I believe that teaching is more than simply depositing knowledge into the memory banks of eager students. Instead, I see teaching as the thoughtful facilitation of the learning process. As a high school teacher, I strive to create an environment in which learning can happen through questions, problem solving, and inquiry rather than through rote memorization.

In a typical first session with a student, I strive to build trust and rapport through a sharing of stories. I also try to acquire a sense of the student's abilities and interests, as this information will help me to personalize my interactions with the student.

Through the provision of learning scaffolds (graphic organizers, guiding questions, modeling, etc.), I create a dynamic in which students utilize supports early on, and then develop their abilities in such a way that allows them to remove the supports at a pace appropriate for them.

When it comes to improving reading comprehension, I believe in teaching explicit reading strategies as well as providing the student with different methods of retaining information. These methods may include taking annotations, completing graphic organizers, and practicing re-telling what was read to someone who is not familiar with the text.

Building trust is essential to any teaching and learning relationship. The student needs to know that I can be trusted and vice versa. This will create a productive relationship characterized by mutual trust and shared investment in learning.

I find that relevance is important for building buy-in and excitement for a particular subject. In my lessons, I always strive to make the content relevant to the student's lived experience.

In teaching, I employ both formative and summative assessments to get a sense of how students are doing with a particular concept. Formative assessments are more informal and can be as simple as a conversation with the student or a "warm-up" question before diving into the session's material. Summative assessments are more formal ways of diagnosing a student's progress and will often resemble traditional tests, projects, or writing assignments that one might find in a more structured learning environment.

To build a student's confidence in a subject, I design ways for the student to activate prior learning that may be relevant as well as to demonstrate progress, no matter how small. As a facilitator of learning, I am also conscious of employing praise and constructive criticism in targeted and meaningful ways.

I evaluate student's needs through the use of different diagnostic tools. These include informal conversations with students, practice problems, and pre- and post- assessments.

Teaching is all about adaptation. As a high school teacher, I am trained to "differentiate," or adapt, my instruction given a certain student's skills, needs, and interests. This means that I may teach the same concept in different ways. For example, I may modify assignments based on a student's ability level or past experience with a given subject.

I like to work primarily with the materials with which the student is already working. These materials will often include class notes, textbooks, and assignments. In addition, I will sometimes incorporate materials that I have used in my classroom or have used for my own independent learning.