What is your teaching philosophy?

Academic success is not determined by innate ability, but rather by effort and hard work.

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

I would get to know the student and administer through a baseline assessment to gauge a student's proficiency and identify strong and weak points.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I require students to do the academic "heavy lifting" with teacher guidance, rather than just giving the student answers to memorize.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Constant encouragement, and reminders that effort, not ability, determines success.

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

Identify and correct any misconceptions, and provide multiple different ways to approach problems dealing with this skill or concept.

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

Teach strategies to break up long sentences and paragraphs, and encourage students to focus on reading new words in context to understand them.

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

Encouragement: finding what the student is good at and focusing on that to empower students and build trust, so they will stick with me through material that they find more challenging.

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

Make connections between the difficult material and the ideas or materials that the student enjoys and has found success with.

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

Formative assessments along the way, as well as summative assessments to ensure student understanding. The more frequent the check-ins, the better.

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

Scaffolding their understanding by providing many supports at the beginning of study, and slowly removing those supports to make the student more independent and confident.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Frequent, low-stake assessments and check-ins.

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

Through communication and observation, and flexibility keeping in line with my belief that all students can learn in the way that is most effective for them.

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

Readings, practice problems, and tips and tricks sheets to prepare students with study skills and good test-taking habits.