Teacher

This page is about my experience as a teacher. I have been a mathematics teacher since 1999 and a ToK teacher since 2010. I completed a PGCSE in secondary mathematics at Nottingham University in 1998. After that I worked at Bartholomew comprehensive secondary school in West Oxfordshire where I also completed an Advanced Diploma in Educational Studies at Oxford University school of Education. In 2004 I took a job at the International School of Toulouse where I have been ever since!

1990-1994 – I completed Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Exeter University with honours. Although I thoroughly enjoyed engineering, I spent a lot of time here with trainee teachers at the University’s school of Education, St Lukes. I began to look towards teaching.

1998-1999 – After some travelling adventures I went to Nottingham University to complete a PGCSE in secondary Mathematics. Nottingham University, the home of the Shell Centre, was a great place to be introduced to teaching mathematics.

1999-2004 – I was really fortunate to get a job here at Bartholomew School for my first job in teaching. It is a warm, friendly and productive school. I had great colleagues and great support as I learned my trade. There were opportunities for me to explore roles in technology that lead to the introduction and use of the first Interactive Whiteboards. I was assistant head of year and second in the mathematics department before becoming head of maths for a year before my departure.

2002-2005 – I joined the Oxford University school of education for an Advanced Diploma in Educational Studies (PGDES) under the tutelage of Anne Watson. My focus was on the use of context in mathematics teaching. This was a great opportunity to delve deeper in to the link between theory and practice. It was great to work with Anne and also have lots of opportunity to work with John Mason.

2004-present – The International School of Toulouse. This school has been a wonderful place to work all this time and been a very stimulating mix of challenges and opportunities along the way. I am very grateful for the opportunities, support and working environment I have had here and work very hard towards the schools mission in return. The following are some highlights of my experience here.

Mathematical Task Design – The school’s focus has always given a top priority to developing rich educational experiences for our students. Schools are busy places full of things going on and so it is great to have had this as a clear priority. As a mathematics department this has been a driving goal through out our time together. As an indication of our work we were the subject of a short film about it made by the International Baccalaureate.

Conferences and professional development – Resulting from the priority above, I have been actively involved in attending conferences and educational events to share our experiences and work and benefit from that of others.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) – I have had extensive experience working for the IB through the IBEN (educators network). The IB actively encourages schools to support involvement in this network and my school has actively supported it. This means that I have been able to attend conferences, run workshops, be an examiner and be part of the curriculum review panel, which I am now doing for the second time.

InThinking Educational Consultants – I am proud to be associated with this company who specialise in providing professional development and resourecs for IB teachers. They are an official IB provider and so my association with them began through the IBEN mentioned above. I am delighted to have been running workshops for them for more than 10 years and keeping their very high standards of customer satisfaction.

Council of International Schools – I was offered the position of self study coordinator for our schools very first CIS accreditation experience. This was an extraordinary experience that gave me an insight in to the roles of all the school’s stake holders and a great appreciation of the big picture. It was 18 months from appointment to our self study visit and I am very proud of the flying colours our school was awarded at the end. I followed this up by twice being a member of a CIS visiting team for the accreditation of schools. These too were incredible experiences and professional development.

Theory of Knowledge – I am now the school’s ToK coordinator after an investment of more than 10 years in understanding the teaching and learning of this course designed to thread together the IB diploma program. This has been a significant challenge and I have enjoyed every minute. The course has had a profound effect on the way I teach my own subject as well as my understanding of all the knowledge disciplines. Again, this has given me some significant insight in to the bigger picture of what we aim to do.

Extra Curricular and community – I have always been keen to contribute to the extra curricular life of schools and believe strongly in the value of community. This has happened in a variety of ways. I have run maths enrichment clubs, an Islamic tile design club as well as evenings about maths for our wider community. I have coordinated whole school projects designed to promote the role of numbers, mathematics and statistics in describing the world around us and underpinning other subjects. We host and attend mathematics competitions which has been considerable work but made our contribution to that community.

Beyond mathematics, I have taken an interest in the broader life of the school helping with school productions including rehearsals and taking photographs. I run a ‘Speakers’ corner’ where I encourage and help students to speak publicly in front of their peers and I regularly volunteer to give whole school assemblies. I also regularly initiate and organise whole school community events including our much enjoyed ‘Us and Them’ concerts where all the acts have to include at least one teacher and one student. I volunteered to organise our school’s 20th anniversary celebrations which involved two wonderful community events. I can do this because I know have helpful colleagues and community members which includes our parent association who do wonderful work.