What is your teaching philosophy?

为什么我教?我花了大部分的公关ofessional life working with the homeless population. Most of my time was spent working with homeless youth. A common thread I have encountered revolves around education. This could be a lack of education, no desire for education, or feelings of not being cared about by their teachers. In my previous work, many of the youth I served came to us not even attending school. My hope for my clients was self-sufficiency and I know that education plays a very large role in that goal. Life is hard, and young people need to have the confidence to grow and put themselves out there to strive for their dreams. I want to make a difference before a student gets to this point. Education is fun and exciting, or at least it should be! I teach because I believe that education is the root of all other things. We are learners at heart. We are curious and we want to know more to be able to do more. I teach because I want students to find that learner within themselves and start holding themselves to higher expectations, because they can and will be successful. How will I teach? I believe in having high expectations and holding every student accountable to those. I will teach each student as individuals, because no one is exactly the same, nor do we learn the same. I will teach with my students' dreams and aspirations in mind, because, after all, that is what drives us. I create such a strong sense of community in my classroom that is life and course changing for my students. My hope is to do this even with my tutoring students. Teaching as community is important because we will be learning together and this requires us to be transparent and vulnerable. Building a strong community will help my students to build a strong sense of community outside of the classroom as well. This will take them to leadership opportunities and opportunities for change. I will teach beyond the content. I believe that students should be thought of and taught to as more than just a student. Their identity is important and I want them to take ownership of that and be proud of it. My vision is to have an active classroom and to have active tutoring sessions. I want students to fall in love with the content and truly take ownership of their learning. I will teach but then I will commit to giving my students the opportunity to practice the new skill. I will have my students get up and move around to interact with the content.

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

There is great importance in learning about each student. It is hard to do my job if I don't even know what I'm working with. I will use our time productively in the first session while learning a student's interest and finding their strengths. These are tools that we will use for their learning success.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I believe it is important to incorporate more than curriculum. A student needs to know exactly what they are working towards and why. Answering "why" questions are sometimes the most difficult, but the most crucial. I hope to keep students engaged in what they are doing by providing a fun learning environment, wherever that may be.

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

If we are struggling to fully grasp a concept, then I would change up my teaching. It is important to teach a student the same concept in multiple ways. I also believe in giving power to students. Letting them teach me is a great way to remind them that they have knowledge to give and gain.