Desiree

What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that every student can learn, it's just a question of how. You have to find a way to connect with your students that takes the pieces of the puzzle and makes them into a full picture.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

You have to put in place a system the student adheres to. I always try to find something my students like, and build from that, whether it be a certain topic, a way of taking notes, listening to stories as they read, etc. You have to start at the bottom and build their way up.

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

We would review it a couple times. Every situation would be a case by case situation, but you have to figure out where your student is struggling. From there, you break down the thing they struggle with, help them work through it, and either provide extra materials or different ways for them to grasp the concept they struggle with.

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

Reading comprehension is a big problem to try and solve. Some students struggle with putting words together. Some students struggle with reading aloud, and some struggle with reading silently. Others can read out loud in and in their mind just fine, but they just don't understand what they read. You teach each of those students new strategies. They must learn to reread, to pause, and to self question what they've just gone over. These students must be taught to self evaluate, so they know when they need to start over, to ask for help, or to put a little more time into a passage.

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

Humor. Kids respond much better to someone that they see as funny then to someone they see as too stern. The first few times you work with a student, you need to establish the boundaries of a teacher/student relationship, and you need to show them your personality. I am a goofy funny person, and kids respond to that really well.

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

I would make it matter to them. The good thing about the English/Language Arts subject is that words are everywhere. You can make passages about video games, music is poetry, and if kids connect to math, you can create mathematical words problems. There is a never ending wealth of opportunities to help kids succeed at English, and the best way to do that as a tutor is to use my creativity. I want to know what my students are interested in, and I want to make those interests relate to English.

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

There will have to be formative assessments along the way. I need to check on my students' comprehension and their progress. It's great to teach lessons and work with them, but I will create small quizzes, exit slips, and verbal questioning to check on their progress on a session-to-session basis.

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

Start small. Rome wasn't built in a day, and confidence doesn't fall from the sky. I will start with questions and different parts of assignments that my students can grasp easily, and move on to challenging them from there. Kids get discouraged if you're not careful with them, so tutoring and teaching are all about finding that balance between encouraging and challenging a student.

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

Every day is a surprise. I learned while student teaching 150 students a day that teaching is all about being able to change your plan on the fly. There were days when I had a lesson that was well thought out, well prepped for, and it just did not work. Those days I would have to re-adapt my entire plan in the five minutes I had between classes. Tutoring my students will work like that. Tutoring isn't about me. Tutoring is about improving my student. The longer we work together, the better I will be about knowing what my student needs. As situations arise, I will change my style and my lessons to better help each of my students with whatever they may be struggling with.