Description: Private tutor Kate M shares some of her experiences as a travelling tutor
The rain lashed at the plane window as I looked out at the fading October daylight. England was in the grip of autumn, but next time I saw my home country, it would be in December. Settling into my seat and choosing which film would entertain me for the first two hours of my journey, I felt a rush of excitement at the thought of the adventure lying ahead.
Twelve hours later, I stepped off the plane, fuzzy-brained from jetlag and blinking at the smoggy Hong Kong skyline. I would have less than a day to adjust before teaching my first lesson here; the pupils were familiar, but the location could not have been more alien.
As a homeschool travelling tutor, I was responsible for teaching English, Languages and Humanities to two bilingual brothers, both of whom were in their teens and preparing for international examinations. They did not attend normal school so that they (and now we) could follow their father’s busy work and travel schedule, keeping the family together but maintaining a semblance of normal schooling.
In the fourteen months since taking up the position, I had taught Latin vocabulary in the back of a Tesla on a road trip to Vienna, explained rhetorical devices at the top of a mountain in the Italian Alps and tested the boys on History facts while walking alongside the Berlin Wall. But this was our first trip outside of Europe.
We soon found our routine. Every day I would walk for thirty minutes through bustling Wan Chai, navigating the streets filled with the loud tick of pedestrian crossings and the constant honking of taxi horns, heading towards Central, where I would collect the boys for the day’s lessons. Outside was almost unbearably humid, and I longed for the soothing cool of the air-conditioned office, where we would have our lessons for the duration of our stay. Maintaining momentum was essential, particularly for my eldest pupil who was due to sit important AS Level examinations in six months’ time. Looking out across Victoria Harbour, we tussled with the fifth declension, read A View from the Bridge and analysed Greek architecture. The days flew past in a blur of new experiences, mild culture shock and homework marking.
Growing up in a small village in the English countryside, I could never have anticipated that I would become a teacher who spent almost every month in a different country. After excelling at school and never scoring below the highest possible grade in all of my examinations, I was destined for Cambridge University. But, as a homebody through and through, I was reluctant to leave the cozy nest of my tightknit family. After three successful years studying Classics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, I took another step further away from my family, by moving to Glasgow and becoming a classroom teacher at a private school there.
The teaching profession suited me: uptake in my subject increased dramatically and I formed solid relationships with my pupils, who secured a string of ‘A’ grades in their examinations. And while I was falling in love with teaching, I also developed another passion: travel. When the opportunity arose for me to become a travelling tutor (combining my two favourite things while I was still young and without ties), I could not resist making an application.
This is the path that led me to Hong Kong, and many other places besides. Using our varying locations as a basis for our studies, I was able to enrich the educational experiences of my pupils, while the travel enriched my personal life and taught me more about myself, about the world and about teaching. Seeing how flexible and accessible teaching can be (sometimes I taught the boys on Skype when accompanied travel was not possible), my mind was opened to the possibility of online tutoring.
Now, I spend more time in one place, and less time on a plane switching time zones. Some may think it is more boring, but I now find my pleasure in the wide variety of subjects that I teach (English, Latin, History and Classical Civilisation, to name but a few). Every time a student grasps a new concept, or I mark a beautifully structured essay, or hear about examination success for which I am in part, responsible, I get that same rush of excitement as I felt on the plane to Hong Kong.
By Kate M, Private Tutor in London. Register your interest in working with Kate by contacting us here today.