Allison

An experienced, mature teacher of History, RE and English as a Foreign langugage. I reside in the English countryside with my two cats and a love of all things historical.

Tutoring Experience

Varied and longlasting ! Where shall I begin ?
1.Teacher of History, (11-18 years). Gaining Qualified Teacher Status in 2013 (QTS), I spent six years working as a long-term supply teacher across a wide range of school settings- private, grammar, single-sex and co-ed. comprehensive style schools. This gave me the opportunity to hone teaching skills that confidently cater to a wide rage of students from different cultural and academic backgrounds-differentiating material is one of my key pedagogic strengths. In conjunction with my role as a History teacher, I have taught RE to GCSE and am a form tutor, currently with full pastoral care of a class of Year 11 students going through their GCSE final year.
2. CELTA- teacher of English as a Foreign Language: I fell in love with teaching whilst working as a teaching assistant in a school abroad which led me to qualifying as a CELTA teacher in 1998 upon my return to England. Subsequently, I worked across a range of language schools in the south of England and loved every minute. I have taught students from 8-72 years of age, across a wide range of nationalities and abilities from Beginners to IELTS entrance exam.

Tutoring Approach

My approach is fairly structured but friendly. Essentially, I find the best way of teaching is to blend confident leadership with collaborative working- lessons have a structure in order to ensure we cover the necessary ground in the time we have but I like to foster a sense of team work and love to hear student opinions and ideas along the way.
Before starting our course of lessons, I like to have an informal, but honest discussion with students, (and parents if under 18 years), to find out how they best learn, what students consider to be their strengths and weaknesses and their long-term goals. This helps me to understand how best to structure lessons- for example, what types of tasks and activities to plan. In addition , understanding how our levels of confidence as learners can fluctuate, I also aim to ascertain any gaps in knowledge and areas students wish to work on- this can relate to subject knowledge or skills such as writing and spelling so we can target an additional support required.
3. I ensure our lessons are well planned and organised to show a methodical approach that builds student skills and knowledge as we work through the curriculum. Lessons include a variety of tasks, use of skills and resources, all of which servce to keep the topics interesting and develop confidence in retaining what we have studied. Examples of this include exam question methods and practice (which I mark), reading together, discussion and comprehension through questions and answers as well as revision techniques and short tests , (mock papers will be done for homework under timed conditions). I find that our engaging with topic material in the lesson then leads on to students being able to complete larger portions of written work for homework-I see no point in holding lessons online where the students spends most of their time writing from slides.....we remain fully engaged as a teacher/student team so they get the most from each lesson.
4. Feedback- I provide verbal feedback for students throughout the lesson and check or mark homework which will be set each week with an expectation it will be done. Furthermore, I like to check in with students, (and parents) once every couple of weeks in a 5 minute tutorial to get feedback from them as to how they feel about the lessons. This gives us the chance to discuss any adjustments they would like me to make to lessons
5. Emotional intelligence- I have never hidden the fact that I came to education quite late in life myself....after leaving school with few qualifications, I picked up further education in my late 20's before going to university at the grand old age of 31 years....I can remember what it is like to study and the challenges and joys that intensive studying brings. Furthermore, I passionately believe that learning is a lifelong process and am excited to share knowledge as students journey through their course. Learning brings multiple avenues of exploration and challenges especially when focusing on taking exams. at Most of all, I hope my students feel I am with them every step of the way, fostering a love for and excitement of lifelong learning.
Finally, I have put that I can meet students somewhere but this will be on a case by case basis and discussed at our first contact.