Personal+Statement

=John Lindsay's Personal Statement=

For the school years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 I have been teaching at Qatar Academy, Doha, Qatar. In the first year I taught MYP mathematics, IB Mathematical Studies and Theory of Knowledge. In the second year I taught MYP mathematics. For the school years from 2003-2004 to 2006-2007 I taught at International School Dhaka(ISD), Bangladesh. The subjects I taught in those four years included International Baccalaureate MYP Mathematics, DP Mathematical Studies and Theory of Knowledge. I was also the coordinator of Approaches to Learning. In each of my four years at ISD I was a tutor of an MYP class. As coordinator of Approaches to learning I was responsible for assisting subject teachers to coordinate their teaching of skills, attitudes and practices horizontally across each of the 5 levels of MYP and vertically through the 5 levels. I have been responsible for planning the Theory of Knowledge course for the first IB Diploma classes at ISD which began with Grade 11 in 2005-2006 and have continued to Grade 12 in 2006-2007. For three years from 2000-2001 I taught Mathematics at middle and high school levels at Gulf English School, Kuwait including IGCSE Mathematics. During this time my responsibilities included being Year 8 Registration teacher. I was a member of a committee responsible for planning a staff appraisal process for secondary school teaching and administration staff. For the first 5 weeks of the summer break in June/July 2002 I taught at the Gulf English School summer school. The students who attended the summer school were from Kuwaiti Government schools where the language of instruction is Arabic. The English, Mathematics and Art based sessions which I was responsible for were designed to give the students practice in listening, speaking and writing in English. Even though I am now specializing in Mathematics and Theory of Knowledge I have had experience in teaching a range of subjects from elementary to senior high school. These include Mathematics, ESL, Philosophy for Children, English, Humanities (History/Geography/Social Studies), Religious Studies, General Science and Outdoor Education. Prior to teaching in Zambia, my first teaching experience outside Australia, I had taught at Eltham College, Australia for fifteen years. During this time I gained experience in a wide range of curriculum areas and pastoral care approaches. I taught ESL at Years 8 to 10 and I completed the RSA Cambridge course in //Teaching of English as a Foreign Language// //to Adults// (TEFLA) as well as the course //ESL in the Mainstream//. I am able to work well as a team member in education and that is one of the things that I particularly enjoy about teaching. I was part of a team responsible for a number of innovations at Year 7 level at Eltham College, including the primary to secondary transition program. I was also responsible for the incorporation of Philosophy for Children as part of the curriculum for Years 7 and 8. I coordinated the house debating competition and was the secondary school coach for several Future Problem Solvers' teams. I believe that education should not only be involved in preparing students for future employment but it should also foster thinking skills and a love of learning which persists in the post school years. In 1993 my wife and I participated in 'American Host', which involved visiting educational institutions in California while staying in the homes of American educators. A major focus of my teaching so far has been in the pastoral care area. The term 'pastoral care' as used at Eltham College refers to the need to educate the whole person. I was part of the Year 7 pastoral care team for 12 years and I was involved in a number of developments in the approach to this area. My involvement included helping to develop a personal development program at Year 7. This involved such areas as goal setting and time management. There was a 50% intake of new students at Year 7 and the vast majority of Year 7 students were extremely keen to do well in secondary school. This had led to problems of student 'burn out' in the past as well as some students sacrificing sporting or artistic endeavors because of the perceived 'academic' demands. The personal development program was designed to deal with this and other areas beyond the range of subject areas. My idea of education is that we should not attempt to teach a subject in isolation. We should teach the whole person. I also believe that education should be for the whole of life and go beyond training. This is especially the case with mathematics, a subject area which has been traditionally thought by many students to be irrelevant or out of reach. My teaching has been influenced by the work done in Victoria in developing the RIME (Reality in Mathematics Education) resources for bringing the real world into Mathematics. I have a natural interest in the ideas of mathematics including its philosophy and history and in the ongoing developments and applications such as chaos theory. I would hope that some of this enthusiasm is passed on to my students.

//October 2008//

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