George Voelker

Fordham University

1–2 years

My teaching philosophy centers on a constant feedback between the teacher (myself) and the students. I need to know where exactly the students are so that I can tailor my teaching to them. This means having them do examples on their own and me looking them over as we go through the lesson to ensure that they are not lost or not understanding. I reject the idea of just dumping a whole lesson on students and having them try their best to understand afterwards; instead, one must take a step and see that the students have also taken that step before continuing.

I attended Fordham University, where I studied history and French, and graduated in May 2025. I previously lived and taught English in France during the 2025-26 school year. In addition to teaching, I am a published historian with a specialty in post-Civil War America.

When teaching English in France, I had a student, Luis, who was incredibly scared to speak for fear of getting something wrong or mispronouncing something or getting made fun of. The problem was both academic and personal. I identified it early in the year and devoted extra time to him over the course of the year. As we passed through each theme, animals, colors, numbers, he gradually became more and more confident with his English. By the end of the year, he had transformed from someone who never raised his hand to someone who was fairly confident and wanted to answer questions, giving the correct answer almost every time.

Williamsburg, East Village / Union Square, Upper West Side

Writing & Composition, English & Humanities, World Languages

AP French Program, AP U.S. History Program

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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - Flexible - any time

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