ENGLISH LITERATURE SUPPORT WITH AN OXFORD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE Tutoring since 2014 Online/in-person

Find out more about Hannah

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  Although I have only been working professionally as a private tutor since 2014, tutoring and supporting the learning of others is something which has been with me throughout my academic life. Whilst at school, I was involved in tutoring and mentoring schemes, which often entailed my leading tutoring for younger students, especially in the sciences, literacy and English, helping other learners alongside my own learning. The skills of teaching and academically supporting others have always sat side-by-side and nestled within my own education process. Thus the move to this career was very smooth and made so much sense to me. This non-hierarchical character prevails in my teaching today, as I centre collaboration rather than an authoritarian teacher-student dynamic. Over the years, that collaborative learning style has developed and deepened as I have strengthened my own pedagogical practise and continue to learn, teach and grow along with my students.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  English, language and words remain my first love and inform not only my teaching career, but the other jobs I do beyond it. Language and culture are so densely intertwined and our understanding of so many aspects of the world come from the power of the written and spoken word. Thus, when teaching English, and English-adjacent subjects, I try to always use literature and language as a lens to help students see further and deeper, to go beyond the text and into society in a multitude of ways, to illuminate not only how the world works but how humans and their emotions work too. Studying English is not only about exams, it about everything else too.
  
  Science, and particularly physics, is another primary love of mine. That way of seeing sits at the heart of the way I view the world and the universe. This awareness of the machinery of things and how everything fits together thrills me. It charges me with a passion that I work hard to share with my students to help them gain an expansive view of their subject and how those can stretch beyond themselves to inform our day-to-day lives. For me, there is a poetry in the sciences too, and that outlook is what I work to convey in the way that I teach.
  
  My other career is as an actor, and inescapably this plays into not only how I teach, but what I teach. My classes are not merely vibrant and engaging, but often move around questions of theatricality and staging where appropriate, and often draw on questions of a work's emotional impact. I encourage students to see texts as both aural and textual objects. The skills I have in performance and connection as an actor translate smoothly and powerfully into a teaching setting and mean I place communication and genuine dialogue with the student at the centre of my tutoring practise. These theatre skills of course come most powerfully into play when I am teaching acting itself.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I think teachers have a wonderful privileged and power to enlighten and inspire their students. I remember an exceptional history teacher of mine, who somehow managed to show us the biting relevance of the Tudors to modern-day-politics, and inspire a group of young people with the humanity beyond the dates. I remember too an exceptional English teacher well-nigh acting out the entirety of "Macbeth" in single class, as she reviewed the play's synopsis before an exam. The moment when Burnham Wood came to Dunsinane will forever be seared on to my memory.
  
  Great teaching is about knowledgeability, assuredness and a willingness to listen and adapt too. There are many prominent physicists who work to popularise science and who continue to inspire me daily. The passionate energy of Neil De Grass Tyson is a continual marvel to me, and the poetry of Carl Sagan's writing is some of the most beautiful and profound we have in English. I also will never forget my physics teacher at school who opened and closed each A level class with a magic card trick. Teaching is about putting on a show, to engage and inspire and then beginning the conversation to help the student towards their personal growth and self-expansion with a dialogue that draws them to their destination of their own volition.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Tutoring, as distinct from teaching, is a much more personal an intimate relationship. A one-to-one environment allows for the development of a genuine dialogue and interpersonal development, as well as a much more detailed understanding of each student's needs, desires, aspirations, and individual ways of thinking and learning. Great tutoring requires great listening, empathy, and a responsiveness to what each student seeks and offers. It requires not only that "know your stuff" but the ability to turn-on-a-sixpence, to respond to the exact needs of each student in each session, whatever that may be. It is about encouraging enrichment and growth alongside institutionalised studies, to fill gaps, and complement and extend their learning to lead them to attaining their goals.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  I have always prioritised breadth in my learning, and have worked to dissolve what I see as an arbitrary distinction between the humanities and the sciences that sits at the heart of our education system and policy. This is something I pursued all the way through my school career and beyond: studying English, History, Drama and Physics at A level. I pushed to try and continue to do the same in my University studies, but was often met with confusion and sardonic humour. I remember vividly at an open day for Bristol University, being told with vigour about the flexibility of the course which would allow me to do additional modules in other subjects alongside my English studies, and that those could be in, "Anything, anything you want."
  
  "Anything?" I replied eagerly, seeing the possibility of the learning I wanted opening up.
  
  "Yes anything! Expect of course something wildly different like 'Astrophysics'," they guffawed. The issue was, that was exactly the module I did want to take, and knew I could, if given the chance.
  
  Ultimately I found my way to a true renaissance vision of learning in my final dissertation at the University of Oxford, where I explored the influence of Chaos Theory on the contemporaneous ideas of chaos in the literature and image culture of the 1970s, and the ways in which this directly influenced and was reflected in the narrative structures of postmodern literatures of the same period. My science brain and literary brain, my science knowledge and my English skills, were allowed to blend and combine and complement one-another. I obstinately found the way to read, think and view the world in the way I wanted to, uniting two not-so-disparate fields. I continue to do so in my teaching and self-study today. At some point, I promise myself, I will do my Physics degree too.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  I am dyslexic and was luckily identified as such at a very early age. This was one of the most empowering things to have happened to me in my life and meant that I was able to excel and thrive in an academic environment, given the right help and support, in a way I know that so many other students are unable to do. My SEN was never given the power to hold me back, and I was given all the tools I needed to fly in its face and become the best learner I could. So much so that I went on to study English at the University of Oxford. The eleven-year-old who had never finish a novel, went on become an 18 year-old who would read English at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, where they boast that their undergraduate students read in excess of 100 books a year. That same girl, thereafter went on to live a life that centred language and reading at the heart of everything she did.
  
  That outlook informs the way I work and teach now. I believe that with the right help and support students can overcome the barriers that face them and reach their full potential in whatever way that may be. I am a passionate believer in empowering students with a full knowledge of their educational needs to help them overcome any obstacles which might present themselves, and inform them about the ways that their specific learning style is also a strength. "Dyslexic Thinking" is now a skill one can list on Linkedin. And rightfully so. Neurodivergent minds are the source of some of society's greatest innovations and as tutors and teachers, especially in a one-to-one environment, we have the power to equip them to be so. I love to work with SEN students to help them see their own unique strengths and path, empowering them with the learning practices and coping mechanisms they need to succeed and thrive within academic frameworks. I believe that, with the right help, every student can go on to a bright future, where they can use their unique minds to do great things.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  I have many, here are some of the more prominent:
  
  One passion is for the spoke and written word. And the way that humans communicate with one another about themselves and the way they see the world. This is what sits at the heart everything I do and the way I teach. In my spare time, this means I read a lot of poetry. I also attend a lot of theatre, which is again a medium which harness the power of language in space. A whole wall in my flat is dedicated to a library of poetry and plays (I dread ever having to move house). My own work in theatre and performances is similarly about the power of words in a space to incite emotion and bring about change, and transport people to other places and times with the power of storytelling. I also write, and have recently finished a collection of short stories for young people.
  
  The parts of science which I love and engage with is often conveyed through language and images to paint for us a more beautiful vision of the world. On that, art, images and painting too, inspire and me, and those can also be found creeping into my teaching and hobbies too. On my days off, I can often be found at the Tate Britain, or another gallery in some other European city.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P) ?

  I love learning and knowledge and believe that it is a life-source which can animate and inspire our lives, filling it with vibrancy and colour. I bring that joy and passion into every class. I believe whole-heartedly in the need to create a personal and human connection with all my students, to meet them where they are and help them in the specific ways they each require; to respond to their unique brains and ways of working and to help them grow and thrive in their studies. I am a vibrant and engaging teacher, and I centre empathy, hard work, and a real passion for learning at the heart of everything I do.