What is your teaching philosophy?

Every year for the past 11 years, my students have asked me, "What do you love the most about teaching?" Each year, I pause for a brief moment, wondering if my answer has changed, and each time I am somewhat amused to find that it has not. "What I love the most about teaching," I tell them, "is the 'yet'." As their curious eyebrows rise, I go on to explain that I have always enjoyed the journeys that my students and I have embarked upon while chasing after, and eventually laying hold of, the many things that we could not do 'yet.' In fact, it has always been the power of the 'yet' that has kept me searching for ways to help my students understand concepts when my previous lessons have failed; and it is the thrill of the 'yet' that has motivated me to keep my students in the Zone of Proximal Development, where they are constantly wrestling against the fleeting self-satisfaction of present understanding in favor of the more satisfying discomfort of pursuing the still unknown. Indeed, it is the excitement of the 'yet' that I have always and will always endeavor to share with my students. For I have found that those students who have come to appreciate the 'yet' are those students that undoubtedly learn more freely, more passionately and more fully.

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

In a typical first session with a student, I would begin with a quick icebreaker. This will allow my student to get to know me and me to get to know my student as well. Afterward, I would work with my student to develop SMART goals - long-term and short-term - for our tutoring partnership so that we will be able to proactively create sessions that will lead us in the direction of completing those goals, thus enabling my student to feel a greater sense of confidence, clarity, and ultimate satisfaction.