What is your teaching philosophy?

First and foremost, learning should be informative and enjoyable! Trying to find something funny, interesting, or relatable in every subject helps us as learners to better internalize what we're trying to learn. It's always great to practice having a good attitude. Secondly, I believe that there are many ways of becoming self-aware of our learning, or understanding where we are in the learning process. One of the best ways is by asking questions. Another is identifying learning goals early on in the learning process. It's important to understand where you are in the learning process in order to set reachable goals. That way, even if something is challenging, you still have the opportunity to have some fun with the material.

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

Typically, first sessions involve us getting to know each other better, both in terms of our background with the material and what our eventual goals are. With that in mind, we can discuss what we find challenging or easy with the material. Knowing this helps me to plan our subsequent sessions.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Becoming an independent learner isn't always easy, although becoming self-aware of our learning allows us to grow many steps closer to this goal. Additionally, staying organized helps us concentrate on the important stuff and place our energy where it needs to be.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Every student is different! For me, that's my favorite part of tutoring. That said, there's no one sure-fire way of helping a student stay motivated. Sometimes playing a game helps a student relate to the subject better. Sometimes, if we get frustrated with something, the best thing to do at that point is to put it down and come back to it later.

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

Reading can be hard and overwhelming, especially if you don't know where to start. I've found that many strategies work towards understanding how a passage is organized. Once you can break down the passage into parts, it's a lot easier to tackle each individual paragraph.

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

A lot of times, we're not confident in a subject, even though we've spent a lot of time on it. Oftentimes, we know more than we think we do and we just need that extra push.