*** PGCE Scholarship ***
I was very proud to recieve one of only ten scholarships for £1000 made available to applicants in the education department at Southampton University. The process involved two stages, the first being submission of an application (I used a version of this website) and the second a 10 minute presentation to the University Scholarship panel.
The American School of Vietnam - August 2010 - Present
I joined TAS as a new international school starting from the ground up, which I first visited when the buildings were still to be finished. I am working as the ICT coordinator, implementing school systems such as Google Apps for Education and Moodle. I have had the pleasure of providing school-wide training in these systems and also running workshops on the integration of technology within the classroom, attempting to persuade reluctant teachers to take a risk! This is of course alongside teaching Grades 6 to 10 their regular ICT classes, and developing a core curriculum in this subject.
TAS is an American School with a curriculum based on California state standards. However, the state of California does not have standards for ICT. As at previous schools, I have therefore based my courses on a variety of materials. These include the standard Key Stage 3/4 curriculum (UK) and also GCSE and A Level materials for high school. Within these courses are integrated the standards of the ISTE (National Educational Technology Standards) used by many states in the US. I have also spent time researching the materials used by the IGCSE course (Cambridge) and the MYP program. So, please don't feel that no direct experience means no experience at all when referring to other national curriculums or programs such as IGSCE and MYP/IB. I have always taken it as my responsibility to be informed and up to date on what is happening in the ICT classrooms of international schools around the world.
Renaissance International School Saigon - August 2009 - June 2010
At RISS I was the Primary School ICT Instructor where I worked with teachers from reception level through to Year 5. Where possible the International Primary Curriculum was integrated into the ICT classroom. Students studied the IPC and also the British National Curriculum.
American International School - June 2007 to June 2008
AIS was a new International School in Saigon which only had around 30 students at the end of its first semester in June 2007. The principal and vice-principal were my academic directors and mentors from Cleverlearn language academy. It was a natural progression for me, and after passing an observed lesson and interview procedure, I was offered a place in the first summer immersion program run by the school. During the summer of 2007 I taught students classes named 'Speaking and Drama' and 'Journalism & I.T'.
I was then offered a job as the subject teacher for ICT in the middle school, Years 7-10. The school opened with around 200 secondary students. During the academic year 2007-2008 at AIS I was solely in charge of curriculum development, having to make lesson plans and structure the course for four year groups. You can read the recommendation letter provided by my principal referee for the GTTR here.
The Korean School - Sept 2005 to Jan 2007
This school is funded by the Korean government and provides education for a thousand or more Korean children (K-12) who are living in Vietnam. The school runs a bi-lingual program where every child receives instruction in all their subjects in two languages, Korean and English. I was employed as a 'home room' teacher for a Year Four class. Class sizes through my three semesters at the school ranged from 35-40 students.
I was in charge of curriculum development and the teaching of English, Math, Science, ICT and P.E.
Background in teaching - Dec 2003 to Sept 2005
I started teaching almost eight years ago in December 2003 when I took a one year contract in a small countryside town in South Korea.
In January 2005 I travelled to Saigon, Vietnam, to undertake a 120 hour TEFL certificate. The course involved two weeks of theoretical study and lesson planning and two weeks of practical teaching in local high schools.
When the course finished I started working at a language school called Cleverlearn, based in the heart of Saigon and one of the more well respected language centers in the city. Under the guidance of the American husband and wife partnership, who were the academic directors at the time, I was able to develop my teaching style as an educator. I taught regular classes for teenagers and adults. The reference my academic director provided for me at the time can be found here.
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