Tutor Spotlight: Aster E.
Meet Aster.
A recent Physics graduate from Reed College, Aster boasts over 3,000 hours of professional tutoring experience, specializing in SAT/ACT test prep as well as AP Calculus and IB Physics. They bring a deep understanding of test formats and advanced subject material to yield an individualized approach to tutoring sessions. Aster’s teaching philosophy emphasizes clarity, compassion, and mutual collaboration to help students succeed in school and beyond.
What's one thing you love about tutoring?
My favorite aspect of tutoring has always been the one-on-one connections you make with your students. Getting to know a student personally and learning their interests, discovering how they learn, and gaining insight into the things that make them unique transforms the learning process into something collaborative and organic, which you can’t get reading from textbooks alone. Not to mention that when a student feels that they are being truly seen and consulted, they become so much more engaged, which is always rewarding as an instructor.
How do you keep students engaged During tutoring sessions?
In my opinion, the key to keeping a student engaged is to actively incorporate them into the act of learning as much as possible. Consult their opinion; encourage their questions; challenge them to apply their knowledge in creative ways. You can even have them teach material back to you if they are feeling confident—anything to encourage students to feel comfortable and keep sessions fundamentally conversational. After all, the benefit of a tutor is to have an instructor receptive to you and your specific needs: a benefit you can’t enjoy if your own contribution is not encouraged.
What's one study tip every student should know?
Although schools often emphasize effective time management, one aspect of time management often overlooked is the importance of regularly scheduled, high quality breaks. If you push yourself hard without allowing adequate time for your mind and body to rest from the exertion, it’s only inevitable before the onset of fatigue renders your ability to concentrate and study efficiently much more difficult. To help against this, I’ve always been an advocate of the Pomodoro Technique—named after the tomato-shaped timer used by the man who popularized it. In essence, the Pomodoro Technique consists of using a timer to enforce a strict schedule of repeated working periods interrupted by breaks. For example, a common schedule consists of timing 50 minutes of work, followed by a 10 minute break. Like interval training at the gym, I have found that holding yourself to a strict schedule over time not only improves the quality and intentionality of breaks when they come, but also strengthens your ability to concentrate while you work, serving me through many a late night study session.
What was your favorite class in high school and why?
Although you might not guess it by my decision to study Physics in college, when I was in high school, my favorite class was far and away AP Art History. The format of the class was essentially that of a standard world history course, but viewed entirely through the lens of cultural artifacts and artwork; it was the first time I had ever been taught a concrete framework for understanding and analyzing visual arts. As we moved through time and different parts of the world, I found it so illuminating to see how a culture’s values could be physically embodied in a material object, and how these embodiments are reflected through their respective historical contexts. This I found especially useful in appreciating works from the late 20th and 21st centuries which I had previously pegged as inscrutable. In the end, It felt as if the class had given me access to an entire new world of knowledge I had never been able to examine and a new glimpse into the diversity of human experience: a rare opportunity made even more enjoyable by an amazing teacher.
Can you share an example of a student you were proud of for reaching their goals?
A few years ago during the height of the pandemic, I had a calculus student named Aditiya who, like many, was struggling to keep up with new material and not finding much support in the classroom. When we first began working together, the difficulties he was encountering had crushed his confidence, and he expressed fear that would not be able to pass the course. But as we continued our work together, I discovered that he had no reservations about asking questions, and in spite of perceived failure he never quit persisting for improvement. By the end, passing Calculus was not even a concern, and he had a comfort with the material he couldn’t envision when he started. Ultimately though, I feel his greatest advancement came not from putting in so much work, although he definitely did, but from a deeper change in his perception of his own abilities. A belief that some part of you is “not enough” to overcome a challenge is a feeling many students brush up against, and being able to demonstrate to yourself that you can is very difficult, requiring vulnerability and the courage to experience failure. Aditiya took these uncomfortable steps, and came out of them with a grounded confidence. I think that’s something of which he should be proud.
What do you admire about your students?
As I touched on in an earlier question, I feel that school, or preparing for the SAT for that matter, requires you to engage with a lot of difficult material. It’s certainly easy to feel out of your depth, and as a result, I’ve always admired my students’ continued tenacity and resilience within adversity. Stories like my student Aditiya’s are not unique, and I think the fact that students continue to engage with their challenges meaningfully, academic or otherwise, is a testament to their growth.
