What is your teaching philosophy?

To coach the student through success and encouragement to become skilled in pursuing knowledge on their own.

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

After greeting and introducing ourselves, I ask basic questions about interests, hobbies, and what they read. Then, I ask what they hope to gain by studying with a tutor. My goal is to discern their learning style and how to begin with the known (their background) and move to the unknown (the subject at hand).

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

1. Help them grasp their own learning style, 2. Present a multiple learning gate approach (reading out loud, tracing diagram with a finger, mimicry, and humor -- all to make a deeper impression on the mind's "learning center."

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Successes every session. Praise. For them to see real progress and confidence. Promote learning as the gateway to achievement and reward.

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

Try another learning approach. Have them tell me what they do know by asking discerning questions.

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

Coach them to use a pacer, to scan, to gist, to read the topic sentence and the concluding sentence first, to teach them to trust their mind to process the page, to address, and to overcome the difficulties of the past.

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

To respect them. To begin small. To take something they like and are motivated to do, and show how our subject can help them and be fun in that very area.

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

Success and praise. See the large vista of learning and its joys of pursuit. Enlarge the view beyond the current difficulty.

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

Constant feedback. Active listening. Ask leading questions. Study the student. Listen to what they say. Give them my undivided attention.

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

Begin small and praise their successes. Never scold. Never pull out the tapestry of learning just woven.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

When we begin, sound them out in a way that is subtle. Ask "diagnostic" questions about learning techniques like "how do you review?"

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

The experience is about THEM and not ME. I adapt to what they need and give them what they do not have. I am in a continuous feedback loop based on their responses/performance.

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

Applications (examples) that are visual in nature and evoke memory ("There was Caesar, stabbed through twenty times by his friends, and bleeding bright red onto the white marble floor . . ."), diagrams, sketches. I am a "blackboard" man. Songs. Ditties. Mnemonic devices. Whatever it takes. Whatever is fun and leaves a positive impression/reinforcement with the student.