What is your teaching philosophy?

A good teacher should first be able to foster a desire for knowledge, then facilitate the acquisition of that knowledge, and lastly, equip a student with the necessary skills to build upon the student's foundation so that the student can meet his or her goals.

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

In the first session, my goal is to understand the student's needs and goals. To best do this, I want to get to know the student's learning style as well as the student's likes, dislikes, and general learning preferences. After getting to know each other, we can make a study plan and set short-term goals in order to meet the student's long-term goals.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

An independent learner is aware of the resources at his or her disposal. A tutor can help a student build a resource toolkit and assist with organization and planning. An independent learner is often goal-oriented, so it is important that students learn to set manageable short-term (finish Friday's paper by Wednesday) and long-term goals (earn a 4 or 5 on the AP Lit exam). Resource access and goal-setting skills are important to becoming an independent learner.