Geography Teacher

I have worked as a teacher since 2006. I have Qualified Teacher Status in the UK after completing the Post Graduate Certificate Education (PGCE) for Secondary Geography. I have worked in schools in the UK as well as overseas, including Spain, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Most of my education experience is in secondary education (high school) but I also have primary school experience (elementary) from the years I worked overseas. Before qualifying as a teacher, I spent 6 years in Marketing, Marketing Communications and Public Relations which provided me a strong background in design, layout and content creation. This experience was perfect for teaching and my lesson planning has benefited hugely from this.

My teaching style encourages students to think independently, critically and creatively. My schemes of work encourage students to recall facts and basic concepts, explain these ideas and concepts, and use information in new situations, to answer questions and solve problems. Furthermore, I ensure students are empowered to take apart information to demonstrate relationships, causes and connections in various geographical disciplines. This ensures students are able to justify a position through evaluation and apply this in order to produce new and original work.

I hold the Post Graduate Certificate Education (PGCE) in Secondary Geography with a PGCE Attainment Grade of 'Excellence'. I also hold the Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA), awarded by University of Cambridge. In addition, I was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of exemplary contributions to Industrial Teaching and Training Department operations (Saudi Aramco).

I completed my GCSE exams in 1994 with A and B grades across nine subjects including Maths, English Language, English Literature and Geography. I gained three A-Levels in 1996: Geography, Business Studies and Anatomy and Physical Education. In June 2000, I graduated from Loughborough University (UK) with 2:1 Geography BSc Honours.

I'm a Geography graduate and teacher with over 13 years teaching, training and instructional experience. I graduated from Loughborough University in 2000 with Geography BSc Honours. I have UK Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) having acquired the PGCE Secondary Geography Certificate. I have worked in marketing communications and public relations early in my career, gathering wide experience in market research, advertising, professional service, finance and energy sectors of the economy. Besides training and development, I have specialised in various aspects of engaging content creation, including training courses, website content, brochures, magazines, press opinion pieces, press releases and market research survey design. I ran training workshops, specialising in a number of corporate themes, and this lead to my natural progression into training and development, and teaching. I have spent some years teaching overseas including Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. This has provided me with incredible insight of different learning styles, whether teaching young learners, or teenagers. I have taught many themes of geography including geology, climate, social studies, earth science, environmental science, geopolitics, demographics and geoeconomics. I believe that students should be self-starters. Teachers are responsible for setting strong and consistent classroom rules and routines, nurturing strong independent study skills, and equipping all students with the skills required to learn independently. Young, curious minds require the initial building blocks to enable them on a path of self discovery during their school years. As the saying goes, "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach the man how to fish and he'll eat for life." The lessons I produce are not intended to spoon-feed students. Instead, they facilitate self-discovery, strong-independent thinking and the means to justify a position through critical evaluation to create new and original ways of approaching tasks and assignments.