What is your teaching philosophy?

To inspire curiosity and intellectual self-motivation that will last a lifetime.

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

Find out about their background, interests, strengths, and areas of difficulty.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

By showing students methods and resources so that they can eventually learn to teach themselves.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

With games, mnemonics, rewards, and an atmosphere that is fun but structured and focused on end goals.

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

Re-focus on fundamentals, and build from there.

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

By finding materials that the student legitimately enjoys reading. From there we can make connections to other readings that are required.

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

Keeping things light and friendly, but also making sure concerns and frustrations are addressed with open communication and mutual trust.

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

By focusing on the thrill that improving in or mastering non-strength areas can elicit.

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

I check in constantly. I make sure that the student is not just telling me what they think I want to hear, but an assessment of the area we've covered using their own words.

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

By breaking it down to its fundamentals and also putting my overall teaching philosophy into practice (through personalized attention): No one has the same knowledge, and everyone learns differently.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

By getting to know them as well as possible, both through conversation and also through assessing their grades and work portfolio.

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

By making sure that I understand exactly what the student excels in and struggles with as well as what they are passionate about in life in general.

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

Lots of scratch paper, pens, and pencils, along with the materials the student has brought from school.