Mary BotrosDubai, UAE
Three offers. One right choice.
Picking the Dubai school that suited her best.
- Now
- Teacher at a school in Dubai
- Programme
- PgCTL, still in progress when she recorded her account
- Award
- Golden Apple award at her school
- Next
- Year group leader
Mary joined the course while teaching in Dubai, wanting a firmer grip on planning and a qualification the schools would recognise. Within six months she had three offers and took the one that suited her, and two months into the job she won her school's Golden Apple award.
Observed by the head of academics.
Mary Botros was still working through PgCTL when she recorded her account. She had joined, she says, to “develop a strong understanding of best practices in teaching and education and apply these skills in my own classroom”. The first effect was on her employment: a job at what she calls one of the best schools in Dubai. “I also got two other job offers and chose the one that suits me best,” she says.
The second was in her lessons. A month before she recorded, the head of academics at her school observed her teaching. “She was really pleased to see how well structured my lesson had been,” Mary says, “and how the learning outcomes of the lesson were based on students’ thinking levels and Bloom’s learning taxonomy.” The head of academics was also pleased with her questioning techniques and the differentiated tasks and activities in the lesson. Mary puts this down to a deeper understanding of her learners’ styles and needs, “which led to a great improvement in planning and delivery of my lessons”.
Online classes, an award, a plan.
She also became better able, she says, to adapt to different classrooms and teaching environments. With distance learning becoming one of the most important methods in education, she says, the programme helped her understand how to manage an online classroom and how to use technology to support teaching and learning.
The Golden Apple award came just two months into her new job. She received it, she says, “for setting an outstanding learning environment for my learners”. Her goals from here are specific. She wants to become a year group leader, and “to train and lead a group of educators to provide quality education for underprivileged children”.
Suraasa helped me understand how to use classroom infrastructure to create an effective student learning experience.
