Choa Chu Kang, West, North West, Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang, Bukit Timah, Clementi/West Coast, Jurong East, Jurong West, Lim Chu Kang, Sembawang, Woodlands, Yishun, Admiralty, Khatib, Kranji, Marsiling, Yew Tee, Buona Vista, Commonwealth, Dover
Qualification
Graduate
Tuition Background
Full-Time
Tuition/Teaching Experience
15 years experience teaching Music and 5 years teaching English. Most students look forward to having lesson with me, and most, if not all, have grown to become witty, inquisitive, young adults.
I am able to start right away and will commit to an assignment for as long as necessary. Open to weekend group sessions, opposite Yew Tee MRT.
Rapport Building
My teaching approach is one that is both fun and easy to understand. I believe 'the less a person has to memorise, the less he has to forget'. Helping students to link together multiple perspectives gives them a less complicated take on an otherwise rudimentary process. As a result, students are usually pleasantly surprised when I show them just how much more comfortable with the subject they have become over the duration of our learning journey together.
I encourage a healthy dose of wit and sarcasm amongst students, and often prompt them to hunt for their own answers. Rather than providing solutions straight-up, suggestions are usually angled to fuel the students' need to know, as well as their drive to go one-up on the teacher. In doing so, it is easier for students to take ownership of their tasks and, at the same time, feel a greater sense of achievement even if they do not attain the desired outcome. In this case, the process is more important than the result.
Open and consistent communication with students' parents is an absolute necessity, as it offers parents the rare opportunity to hear about their children outside of the home environment. Apart from providing updates on students' progress, I like to raise awareness to the character tendencies my students display and make suggestions on how to maximise their potential based on these behavioural patterns.
Keeping Up with Curriculum
Primarily, I keep close contact with school teachers and other NAFA lecturers to discuss local trends and changes to curricula. I also attend talks and seminars conducted by groups like NIE and NAC to keep myself updated.
In my free time, I frequent educational forums and articles pertaining to values and techniques. This helps me prepare to gain a better understanding of my potential target audience.
I also have an interest in sociopolitics and psychology, and constantly find myself bantering with friends in these respective fields.
As a Good Tutor
1) Part of the family. No matter how good a teacher is, it is not possible to gain the respect or trust of students, especially older ones, without first proverbially shedding the mercenarial skin. Only after students feel comfortable enough to lower their guard, will they be able to reveal their vulnerabilities and disregard their fears of being judged.
2) Easy to relate to. Hiring a knowledgeable stranger to tutor a child is just about the least useful way to spend your hard-earned money. A good tutor should be able to explain and guide in the language that the student speaks.
3) Inspirational. The first half of this equation involves igniting and nurturing the curiosity within students, getting them to form questions of their own. The second half, is about being able to accept the fact that failure is a crucial component for success and is not a defining factor to a person's character. This is a mindset that both teacher and student must understand and practice.
