My Story
Growing Up
Born and raised in South East London, I spent my childhood and teenage years skateboarding and playing the guitar in a heavy blues band on the local live music scene. It was during this time that I developed a strong independence. I gained interpersonal and communication skills while networking and marketing for the band, and organisational and budgeting skills while collecting money from ticket sales to go towards recording and rehearsal studio time. The ability to build rapport with strangers came in handy while working in my first job as a Customer Safety Steward at the O2 events arena in London.
I was always interested in travel and experiencing other cultures around the world. I loved visiting different types of landscapes around the UK and the many other countries I visited growing up. I decided to study Human Geography at university, to learn more about the ways the world around me worked, and the people within it. I studied for a year at Kings College London before regretting my choice not to leave my home town and moving to the University of Sussex. It was at during my years in Brighton that I learned more about socioeconomic inequalities and developed an interest in social justice and environmentalism.
I funded my studies, in part, by working in several part-time jobs in bars, kitchens, and restaurants. Working front-of-house in the service industry gave me more opportunities to strengthen my people skills. However, my love for food and cooking attracted me more to the cooking roles, which developed a sense of perfectionism and strong work ethic. Being part of a kitchen team inspires strong camaraderie, and you need to be able to work to tight deadlines and under intense pressure.
Independence
Studying Geography affirmed my resolve to travel the world and find a way to make a difference within it. Eventually, I graduated with a First class degree and boarded a plane to Bangkok. Backpacking for six months in South East Asia was inspiring to me. I learned about a completely different worldview in the Buddhism-inspired societies I visited, which opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. I fell instantly in love with the region, its people, landscapes, and cultures. I had the time of my life meeting people from all over the world as I traveled and experienced true freedom, further strengthening my social skills and self-reliance. I learned to scuba dive, and how to let go of all material belongings and live with only the bare necessities I could fit in my back pack. However, the funds I had saved working in those Brighton kitchens soon ran out and I needed to make a decision as to what was coming next.
Having heard from other backpackers along the way about the opportunities to be found in Australia, I acquired a Working-Holiday Visa and flew to the Gold Coast with enough money left for a couple of weeks of food and rent in dormitory rooms in hostels. I immediately set to finding work. I very quickly secured a job fundraising for the Wilderness Society in Brisbane and was excited to put my love for the natural world into action. However, my dreams were thwarted when I soon discovered how terrible I am at sales! Fortunately, my cooking abilities and social kills were still strong and I easily transitioned to working a full-time kitchen job in a gourmet burger restaurant, whilst working part-time in my hostel in exchange for free accommodation. I stayed in Brisbane for six months, and it was during this time staying in the hostel that I discovered the joy of teaching. I would spend time with other European and Asian long-term hostel residents and through our conversations I helped them strengthen their English skills both for their work and to help them gain more independence in an English-speaking country.
Maturing
I loved all of my time in Australia just as much as I had enjoyed travelling in South East Asia. However, one of my fondest memories is of working as a farm-hand on an olive farm in the outback of New South Wales, far from any other towns. I saw wild koalas, cockatoos, kookaburras and boars. Every morning as I rode on a quad bike or in the back of an old farm truck to the olive groves, huge mobs of kangaroos and wallabies would scatter before me. I stayed here for three months with a handful of French and Italian backpackers. This enabled me to spend more time in my new-found avocation: helping others to not only develop their English skills but also empowering them and helping them to close social divides in doing so. All the while, working close to the land in a stunning natural environment. It was at this time that I remembered something said to me by a lecturer of the Geographies of Social Justice – “Everyone stands up to social injustice in their own way. Some are activists, some are politicians, and some are teachers.” Inspired, I resolved to return to England to train to be a teacher.
On my way home, I stopped off in the southern United States – Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee – on a culinary and musical journey. I was introduced to an America that had a culture deeper than I had ever imagined and nourished my soul with the music I had always loved. I attended South by South-West festival in Austin, the home town of my guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan. I finally found a side of swing and jazz music that I enjoyed in New Orleans, grooved to the blues in Memphis, and in Nashville I discovered that not only is country music actually quite enjoyable to listen to, it’s a lot of fun to play! I experienced life in a small, university town in rural Texas, saw guitars being made by hand at the Gibson factory and visited Sun Studios in Memphis, and learned about an art form I had previously never engrossed myself with at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. For a more tangible form of physical sustenance, I devoured the chili and tex-mex in Texas, savoured the creole cuisine in Louisiana, and relished the barbecue food in Tennessee. I also discovered that biscuits can be eaten with gravy… for breakfast!
Settling Down and Settling In
While finding my feet and devising a plan to study for a PGCE in London, I received word from a friend of a friend in Thailand. She was teaching English in a kindergarten school and they needed another teacher. Knowing that I wanted to start teaching, she asked if I wanted to take the job to gain some experience and find out if I enjoyed it before applying for a place at university. I accepted and before I new it was flying to Chiang Rai!
The school was in a small market town surrounded by rice fields in the middle of a basin of mountains in the far North of the province, half-way from the major city to the border with Myanmar at Mae Sai. The scenery was spectacular, the food was amazing, and the people were the kindest and most welcoming I had ever encountered. Here, I learned in more depth about Thai culture and could feel myself letting go of some of the negative habits I had learned in my western upbringing and assimilating the more mindful behaviours and thought patterns of the people around me. Living in a culture outside of your own allows you to pick and choose the most desirable aspects of your home and host cultures and foster a personality which includes the best of both worlds. I discovered a passion for teaching I had never imagined would reside within me, and rather than returning to England to study I decided to stay on and continue teaching while studying for a PGCEi online.
I loved my life in this town so much that I ended up staying for four and a half years – the longest I had settled anywhere since I left my home in South East London. I made some incredible friendships, but one person changed my life more than any other, for it was here that I met my wife and her young son, and we had our first son together. Unfortunately, with a young family to provide for, I needed to leave the town I loved and move to the city in search of a teaching job that could support us. Having earned my PGCEi by this point I soon found a position at a well-known primary school in Chiang Rai city.
Developing as a Teacher
Having studied the PGCEi I was able to apply my newfound knowledge to improving my skills as a teacher. I was able to identify (and improve on) some faults in my pedagogy and continue developing my strengths, but also was able to confirm the validity of my personal philosophy of education. I had felt some conflict between the style of education in a traditional Thai private school and my own values as a teacher, but moving to a more student-centered school in the city allowed me to start forming my own teaching style based on what I had learned while studying. I developed into a caring and passionate teacher, and excelled at making my students feel at home in the classroom. I flourished in my new teaching context, but struggled financially. Soon, I was enticed by the higher earning potential of online work.
I enjoyed my job as an online English tutor and decided to make a full-time career out of online teaching. I started a Youtube channel, a blog, and was even working on developing video courses to sell online – meanwhile supporting a family and holding down a full-time tutoring job. I quickly burned out from both the pressure I was putting on myself and the lack of social contact. I realised that this was not the reason I had gotten into teaching. It was never about the money, it was all about the love of helping people and the fulfillment gained from the interactions and relationships fostered in the classroom. Also, as our two boys were growing up, the reality of finding them an effective education was dawning on us. I decided to study for a Master of Arts in Education and apply for jobs at international schools so that I could provide a world class education for my own children and return to my passion.
International Teaching
After receiving a few job offers, I accepted a position at a Values-based, Cambridge International Primary school in Chiang Mai and have never looked back. Surrounded by a great team of teachers and leaders I strengthened my teaching skills even further while also developing a specialism in social-emotional learning and values-based education. I finished my Master of Arts, writing my thesis on restorative classroom management in a Values-based learning environment. I was offered several extra responsibilities, and took roles as Curriculum Coordinator, Teacher-Mentor, and Primary and Early Years Coordinator. My personal life also grew to new heights with the birth of our third son.
Looking forward, I hope to continue developing my skills in the classroom. I intend to stay settled for the foreseeable future to provide stability for my children, so I am looking for schools which offer professional and career development. I hope to enrich my love for helping others by not only empowering the lives of my young students, but also using my skills, knowledge and experience to support other teachers while they do so, thus I hope to find a position at a school which values my leadership potential. I would also like to broaden my teaching experience by moving to an International Baccalaureate school, and and further develop my skills of teaching in an Enquiry-Based Learning environment.