What is your teaching philosophy?

Anyone can learn with the proper motivation.

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

I would want to know the student's personal and academic goals.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Students become independent learners when they take part in meaningful learning. Helping a student take their own educational experience into their own hands puts them on the track to independent learning.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

By understanding each student's personal wants and goals, I can remind them why their long term and short term goals are important to them.

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

If a student is having difficulty, there must be a misconception at some part of the learning process. I like to break up the task into procedural steps to better understand where the confusion lies.

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

If a student is struggling in reading, I first ask myself if they are having difficulty with reading fluency, reading comprehension, or both. If the issue is with reading fluency, I instruct comprehension strategies at the student's independent reading level while also working on reading fluency. If there is no problem with reading fluency, then several comprehension strategies can be taught for the student to internalize and use independently. One that I have found useful includes a certain list of questioning a student asks themselves before, during, and after reading.

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

I use real time assessment strategies to be sure a student is understanding material. As a teacher, I look a given objective and break it down into sub objectives. I do not move on from a certain sub objective without giving an informal assessment to ensure the basics of a concept are mastered.

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

I like to ask the student what their goals of working with me are so we can make the most of our time together.

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

I like to remind students what they will have gained once that skill is obtained.

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

I build a student's confidence by working with their best skill set.