What is your teaching philosophy?

Each child is unique, requiring individualized and custom tailored approaches to get them where they want to be.

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

Review their goals for our time together, their strengths and weaknesses and create a strategy for our sessions based on that information.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Review study strategies, like note taking and test preparation as well as common test modalities, short answer, true/false and multiple choice. Organizational skills are also key, as is time management and how to organize notebooks/binders for each subject.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Strategize to their strengths, reiterate their accomplishments, and celebrate progress we make over time.

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

Try different approaches to learning. Some students are better visually, some learn better by writing things out, and some by listening to lectures or by reading independent literature on the subject that is fascinating on its own.

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

Discuss short stories and their themes, or perhaps the theme of their favorite fiction book and how you derive it from the text.

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

Identify their strengths and weaknesses as well as their goals for our time together, and use that information to plot the session and create a map going forward.

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

Demonstrate how it could be useful in real life, or how one could theoretically use it in a career/business situation.

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

Discussion, Q&A, practice tests, homework review & making sure the student knows how to take notes properly, as well as how to approach studying.

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

Practice, practice, practice. Start easy, and then build up to more challenging material.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

By listening to them, carefully.

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

Focus on achieving their goals while helping them develop strategies that play to their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

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

Homework, old tests, their text books & notes, internet videos and free practice tests...