Ms. Hannah is a very popular teacher at Preuss and is known for her unique personal and teaching style. When she is not roller skating or going to concerts, she is planning a curriculum that is creative and challenging at the same time.
Ms. Hannah started working at Preuss in the 2021-2022 school year. Aside from her eighth grade English classes, she also teaches Broadcast Journalism and has a ninth grade advisory. Ms. Hannah went to UCSD with a full ride after she attended San Diego City College. She graduated from UCSD with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Cultural Studies and earned a Masters Degree in Education at UCSD.
Before she became a teacher, Ms. Hannah had her mind set to pursue a different career before her seven younger siblings encouraged her to go into teaching. This journey ended up with Ms. Hannah teaching at Preuss permanently.
“Originally I wanted to be a writer because I wanted to help make the world a better place. I feel like I’m a very strong writer and then I realized that writing is really hard, so I changed career paths,” states Ms. Hannah.
One of the few ways Ms. Hannah is committed to helping her students grow every day and learn valuable life skills is by teaching books like Refugee by Alan Gratz, Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez, and Kindred by Octavia E. Butler.
“I try to find stories that my students connect with whether or not they went through that situation. Hopefully it reminds them of something or opens their eyes to different situations in the world,” claims Ms. Hannah.
Ms. Hannah has several techniques to help her students and support them while also creating the environment where they feel comfortable and valued.
“I try to really listen to the students and understand the students and I want my students to feel seen and I think at the end of the day a lot of my students feel seen by me,” informs Ms. Hannah.
Aside from teaching, Ms. Hannah also has a strong passion for advocating for students if they are being bullied and can’t stand up for themselves. She also tries to put great effort into making sure everyone knows they matter.
“I think the biggest impact I’ve had is not being afraid to use my voice for better or worse. If I see an injustice I’m going to stand up to it and for it whether it’s an adult or student I want everyone to be protected, valued, and respected,” states Ms. Hannah.
In her classes, she focuses on the bigger picture and thinks about how her students can work productively and not take time for granted. For example, her English class focuses on a new subject, a new assignment, or project in her class every week.
“I’ve really understood that my students will not like me every day, but I just hope when they’re in college and in their careers they’re gonna look back and they’ll remember my class or something I said or something we read and hopefully they walk away knowing everything I did was with the best intent,” states Ms. Hannah.
With her advisory class, Ms. Hannah tries to give them advice such as being kind to others, or helping others, and more general advice to help guide them in their journey at Preuss.
“I think the biggest growth I’ve seen is growth in empathy,” Ms. Hannah explains, “That we are all here together and we all are a community and we all have a role to play and at the very least we all need to listen and respect one another.”
Ms. Hannah tries to find ways to keep all her classes aligned with the students’ other classes so it can all connect as one. For example, having Mr. Carr’s eighth grade U.S History class work aligns with her English work so the students can have relations with one class to another class. In Mr. Carr’s class, the primary topic discussed is slavery. Knowing that, Ms. Hannah teaches her class topics regarding slavery through books like Kindred in her English class.
“As an English teacher I just want to continue strengthening my students’ writing and fostering my students’ reading in whatever way I can. I also want to keep my English class vibrant, up to date and relevant,” states Ms. Hannah.
