What is your teaching philosophy?

Practice, practice, and practice some more!

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

Find out their strengths and weaknesses within the subject and with their overall study methods.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Talk through the steps of solving an unknown problem, including where to look for the answer, so they can begin to learn how to do it on their own.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Remind them why we are studying and what good grades can mean for their future.

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

I would try and approach it from a different way than what we have been doing.

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

Tell them my trick of reading everything out loud to include auditory and oral understanding of what they are reading.

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

Working out problems with them, and asking them each individual step as we go.

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

Congratulate them a lot when they make progress so that they recognize it.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Work through problems and see where they are lacking and where they aren't.

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

If my style of teaching isn't working for them, I look for new ways to approach what we are doing.

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

After practicing questions with them to help them learn the subject, I give them practice questions to work on alone to see if they are able to solve the problems on their own. If they do well, we move on. If they don't, we practice more together.

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

Always paper and pencil. Other materials depend on the subject being taught.

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

Start with really simple questions that they can figure out, and then help them get excited when they begin to grasp the topics so they continue to want to succeed.