What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that the best teaching and learning takes place when the teaching style both matches the student's preferred learning style and begins to challenge the student to excel in different learning environments as well.

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

I always begin my sessions learning more about my student's self-identified goals, strengths, weaknesses, skills and hobbies, and getting to know their personalities. This way I can begin to build rapport with my students while getting a feel for which teaching and learning styles and activities may work best for them.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I believe that helping a student to identify and maximize the skills they already have that help them learn independently is crucial. Then, utilizing their strengths as a student and learner, I help them to identify other strategies they could use to improve upon their skills as an independent learner.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Staying motivated can be very tough! I believe that finding ways to help the student relate the subject matter at hand to their interests and skills can really help increase and maintain motivation. I also believe that creating individualized lesson plans that are interesting and engaging for each student can help them stay motivated and engaged.