What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that each student is an individual, with their own style of learning, and that students should have the opportunity to access concepts and information in various formats. I continuously reinforce this to my students, and encourage them to interact with the material in different ways to discover what style, or combination of styles, of teaching works best for them.

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

In order to be an effective tutor, I believe that it is imperative to get to know each other, especially for me to get to know if the student is more visual, hands-on, oral, or auditory. I feel it's also very important to get to know what the student's interests and strengths are so we can build upon those rather than focusing on negatives and weaknesses. My goal is to create a confident and success learner, and in order to that do I feel positive reinforcement and individualized lessons that incorporate their interests are highly effective.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

In my experience as both a tutor and teacher, I have watched many of my students transform into confident and independent learners, and I believe that my role in their transformations has been my ability to present information in a variety of ways, utilizing fun yet meaningful reinforcement activities, patiently focusing on building the necessary skills to achieve confidence and independence, and above all being super positive and encouraging.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I have had a lot of success in keeping students motivated by creating lessons that make information more accessible to students, because if something is too difficult, students easily become discouraged. I am not satisfied with myself until I have found a way to engage my students, and I will work tirelessly creating multiple ways to present information and concepts until each of my students understands what we are learning. Students get really excited when they are finally able to understand a concept, and I believe by working together and incorporating their interests and culture into lessons, students become naturally motivated. I also believe that positivity on my part goes a long way in keeping students motivated.

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

I would first ensure that the student does not become discouraged and quit. I would achieve this by explaining that we all learn differently and that there is no right or wrong way to learn, because it's a highly individualized process. I would ask the student to try their best to explain to me where their confusion begins, and I would also present them with a set of information questions, problems, readings, and whatever else is appropriate, and monitor their work in order to attempt to identify their snag myself. I would then consider the individual I am working with and brainstorm ways to transform the material into a format that we've found is effective.