I became a teacher by accident, during my university course I became enamoured by the draw of living in different countries. My degree meant I would be forced onto a linear path working in local government which would be great but quite monotonous. 

I did a Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) course through the TEFL Academy which was 20 hours in class and 100 hours online. I found it very thorough and gave me the confidence to go into teaching. I will admit that it isn’t that difficult to attain if you just use common sense. 

Learning something and then applying it are two different things. My first position post qualification was a village in Spain where I loved during my Erasmus year lasted three months and led to me failing as I realised that I was coming at it from a purely academic base and thought that was the main goal and not understanding that kids need to have fun also. I needed to engage the students in a friendly way and manage discipline better and my manager in giving feedback highlighted these for me. Loving the job made me want to stay even after what I considered personal failure. 

I did learn that I loved teaching children and teens better so it was actually a good learning experience for me. Next I worked in Moscow, Russia, why? I had never heard of anyone ever going there and so I stayed there for 8 months and it was here where I learned my trade properly and through trial and error learned what methods worked best. Teaching in Moscow was fun and challenging and weird and I will answer any questions on this should you wish. 

I then went to Thailand for 3 years working as a Kindergarten Teacher in a large private school in Bangkok. I just wanted to experience Asia for once. During the pandemic I had already applied for a course called the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (International) or PGCEi. Basically the international version of the British PGCE and I chose the University of Nottingham to do the course. It was a very demanding course especially as I was working in a full time job at the time but also very enlightening and the course tutors were very supportive and very well informed on new teaching practices. This course allows me to teach in the UK as a supply teacher only but it would be very powerful abroad allowing me to work in international schools as UK accreditation is very powerful and well respected. 

I moved back to the UK in 2021 to start in my current role and have been in the industry for a year now and feel as if I have sufficient accrued knowledge to be able to write about it for the benefit of others.