What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe all students deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of age. We are all learning together.

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

I would want to get to know the student better; we'd talk about the student's goals and what they like or dislike about the subject. Finally, we'd work through some practice problems so I could get an idea of the student's level of mastery.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I want to help each student find what makes each subject fun. This will likely be different for everyone, but finding it makes learning much easier and more enjoyable.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Setting clear goals and rewarding ourselves when we reach them are important aspects to keeping motivation.

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

We each learn a little differently from everyone else. My job as a tutor is to present the skill or concept in as many different ways as possible until we find the best one for the student.

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

I ask fact-recall questions about the text before the student reads it. This way, they know what to look for. Afterwards, I'll ask the student to summarize what they read in their own words. We can do this in short chunks and work our way up to longer passages. We can use graphic organizers, like Venn Diagrams or story maps to break down more complicated readings.