What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy involves carefully observing and understanding my students. As an individual with much experience in this world, I am a strong believer of differentiated learning. I understand that humans learn best when they are interested, and it is important to get to know your students and carefully plan based on their interests. One must always leave room for change depending on the interests, current mood, as well as the needs of the children. Therefore, I teach to each student's needs, interests, and benefits.

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

I will get to know the student, and allow the student to get to know me. I will ask questions, set goals, and allow the student to ask me basic questions as well as provide input on their goals and hopes for our time together. Depending on the student's age, I would like to meet with the parents to set these goals together. I would like to know the child's interests, strengths, weaknesses and hopes for the future, in order to cater my teaching toward that. I will also check in with the student periodically, matching our progress with our goals, updating our goals, and asking the student for any feedback on my work with them to better our time together.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I will use a scaffolding technique where I will teach the student, but also allow the student to use what they are learning on their own. I will provide guidance when necessary, but encourage and praise independent work, allowing the student to know that I am still here when help is needed.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I will provide a lot of praise and encouragement. I will make sure that the student understands that we all make mistakes, and this is how we learn. I will use real-world examples of individuals who made mistakes that later helped them to reach success. I will also prove to the student that even I make mistakes. This is how we learn. I will keep the student interested in what we are learning about and provide a great deal of praise and encouragement throughout our time together.

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

I would find out where exactly this difficulty lies, and then allow myself to take time to prepare and break down that specific aspect of it.

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

I would use different reading strategies depending on the student. I would show the child how to use context clues, dictionaries, sentence by sentence break-down, etc. I would have the student spend time reading literature that captures their interest, and not only the literature assigned to them. I would teach the child how to use other strategies such as inferencing, sequencing, self-questioning, text relations, etc.

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

Getting to know the student at first is always best. I find it best to get to know their interests, prior success and struggles, goals, etc. Having a basic assessment ready, or looking at the student's past progress and report cards/grades, helps a lot.

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

I would make the subject fun for the student, based on their interests. I would look for the part of the subject that causes them to struggle and teach it to them in a completely different, but engaging way.

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

I would have the student explain the material to me or to a friend/family member. I would have them assume I know nothing about it, and then teach it to me as if I was their student, having them break it down the same way in which we learned it.

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

I build a student's confidence by showing them the subject in a new way. Whenever they grasp a topic or task within the subject, I praise them and remind them of how well they are doing. Having them learn to enjoy the subject will really help them to learn it, therefore encouraging their confidence to exceed and soon excel.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I evaluate a student's needs based on assessments given to them, prior report cards/grades, conversations with parents, conversations with students, their learning abilities, their level of progress, and their pacing.

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

I adapt my tutoring to the student's needs based on the type of learner they are. Some need more time on a specific concept. Some need to learn differently. Some are visual learners, while some are auditory learners. Some are hands-on learners, while some learn through lecturing. I am always open to any and all strategies, even if I have to learn a new strategy for the first time. The key is to get to know each student, and then adapt my teaching strategies to them, leaving room for change as time progresses.

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

Depending on the student, I use textbooks, computers, pens, paper, pencils, manipulatives, whiteboards, music, etc.