What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that as an educator it is my greatest responsibility to empower students to function as savvy creators and consumers of text. Whether composing an email, revising an essay or simply learning how to recognize discursive techniques and rhetorical choices, the study of a wide variety of written genres will allow students to succeed in a spectrum of careers and aid in navigating the modern world.

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

In order to establish our goals for the session, we will take a few moments to study the prompt or assignment at hand. This will allow us to create a structure for the subsequent sessions and co-create a series of goals that will shape the activity and content of our time together.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Challenging a student to be complicit in the learning process is an excellent way to increase cognitive thinking and maximize learning outcomes. To that, instead of simply "telling" a student what they should do, we will work together to determine the most effective approaches to any writing or analytical activity.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Validating a student's unique insights and life experience is an excellent way to instill the confidence that is a common characteristic of motivated learners.

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

Taking a bit of time to learn about the student’s personality (motivation and learning style) as well as their interests and skills outside of academics allows me to tailor lessons to their cognitive strengths.

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

Using multi-modal approaches to learning often helps to increase accessibility and enhance a sense of mastery in areas that frustrate students. For example, re-framing "economy of language" by discussing the skills necessary to compose a tweet often results in a "eureka" moment.

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

Asking students to paraphrase and summarize the content of a lesson in their own words at the end of a session helps ensure that they have grasped the key take-away from any lesson.