What is your teaching philosophy?

Students come first. There will never be a time where my planning trumps the needs of my students' learning needs. My assignments, class work, or additional material will be an aid for me to challenge the student and make sure that they are growing academically.

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

First typical session with a student will be a getting to know each other. It is important for me to find out what ways the student learns best, what material or style of assignments they do best with, and familiarize myself with the material that the student is working on. There will also be an opportunity for the student to learn more about me.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Workshopping with most assignments is the most appropriate way to boost a student's independence. By workshopping assignments, I am giving the students the ability to assess their own work when describing what they did to me.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Creating new and different ways to approach problems that students are having will present students with an opportunity to find an approach that works best for them.

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

I would find a way to re-teach the student the skill or concept. I say re-teach because I am looking for a way to have the students work with the skill/concept in a different light. I would also find ways that remove the student's work from the skill/concept and find materials that model the skill/concept.

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

Having students break out from struggling with reading comprehension is one of the areas I find myself excelling. I generally take the time to focus on key terms, and then, when the student is showing mastery with the terms, expand to more terms.

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

A strategy that I found to be most successful is giving the student a task that is fun and often unrelated to the material. This gives the student a window of opportunity to adapt to the new setting and get back in the zone of learning. This will eventually become a routine.

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

By learning the personal interests of the student, I will be able to bring in material that is more engaging and interesting for the student that is generated to discuss the subject that they are still struggling with.

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

Work-shopping and assessments that give me data and evidence that the student has shown he/she has grown academically since the start.

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

Positive feedback and positive reinforcement. A lot of what I will do will be asking students to share their work with me. This gives me an opportunity to give positive feedback throughout the lesson, rather than once at the end.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

When assessing and evaluating the student's need, I will have the students talk through the process and problems that they are having. This will allow me to see what the problem is, and figure out a way to get the student to where he/she needs to be.

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

This is solely based off of becoming comfortable in understanding the student's learning style; not all students learn the same way, so it is all dependent on the individual's preference.

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

I will use any materials that the student is providing me, as well as material constructed by myself throughout out my college career in the education department.