how to find the correct answers and be sure they are correct, how to assess and monitor their own learning and how to ask for help when needed. I teach my students to attempt their assignments first and see what they are able to do on their own. Often, learners are shocked by how much they do know about a particular subject. I believe becoming an independent learner is paramount and as a tutor, it is my job to work myself out of a job!

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I help my students stay motivated by making the tutoring sessions interesting and fun. I use humor, games, interesting facts, novel approaches, and different types of mediums to liven up the tutoring sessions. I help the students develop goals and milestones and keep track of their progress. The success that my students begin to have outside of the tutoring sessions as well as their new found confidence is more than enough to keep the students motivated!

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

If a student is having difficulty learning a skill or concept, I first assess the student to help me determine where the difficulty lays. Often students have difficulty when they do not have prerequisite learning, they do not understand what it is they are supposed to learn, or if they need extra support in a topic or skill. I will also assess a student to see which ways they learn most effectively. I will then work with the student until I find the way to teach them the skill or topic that resonates with them. I have a knack for quickly finding the perfect approach, as well as being extremely creative when it comes to teaching things in new ways. I will work with a student and change my approach until the student learns the information that they need to know. There is no such thing as a failure to learn, only a failure to find the correct way to teach.

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

As we learn to read, we often do not learn to focus on and digest what we are reading. This leads to some students having excellent decoding skills, but lacking comprehension. This hinders them greatly in their schoolwork, on their tests, and in life. I explicitly teach students self-monitoring skills to utilize as they read. I teach my students to question themselves as they are reading in order to determine that they are understanding the information. I teach them how to interact with a text rather than just decode it and how to break down each text into understandable chunks.