What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is that every student can learn when a caring teacher or tutor remediates deficiencies and develops confidence and rapport with the student.

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

I would want to establish a rapport with a student, understand what he/she is having difficulty with, and try to come up with a plan so the student can successfully learn and have confidence with the mathematical material.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

After a few sessions, I would suggest some external resources. Once a foundation of knowledge is laid, that students could go to online resources in order to support their own knowledge and understanding.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Students gain motivation when they start to see that they can perform. When understanding starts occurring, confidence is built, and more knowledge is generally desired by way of wanting new challenges.

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

I would try to assess what foundational skills the student does know, remediate deficiencies in the foundational skill, and then try to re-teach the concept with the foundational knowledge being built upon.

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

I think leading questions (lots of formative assessment) and vocabulary review could do a great job in building reading comprehension.

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

Establishing rapport and letting students know that you are going to be there for them with their struggles are the best way to begin with a student. A content expert's knowledge is going to come through to the student through the content review part of tutoring, so it is more important to develop trust when starting to work with the student and/or the student's parents.

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

I would try to find out what subject or topics (in school or out of school) interests or motivates the student and try to use as many real-world examples pertaining to the student's interests to engage with mathematics.

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

Formative assessment is the best way to gauge a student's understanding, so lots of questions should be asked by the tutor in the sessions to ensure that a student is understanding the material.

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

At each step/milestone that a student has success, a tutor should acknowledge that success. That builds confidence, self-worth, and self-efficacy in the student, and they generally like to be given more difficult material after some foundation is laid in mathematics.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

After you establish trust with a student, they will be more likely to share what they have difficulty with, and will seek a content expert's help in those areas. If the student is shy, a tutor might have to use diagnostic assessment tools to evaluate student deficiencies and needs.

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

By listening to the student and/or his parents, by using results of diagnostic tests, and by adjusting your own approach when necessary, based upon the foundational knowledge that the student comes in with.

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

I use a lot of paper and a document camera. At times, when appropriate, I will also use manipulatives. I like the student to understand algebra, for instance, graphically, algebraically, kinesthetically, and theoretically where appropriate.