What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe that each student can learn if the teacher is willing to meet them where they are, and approach the material based on their prior knowledge.

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

After getting to know the student, I usually like to do some sort of informal assessment to get an idea of where he or she is in regarding knowledge of the material.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I like to equip students with specific study skills and test-taking techniques that they can use on their own.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I like to give short-term goals to my students by breaking the material up into smaller, more digestible pieces that the student can tackle one at time. This prevents them from getting overwhelmed and helps them stay on track.

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

I would first try to assess which part of the concept was giving them trouble, and then find a specific way to address it. This varies vastly depending on the student and the concept.

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

I like to teach students who need help with reading comprehension to seek out important bits of information in a text. They then need to put those pieces of information together to create meaning out of the text as a whole.

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

I find it's important to: 1. assess prior knowledge 2. assess the student's learning style and teach in a manner that caters to that 3. create a plan of how we will tackle the material together 4. get to know the student's personality, likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc., so that I can make learning relevant to the things that are important to the student

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

I like to relate the material to something the student is interested in. For example, if we are working on a research paper or reading a novel of our choosing, I would encourage the student to choose a topic that interests him or her.

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

I like to have the students teach the material to me once I feel they have learned it. This process really helps me identify where they might still need a little bit more work.

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

I give lots of positive reinforcement, and try to build students' confidence by giving them small bits of the material to digest. Then, once they master a small section, they feel they have accomplished something and we can slowly build to up tackling larger works.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

Evaluation and assessment can encompass everything, from information I glean just from talking to a student to looking at their test scores and grades on previous school work.

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

I always try to assess a student's learning style and cater my tutoring style to how he or she learns.

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

I might use everything from a computer with Internet to access online resources such as the Oxford English Dictionary or to books from the library. Depending on the student's needs, we may also use reference texts such as the MLA handbook. It varies from student to student.