_Holistic Tutoring
I believe everyone has the ability to learn anything they want. Talent and skill are not things we are born with; these are simply traits of a practice we understand deeply, in our own way.
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Through the many art classes, workshops, and demonstrations I have led, the single most common, and striking point made by learners and lovers-of-art is this:
“I could never be able to do that.”
Most often, I hear this come out of the mouths of students in drawing classes. Pencil in hand, point to paper, body in the room, and eyes on the subject they want to be able to draw. Watching my demonstration, I hear it again, “I could never be able to draw like you.”
On the one hand, they’re not wrong, because the way I draw is the way I learned to draw. What they are wrong about is the underlying meaning of what they are saying— the belief that ability and talent is something with which we are born.
This simply is not true; ability and talent, in every subject, is something we all have the capability to achieve. The key is finding the path best suitable to our individual learning styles.
And I can help with that.
Holistic tutoring is an approach of supportive and supplemental education. It focuses and promotes the individualized, whole learner, and their natural styles of understanding for the benefit of their academic and social-emotional development.
Learners who experience holistic tutoring, in a one-on-one format, will receive personalized academic curriculum support, while gaining and strengthening their creative-problem solving skills to enhance a growth mindset.
With my background in arts education and experience developing integrated lessons in a variety of subjects, I can help your student find a path to understanding and developing practical skills with:
Literacy and Writing
particularly useful for students needing support in the humanities
Long-term Retention
supporting students who need help with memorization
Critical Thinking
especially supportive for understanding the sciences, such as earth science, biology, or chemistry
Visualization
an excellent support for students who need a visual or tactile approach to mathematics and quantitative processes
Kinetic Thinking
a wonderful benefit for learners in need of experiential or tactile approaches
Organization
supportive in all academic areas; helpful to those who need assistance with beginning, continuing, and completing tasks, maintaining a schedule, and staying due date oriented
Professional Development
supporting older students and adults who are preparing for applications and presentations
How my tutoring service works:
I am excited and available to work with learners and students of all ages and backgrounds, throughout Maine’s Midcoast Region. If you are interested in a holistic approach for your tutoring needs, please reach out and send me an email, at hannahelizabethbevens@gmail.com.
In your message, please provide a brief explanation of your subject(s) or project in need of support, or the specific challenges you or your student are interested in working through.
My pay rate is:
$80.00 per hour, for durational tutoring
For durational tutoring support, providing the opportunity to scaffold multiple short-term and long-term goals in a variety of subjects, I charge $80 per hour.
This includes a free, 45 minute initial session to determine if the student and I are a match for working together and meeting their specific academic and/or social-emotional needs and goals.
This offering is most suitable for students who are interested in building their skills through various stages of development.
During these sessions, we will:
Identify achievable goals and organize them according to a realistic plan and schedule, keeping in mind due dates and other calendar related items.
Create “homework” that exercises skills and ideas developed in tutoring sessions. This might look like a reflective journal entry, pictures of the learner demonstrating the skill, or other physical examples.
Review homework and progress, making adjustments to goals and pacing as needed, with the opportunity to add new goals as they arise.
$140.00 for two, one-hour sessions
With this offering, I include the opportunity to establish specific needs and goals through email and ahead of meeting in person.
This offering is most suitable for students who have a specific, temporary project, or assignment that needs to be completed by a certain date.
My background and educational philosophy…
“a practice defined by a growth mindset and non-violent communication, promoting empathy, self-awareness, and a focus on needs.”
Education and learning is very much a part of my identity and how I approach all of my relationships and endeavors. As a child, my mother often brought me along to her job as a high-school, and then later, middle school English teacher. Through those years and into my young-adulthood, the traditional classroom felt like my second home. My everyday life has always reflected this appreciation; I have a weekly routine and schedule, I create goals and deadlines for my project-oriented tasks, and I often give myself homework. Within this lifestyle I have found a sense of trust and predictability, a reliable work-ethic, and a solid platform to engage as a connected community member.
Though, looking back at my education from pre-K to graduating high school, my most notable piece of constructive criticism for the public education system is one I garnered from my experience as a student who needed more methods for divergent curriculum and learning. Fortunately, I had a recognizable passion for the creative arts. It was in the art classroom that I developed my curiosity, creative-problem solving skills, confidence and ability to accept failures, and the dedication to a skilled practice.
After graduating high school, I went to college. It was well assumed by family and friends that I would be studying art. However, I was also considering chemistry within the privacy of my own internal dialogue. This thought faded though, as the majority of adults in my life showed me that my best opportunities for success were in the areas where I showed a natural talent— the visual arts.
I first received my BFA in Painting, with a minor in Theatre focusing in costume construction, from SUNY New Paltz, in 2013. It did not take long for the reality to sink in: my degree in the arts was not going secure a job with the same likelihood a degree in other career fields might. Following my mother, the educator’s advice, I decided to try teaching.
Under the mentorship of Kelly McConnell and Fern Tavalin, I received my MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) in 2018 from the Maine College of Art and Design. It was during this one-year intensive that I learned about the various approaches and philosophies for education, and more specifically the tools and methods possible for teaching individuals with divergent thinking. This was also the moment in my life when I learned about developing a growth mindset.
A growth mindset is a perspective as well as a practical skill, giving learners the ability to approach challenges with confidence and to use failures as opportunities for trying a different approach. With this foundational way of understanding, learners are more independently capable for breaking down new concepts and skills into basic principles they can relate to, easily evaluate, and discover creative solutions.
While learning to teach other developing minds, I was also given the opportunity to reflect upon my own developing mind, and through the different stages of my life. I looked back at the high school version of myself, wondering what might have been if I had heard the vocabulary of “I don’t know how, yet,” instead of “I don’t know how.” I quickly wondered about a chemistry degree in a parallel universe, or maybe vocational training to support my sixth-grade-self’s penchant for Industrial Arts class.
Not wanting to waste time wishing, I decided to adopt a practice defined by a growth mindset and non-violent communication, promoting empathy, self-awareness, and a focus on needs. To do this, I continuously recommit to the development of my skills for deep listening and holding space with a mindful and grounded presence.
I taught in traditional, large classrooms for about two years, and while the students I worked with gave me so much joy and exciting challenges, I learned that the large-group format was not sustainable for my personal needs and professional goals. While deciding how to redirect my educational practice, I went back to school, and in 2021, I received my MFA in Studio Art, with a focus on installation and community-engaged performance. The artwork I produced during this time heavily centered on self reflection, emotional healing, and forgiveness. Through this evolution I discovered my personal need to engage with my community in one-on-one and small group settings, with a shared interest in the holistic care.
It has been a wonderful path so far, through a field of much variety and opportunity for perseverance and forgiveness, and the gift of a constantly changing understanding for the way things are is why I keep moving. I look forward to bringing this experience, education, and philosophy with me to our work together.
