What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe in working with students to create a positive and caring environment where the student feels valued as a complete person. My primary focus is in building confidence, reducing anxiety, and encouraging outside-the-box thinking. By stating and upholding clear behavioral and learning expectations, I learn as much from my students as they do from me.

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

I will get a few details about the student's concerns regarding material ahead of time so that I can prepare and make sure that we get the most out of our session. I like to find out about where they feel like they need to focus more of their energy, and I pay attention to their strengths and weaknesses over the course of our session so that I can help them build confidence where it is due and point out where their energy can be better applied. I will offer suggestions regarding strategy and help them analyze how well these strategies work for them and how they can adjust to maximize output from their effort.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I show students how to use research resources so they have a reliable repository of information at their disposal. I work on the language of the subject with them so they better understand what questions or problems sets are looking for. I also focus on strategy, goal-setting, and confidence-building to help the student analyze where they are, where they want to be, and how to get there.