What is your teaching philosophy?

Working backward toward what you fully understand is the first step in pushing understanding further.

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

We would discuss the student's current workload and rank the classes in terms of interest and difficulty. I would discuss future goals with the student in relation to future careers and short term academic goals, and discuss how these goals align.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Independent students are resourceful and understand that LEARNING DOES NOT ALWAYS OCCUR IN THE CLASSROOM. Reviewing corrected homework, supplementing from supporting sites online, etc. needs to occur to understand complex material. As the amount of exposure to material increases, familiarity and understanding increase.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

When you push yourself to succeed on one test or on one subject, you will eventually become a better and more confident student. This will improve your performance across subject areas. The worst feeling is when you don't succeed and you know you could have put in more effort and you decide to give up. Correct the mistake, keep pushing yourself, and you will become an expert.

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

I would patiently step backward toward information that a student fully understands, and then work to provide examples to the student. We would continue this process until the student feels comfortable.

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

Paraphrasing passages is helpful midway through reading. If language is difficult to decipher or sentence structure too meandering, I ask students to substitute what is written with their own explanation.

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

Instead of only focusing on what particular concepts are confusing the student, I focus on fundamentals in each subject and set up thought experiment questions for the student to explain to me.

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

I would try to relate it to a topic that is more interesting to them, as most topics covered in school are related in some way. I would explain that bettering skills in the process of understanding a difficult topic would help them overcome other difficult topics in their future.

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

Apart from reviewing specific problems, I would have students explain the concepts covered and the general approach used.

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

A student's confidence is built in a subject when they succeed in a measurable way. Perhaps that means on a test or even in specific homework problems. When the student can explain material as the teacher, their confidence on the subject will be high.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Students may not always alert a teacher when they do not understand something. To ensure they are following, I would ask students open ended questions related to topic material to hear their explanation. Where opportunity gaps exist, I would determine a student needs review of that concept.

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

I pay attention to the pace of the student, making sure they understand the material we are covering. If they seem hesitant during an explanation of the material, we may have to cover material more slowly and with more examples or with more drawings if the student is a visual learner.

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

I typically look for helpful online diagrams and a physics textbook for reference. I link to sites containing rich material related to a student's areas of need.