I am an international Education Management Advisor, Teacher Advisor, Assistant Principal and teacher with extensive experience in Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. My career has been interwoven with twenty years of teaching, including curriculum coordination, librarianship, ESL and classroom teaching.
My belief is that the purpose of school education is to ensure that students are equipped to optimally participate in and contribute to society. They must be ready for the world of work and all that entails. They must also be ready for the world beyond work, including the attitudes, abilities and qualities that define a highly functioning world citizen. Therefore, the over-riding mission of a school is to empower students to successfully pursue life-long learning so that they can continuously adapt and function as they meet the challenges of pervasive change.
I believe that good teachers use classroom management, teaching frameworks, assessment tools, teaching strategies, research synthesis, and practical advice so that students perform at their optimal level. Teachers must also know their students’ individual passions, interests and anxieties in order to plan and deliver engaging and relevant units of work. We must look closely at what individual students are doing, what they know already and what they need to learn next. Understanding the importance of knowing and caring for each student is the basic premise to my leadership and teaching.
Accreditation bodies that I have worked with include the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), Western Academy of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). I am comfortable working within such frameworks of excellence.
My preferred model of education is social constructivism, an inquiry-based approach driven by the interests of each student and couched in a comprehensive framework of negotiated understandings.