What is your teaching philosophy?

I approach every tutoring opportunity with enthusiasm and energy, making sure that every need is met for the client and that every question or concern with the subject area and content is realized.

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

To begin a session, I would first ask the student what sections of the subject area are providing the most difficulty, trying to find the key issue to focus in on and discovering what needs to be reaffirmed for tutoring.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I try to implement both test-taking skills and critical thinking abilities towards my students, so that they are able to take these tools and use them for the future in times where a tutor cannot be there to help.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Motivation is a key factor of any tutoring session or classroom. What I would do to help is try to find a student's strengths in the content area, focusing on those to help build in lacking areas. I also am a big proponent of finding a student's "spark," meaning what they are passionate about, and incorporating that into our tutoring session.

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

Repetition is key to a better understanding of a concept or meaning, and I’d have students go over the information in different ways until they are able to master it. Using various learning styles and having differentiation for students with different ways of learning is vital to effectively reach every student.

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

When a student looks at a long page of text, they can oftentimes get overwhelmed by all they need to read. Breaking down the paragraphs using "chunking" to do step-by-step analysis of each sentence and difficult verbiage helps to allow students to work at their own pace and increase proficiency with reading.

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

I have found students react the best to learning when they are able to discover the information and come to their own conclusions. I provide them with the necessary information and tools to reach the next level, and allow them to accomplish it through their own skills and strengths. This allows for a sense of independence and completion upon mastery of the concept.

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

As previously mentioned, finding a student's "spark" or interests and hobbies is very helpful in creating excitement for the student. By relating back the concepts and issues to something the student can understand in everyday life allows the student to become more engaged.