What is your teaching philosophy?

Humor is often the best remedy to all frustrations and the best reward for all successes.

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

I would spend some time in the beginning to get to know them as a person and a student before collaborating on a plan of action.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Always pose questions and give space for thinking and answering. Turn questions back around on a student. Highlight (and celebrate!) the instances in which they are being self-aware in their learning.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Each student is different. Some need a little mental break, some need encouragement, some need to vent, and some need tough love.

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

Always start by pushing the student to be metacognitive--what exactly is stopping them from moving forward? What piece of the puzzle do they find most frustrating or incomprehensible, and can they reason how to get themselves out of it? This happens with my guidance, support, and pedagogical knowledge, but it has to be student-led.

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

Reading comprehension is not a simple category of skills. Difficulty can come at the word, sentence, or paragraph level. Each level requires a different strategy and pacing, but all require patience and encouragement. We should all remember that reading is natural to no one--it is a skill we all learn, and can be stretched and strengthened with an experienced, guiding hand.

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

Always establish strong rapport. Having a real connection with someone changing the entire interaction, and the enjoyment of time together in the shared pursuit of knowledge-building will increase the success of that venture.

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

Sometimes what allows for student frustration or lack of interest is ignorance of applicability. Why learn something if it doesn't matter? The first step to igniting love for learning is highlighting the empowerment that comes with knowledge. If I have to convince a student of the tasks they'll be able to complete or the person they'll become in mastering a skill or an area of knowledge, then it is my privilege to do so.

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

Teaching requires mastery. Thus, if a student is able to explain something back to me in a confident and coherent manner, they are demonstrating mastery.

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

I cannot build a student's confidence. No one can do that but them. However, I can assist them in achieving success, and that moment of triumph is one to celebrate and recognize as an achievement. That, in turn, allows for the sense of self-worth and pride we associate with confidence.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Figuring out what a student needs is a collaboration between the adults in their life, a careful study of their work to date, as well as the input from the student about what they feel adept and confidence in and what areas still elude them.

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

Adaptability suggests pedagogical as well as emotional flexibility; I would heartily argue the second is much more important than the first. We are not ready to be learners if we are not in an emotional state to take chances and display vulnerability. Amending my approach towards a student is as much about figuring out their needs as a person as it is maneuvering through different techniques of instruction.