
Samantha
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: The University of Texas at Austin - Bachelors, History and Italian
SAT Verbal: 700
SAT Writing: 720
Music, cheese, traveling, spicy food, and dogs
College English
Comparative Literature
Conversational Italian
High School English
Social Sciences
What is your teaching philosophy?
Respect, care, and passion drive students to believe that they can do well. I believe in challenging students and attempting to fully understand where they struggle, and work extensively with them to figure out their weak areas while amplifying their strengths. This renders a student more confident and capable in an area they may have originally perceived extremely difficult.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I would love to assess the student's learning style - audio, visual, tactile, and such - by taking a learning test. It is also invaluable to sit with the student and set high but realistic goals with them to figure out where their boundaries and their skill sets lie. Especially in the areas of test prep, outlining test anxiety or fear can often be one of the biggest obstacles to conquering it. The first session with a student tends to be more on the diagnostic end, because without that, we could end up moving in the wrong direction for too long and render the rest of the future sessions counterproductive.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Students need structure. Setting some more concrete schedules or timetables can develop into healthier habits later on. For example, having the student fill out sheet where they have to do thirty minutes of SAT prep per day on an area they particularly struggle in can do wonders for their scores. The improvement is motivation: even slow progress is still progress. With that, encouragement of those said healthy habits renders them more confident students. Confident students, in my opinion, are independent students as well.