What is your teaching philosophy?

A good teacher always teaches with the student's perception as the focus. Students learn by doing and practice. Building a student's confidence is the key to increasing her/his motivation.

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

Ask the student what does she or he like to do - hobbies. What are the jobs you see yourself doing when you become an adult? What are your favorite subjects in school? What are your least favorite subjects in school?

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

通过练习少量的问题,然后increasing the difficulty and amount of problems as the student progresses. Start out with giving the student small tasks, and increase the number of tasks as she or he becomes more proficient.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Play learning games with her or him. Ask the student to create problems for the tutor.

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

Reteach the concept; give the student practice problems; have the student explain how s/he understands the concept.

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

Read a paragraph and decode it sentence by sentence. Have the student use a highlighter or underline words that are important to her or him. Once the student reads the paragraph, have the student summarize what s/he read.

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

Having the student learn how to pace themselves when attacking a problem, especially being aware of time as a constraint. Doing problems and completing problems of various difficulties.

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

Have the student explain to me, the tutor, how s/he understands the subject. I would use analogies and metaphors to explain concepts.

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

Having the student complete similar problems. Have the student explain the problem as s/he is doing it. Give the student homework problems, quizzes, and exams to reinforce conceptual understanding.

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

By giving the student simple problems that focus on single concepts, and then increasing the complexity of problems as s/he increases in mastery.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

By giving the student a formative assessment prior to the intervention/instruction. Then going back over the assessment with the student.

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

Implement an assessment and review the challenging problems with the student. Build an instructional program around topics that are challenging to the student.

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

Pencils, pads, calculators, rulers, and a laptop for YouTube instructional segments.