What is your teaching philosophy?

Effective teaching is about relationships. There is the crucial relationship between the teacher and the students, which if built on a foundation of openness and mutual respect, can grow to a meaningful learning experience. There also exists a relationship between students and the material that they are learning, which I strive to keep relevant to the goals and interests of my students.

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

In a first tutoring session, I like to get to know students and their goals. I find it also helpful to evaluate the student's learning style and what their strengths and weaknesses are, so I can provide the best individualized plan for them going forward.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I encourage students to find something they are interested in and learn more about it, especially through reading. The more you read, the more you will learn about all other topics and academic subjects.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I maintain focus on how the material relates the student's goals. With constant attention to how a given lesson or topic area is helping the student reach where they want to be, the student is more invested.

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

It depends on the student's learning style and what the difficulty is. Most often, I would approach the skill from a different perspective until I find the method that clicks the best for the student.

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

If it is reading comprehension in general, I would encourage and assist the student in finding reading materials of interest to them. If the comprehension issue is with a particular style or time-period, I could employ some different methods to aid comprehension, including paraphrasing in one's one words or making use of graphic organizers and visual aids.

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

Getting to know the student, as well as their goals, challenges, and interests.

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

I find that putting things in context can make them much more interesting. The student and I could discuss how a piece of writing or mathematical equation had influence on future thinkers and our current world, for example.

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

When a student paraphrases and explains their own thought process, it not only lets me as a tutor know they understand the material, but it also acts as method of reinforcing the concepts so the student has a deeper grasp of the material.

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

The more a student grows with the material, they usually realize that they know or understand more than they thought they did. This can take time, but once that reinforcement happens regularly, confidence will naturally follow.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Through a combination of asking the student directly, and carefully observing their thought process.

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

One way to do this is to be flexible and responsive to the student's learning style. Another way is to streamline or expand content based on a student's interests and time constraints.

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

It depends somewhat on the student's interests and learning styles, but generally I find a mix of media helpful: videos, articles, practice problems, etc.