Liza L.

My philosophy in teaching is that learning in the IB should be more personalized and in-depth for the students to understand the significance of topics taught to them and be able to interpret the material. By exploring many aspects, I believe the student will feel more confident in unfamiliar scenarios presented during an exam or their IA's progression. In addition to the students benefiting from my vast knowledge, I hope to review trending themes and re-amplify a two-way interaction that is underrepresented at schools.

In a typical first session with a student, I would like to understand my student's substantial and developing areas, identifying their goals and ambitions. I will use this information to learn more about my students, organize my materials according to their needs if necessary, and assist with any urgent problems. Although I would not require any preparation from my student, assessing their knowledge and abilities would be extremely helpful in establishing the best ways to learn and draft an approximate plan for our future activities together!

To evolve independent learning, I will pinpoint my students to an efficient way of taking notes, analyzing and interpreting the material in large amounts, making their internal assessment preparation more robust and stable. Specifically, generating questions when reviewing the material for the first time assists in the identification of gaps in understanding; meanwhile, creating long and short-answer questions (in the essay or multiple choice formats) is beneficial for revision and ideas generation. Another critical aspect of my teaching style is that I provide tips, tested by my university experience, for my students that will help them in the future, such as organization, stress handling, etc.

I hope to understand what motivates my students better after establishing a connection with them during our first session and, generally speaking. However, I would primarily attempt to include fun facts and connect taught concepts to their real-world applications, demonstrating their importance and establishing an engaging learning environment. Looking back, I realize that the topics I found most exciting during my IB years were those I could talk about to my peers without feeling bored!

In the moments that feel like hitting a brick wall, I would begin by reducing my student's stress levels and gently restarting our learning. I would try and digest my message regarding a concept or a skill as much as possible, providing meaningful analogies and working up the difficulty levels individually. Additional help may arise from comparing and contrasting the concepts the student struggles with and understands perfectly. Lastly, having similar experiences in the past, I could be of great help in advising standard techniques used to improve relevant learning, like simple memorization, diagram drawing, or formal writing.

Struggling with reading comprehension is expected, so I would begin by allocating enough time when analyzing any assessed concept. I recommend re-reading the question three times before writing down even a word. Furthermore, breaking down the question and using color can further improve comprehension of more extended questions. The student's familiarity with the questions' format and action verbs would provide an instant list of ideas to address the question and not miss out on marks appropriately!

Focusing on their needs, goals, and teaching plans has been the most successful when working with new students. Being honest about the current understanding and possible improvement is highly significant in my tutoring style, so I reinforce my perspective as non-judgmental and accepting.

I believe that every subject that the IB offers has incredible findings and discoveries in their respective area, which could motivate any student. As a woman in STEM, I have frequently asked myself why I have not chosen a subject (in the IB or university) that is less academically challenging and as engaging to study. Still, I have always considered the amazing discoveries made in the biomedical area. If you are ever struggling to stay motivated for any subject in your IB selection, you will instantly hear me telling you about an inspiring work created by someone who was a student long ago, just like us!

Firstly, I would expect the student to work through the material and be able to explain it back to me. Secondly, I would happily create quizzes with various question types, combined with the material from past papers and challenging material, if applicable. Lastly, in the case of a written assessment, I will be providing leading comments, which would assist me in evaluating the student's understanding within the context.

By exploring and practicing the subject, the student will gain confidence naturally as we progress through stages of meaningful understanding and concept application. After all, once the student's fundamental knowledge is established, they will be confident in expanding their immersion in the topic, which instinctively benefits the subject and their faith in themselves!

The best way to evaluate students' needs is by carefully evaluating their working techniques and approach to questions and listening to their perspectives on the problem. By combining my evaluation as a tutor and the student's evaluation of themselves, based on their goal mark and the knowledge gaps they are aware of, I hope to provide a balanced outcome addressing the matter.

Depending on the student's teaching style that they believe works best for them (e.g., visual, auditory, logic, kinesthetic, or blended as for the majority), I hope to rapidly adjust my approach to the lessons by involving helpful and creative elements for each type. As two-way feedback is something I value when explaining the material, I hope for the student's cooperation and suggestions on what I could try and plan out for the future. I prefer to check in with the student occasionally while observing their body language to ensure we are on the same page.

Depending on the profile I have created for the student, I use personalized materials, which I would share and work through with them. I do not expect my students to read through a 100-page document, but I appreciate a certain extent of engagement with the resources I provide. For instance, these could include online teaching resources and extracts from university-level textbooks that the student will most likely not explore independently. Significantly, access to the past papers and question banks, as well as model answers, is the type of materials I would use to reinforce the understanding of the questions' structure and priority aspects.