What is your teaching philosophy?

As stated in my personal statement, getting supplemental instruction is the first step to ensuring academic success, and the teaching style should be personalized to the needs of every student.

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

I would assess the strengths and weaknesses of the student first by asking the student personally what they feel they are struggling with, and then having them answer some basic questions involving relevant skills in order to gain a better understanding about specific strengths and weaknesses in the subject.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

After finding the general learning style of the student, giving tips and techniques to try on their own that fit with the personal style, such as assigning practice questions, reading goals, or helping to create fun memory-joggers like pneumonic devices.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

For younger students, offering rewards at fixed or variable intervals of achievement or even effort is a great motivator. For older or more inquisitive students, finding real world applications to the subject matter being learned or allowing them to explore the subject in their own interest would inspire motivation.

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

Determine which specific part about the skill or concept is troubling to the student, and then working with the specific learning style of the student in order to help gain a better understanding, such as engaging in fun activities, or generally deviating from the learning method that isn't working for the student.

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

Pausing to ask questions about the subject material, not in an academic or specific sense, but on the opinion of the reader, causing the reader to place themselves in the material they are reading by psychologically investing in the subject matter.

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

First and foremost, making sure the student has confidence in his or her self is important to ensure they are willing to take risks. If one doesn't take risks in practice, the ability to understand where to make changes becomes way easier for both the student and the instructor. Secondly, I plan on bringing fun activities to provide insight on material in a new way than the original way in which it is taught, allowing the student to get a fresh take on the material and understand from a newer and sometimes more clear viewpoint.

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

Empowerment- starting small in the subject then getting to more complicated concepts at a rate more acceptable to the student, allowing him or her to learn at their own pace and really feel that they have control over the material, rather than that the material has control over them.

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

Games, practice problems, real-world applications, fun activities, and active discussion.

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

Pen and paper of course, as well as digital media and fun models or games.

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

Empowering the student to learn at their own pace and answer questions on their own. Engaging in discussion about the material rather than simply asking questions about understanding can foster a sense of initiative to really get to know the material as well as the significance of the material in the real world.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

General assessment, both in worked practice problems by the student and guided tutorial.

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

Keeping the techniques that seem to be working, and then evaluating the techniques that do not seem to be effective. One evaluated, these techniques should be altered or replaced with more effective ones that coincide with the learning style of the individual student.