What is your teaching philosophy?

Teaching and learning are one and the same. To that end, I seek to teach students in order to teach myself, not only about content, but also about communication and interaction between people. In this way, I enjoy tutoring the best through conversation, because each party involved possesses a different worldview that can help to enhance that of the other.

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

A typical first session might include a nice chat about ourselves and our academic interests, and an easygoing assessment of the student's level in the target material.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Through mini-tasks, students can find that whole assignments are simply compilations of smaller, more manageable pieces. By assigning mini-tasks in our work, the students and I can find places at which mini-tasks are appropriate, which the students can employ independently in their future work.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Positivity in regards to the student's strengths can help foster motivation! When you start feeling down about your work, remembering what you do well certainly helps to get you back on track.

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

If a student has difficulty with a particular concept, then we can explore the various resources at our disposal--those on the internet--to find one that works for the student. There are so many different ways to learn one thing, and many can be found right there on the world wide web!

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

Just beginning to work with a student, I have found that it is best to sample some of the student's work, like reading through a page of an essay or seeing how a student approaches a set of math problems.

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

I would explain to the student a few of the amazingly cool uses of a particular subject in different contexts that may be relevant to the student's interest. There are so many great things one can do with a subject that it is possible to find a way to connect a student to that subject.

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

I would emphasize the student's strengths in the subject and explain how to play on those strengths. In that way, the student can be confident in some aspects while we work towards confidence in those aspects with which the student may still be struggling.

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

In getting to know the student over time, I grow to know how the student likes to work and how I can interact with the student in order to play to the student's strengths in studying and to strengthen any weaknesses. Usually, both parties find a way to work well together over time.