Educators, going further.

Teachers everywhere are taking their careers further than they expected. Explore their stories, see how Suraasa helped them get there, and get inspired by what's possible for you.

A teacher whose story is about teaching abroad
A teacher whose story is about promotion
A teacher whose story is about classroom practice
A teacher whose story is about career change
Success Stories

Inspiration from every kind of classroom.

Teaching abroad

Angela Dorothy, Special Education Teacher in California, USA

Angela Dorothy, California, USA

One message. A classroom in California.

Angela had been a special education teacher in India for three years, and a consultancy had been shopping her profile abroad for a year with nothing to show.

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Sonu Soni, Chemistry Teacher in UAE

Sonu Soni, UAE

Holding out for the Gulf. And getting there.

Sonu was teaching chemistry in India and set on the Gulf, turning down interview calls at home while no route abroad appeared.

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I got the teaching license of US, the United States teaching license, on the basis of PgCTL.

Saima Afroz

Teacher, United States

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Hamzavardheni, French Teacher in Sharjah, UAE

Hamzavardheni, Sharjah, UAE

Sundays at her desk. French in Sharjah.

Hamzavardheni taught French in Pondicherry, where her subject had no B.Ed route, and froze whenever an observer came into the room.

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Mariam Ali, Inclusion Leader in UAE

Mariam Ali, UAE

Every certificate. Except the one that counted.

Mariam had a master's degree, workshops and certificates, but no teaching licence, and the UAE kept raising its standards for teachers.

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Reena Ramesh, Special Educator in USA

Reena Ramesh, USA

Four interviews. One US school district.

Reena taught in India and wanted practical ways to support learners with special educational needs, so she began PgCTL.

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Meenu A S, Physics Teacher in GEMS Legacy School, Dubai, UAE

Meenu A S, GEMS Legacy School, Dubai, UAE

Physics without fear. Now in Dubai.

Meenu taught grade 10 physics in Tamil Nadu, where schools treated her simulations and smart boards as a waste of time and no clear route abroad existed.

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As recommended by one of the schools, I joined PgCTL at Suraasa, and still being a student, I am already employed.

Zainab Hakimuddin

Teacher, UAE

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Nishat Mulla, Business Teacher in British Curriculum School, Dubai, UAE

Nishat Mulla, British Curriculum School, Dubai, UAE

Eight years in India. Two months to Dubai.

Nishat moved to Dubai in 2018 with eight years of teaching behind her in India, and found that experience alone did not open doors.

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Nishigandha Devare, Science Teacher in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Nishigandha Devare, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Twelve years teaching. Then a UAE classroom.

Nishigandha had taught biology across Indian boards for twelve years and felt her career had stalled, with her family never quite convinced teaching was the right choice.

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More in Teaching abroad · 2

  • Nemanja Dordevic · Dubai, UAE

    Arriving in Dubai already ready for the classroom
    1 min read

  • Divya Sumesh

    Preparing for a UAE classroom before the first day
    1 min read

Promotion

Sikhanyiso Maviza Loveness, Intervention Specialist in UAE

Sikhanyiso Maviza Loveness, UAE

Nursery teacher. Now intervention specialist.

She came to the UAE as a nursery teacher and was moved into inclusion without any teaching qualification, suddenly facing lesson plans, assessments and parent meetings.

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Reema Burhan, Secondary Mathematics and ICT Teacher in UAE

Reema Burhan, UAE

From one maths classroom. To leading them all.

Reema taught secondary maths and ICT at a British school in the UAE, where competition is sharp and a teacher can be replaced quickly.

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But today, when I stand tall with a UK level six certificate, I wanted him to know I did it, sir.

Divya Sharma

Science Coordinator, Dubai, UAE

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Wajiha Aamir, Senior Representative in Primary English, Dubai, UAE

Wajiha Aamir, Primary English, Dubai, UAE

Star teacher in a year. Team lead next.

Wajiha joined a Dubai private school as a junior grade 1 English teacher, certain that five years of teaching at home had already made her qualified.

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Alefiya Huzefa, Assistant Supervisor in Kindergarten

Alefiya Huzefa, Kindergarten

Teacher. Middle leader. Assistant supervisor.

Alefiya was teaching kindergarten on instinct, without the vocabulary to explain her practice when her lessons were observed.

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Karishma Dodani, English Teacher and Planner in Dubai, UAE

Karishma Dodani, Dubai, UAE

Doing it by instinct. Now by name.

Karishma had taught English in Dubai for years, using strategies she had picked up by instinct without knowing what any of them were called.

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During my Suraasa journey, I learned about Bloom's Taxonomy as an engaging and measuring tool for students' progress.

Nazia Afzal

Subject Coordinator

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Nazibul Rahman, Physics Educator

Nazibul Rahman

A teacher by choice. Then head of department.

Nazibul Rahman meant to stay in the classroom and turned down the administrative roles the school offered.

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New role

Boniswa Khumalo, English Teacher in South Africa

Boniswa Khumalo, South Africa

The passion was there. Now the skill is too.

Boniswa had lectured part-time before her first real classroom in Saudi Arabia, where explaining a simple concept could turn into a nightmare and she felt like an imposter.

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Mary Botros, Teacher in Dubai, UAE

Mary Botros, Dubai, UAE

Three offers. One right choice.

Mary joined the course while teaching in Dubai, wanting a firmer grip on planning and a qualification the schools would recognise.

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Because finally what you want in life is respect

Sivasundari Vijayakumar

Mathematics Teacher, India

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Abhijit Das, Teacher in India

Abhijit Das, India

Out of banking. Into a classroom.

Abhijit came to teaching from banking in 2017 and spent his first years struggling to hold classes of thirty, and dreading the interview panel.

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Abdur Rehman Khan, English Teacher in Kashmir, India

Abdur Rehman Khan, Kashmir, India

A quiet voice. A class that listens.

He was teaching English and social science with no formal training, unsure how to hold a class when students got bored.

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Asma Begum, ICT Teacher in British Curriculum School, Sharjah, UAE

Asma Begum, British Curriculum School, Sharjah, UAE

No UAE experience. Hired anyway.

Asma was applying for teaching posts across the UAE and being turned down each time for having no local classroom experience.

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Interview skills and pedagogy skills that I learned through this course helped me a lot in hunting a new job.

Bilal Raza

English Language Teacher, UAE

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Amna Khurram, Teaching Assistant in UAE

Amna Khurram, UAE

Teaching assistant. Now covering the class.

Amna had assisted in a Dubai primary classroom since 2018 and wanted to understand what actually goes into a lesson before it starts.

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Neha Yadav, PRT Teacher

Neha Yadav

A career break. Then a job offer.

Neha stepped away from teaching for motherhood, and going back to study after the break was not easy.

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More in New role · 5

  • Ritu Sahni

    Moving from coaching centres into a school classroom
    1 min read

  • Sruthi · British curriculum school, Dubai, UAE

    Moving from support teacher to her own maths class
    1 min read

  • Fareeda Shaik Mustafa · Dubai, UAE

    Training teachers back home in Kerala
    1 min read

  • Jeslin Sara

    Moving from assisting lessons to leading her own
    1 min read

  • Jayavardhan Reddy

    Rebuilding a class around the students in it
    1 min read

Career change

Zeinab Koaik, Visual Art Coordinator in UAE

Zeinab Koaik, UAE

Interior designer. Now running the art room.

Zeinab had come into teaching from interior design, and the basics defeated her: engagement, classroom management, adapting activities to what assessment data showed.

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Shaikh Abdulla, Teacher and Lead Lab Technician in UAE

Shaikh Abdulla, UAE

From the lab bench. To the front of the class.

Abdulla had built a medical career up to a doctorate, but UAE schools require a teaching qualification and a B.Ed meant starting two more years of study.

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It's only been a short time, but I've already seen the effects that it has had on my teaching methods and my approach to teaching.

Jaweria Saleem

Home Educator

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Jeslin John, Teacher in UAE

Jeslin John, UAE

Years in IT. Something was missing.

She spent years in IT and then training, sure something was missing, but schools would not take her without a teaching qualification.

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Jigna J Bakhda, Teacher in British curriculum school, Dubai, UAE

Jigna J Bakhda, British curriculum school, Dubai, UAE

Optician by training. Teacher by choice.

Jigna qualified as an optician in the UK and was trying to move into teaching, chasing a place at one of the best schools in Dubai.

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Usaid Mohammed Baig, Design Coach

Usaid Mohammed Baig

Engineering out. Education in.

He was a mechanical engineer in manufacturing, pulled toward education but unable to find a way in.

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Every week the live sessions that we have with our professor and the various modules on the app are highly practical oriented.

Divya Shekhar

Aspiring Teacher, Dubai, UAE

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Ajab Abizer, Software Engineer and Aspiring Teacher

Ajab Abizer

Software engineer. Teacher in the making.

Ajab was a software engineer teaching no one but her own child at home, and interviews kept exposing how little formal grounding she had.

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Amtul Khair Sadiya Siddiqui, Aspiring Business Studies Teacher

Amtul Khair Sadiya Siddiqui

A year of loss. She stayed the course.

Sadiya joined with no teaching experience and a long list of plans, then a personal loss knocked her off track and she came close to withdrawing from the course.

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Noushiba Wahab, Aspiring Teacher

Noushiba Wahab

Not in a classroom yet. Already speaking up.

Noushiba was not teaching yet, and had a habit of signing up for things and then dropping them when her confidence gave out.

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More in Career change · 1

  • Deepthi Prasanth

    Watching her children's classes with a teacher's eye
    1 min read

Classroom practice

Monisha, Academic Coordinator in Bihar, India

Monisha, Bihar, India

Nearly quit. Now leading academics.

Middle-school students in a city school told Monisha they did not want an English teacher, and that night she told her mother she would quit.

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Vaishali, Mathematics Teacher in Chennai, India

Vaishali, Chennai, India

Two worksheets. One boy, catching up.

Vaishali was teaching maths in Chennai and dreaded the classes where one boy sat lost, still on addition while the rest did algebra.

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After joining Suraasa, I have got more skilled in classroom management, in engaging the classroom by using various methodologies.

Ritika Rawat

Physics Teacher, India

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Tanvi Kalra, Biology Teacher in India

Tanvi Kalra, India

Biology, with debate. And colour pencils.

Four years into teaching biology at a CBSE school, an assessment showed Tanvi where she had stalled.

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Marya Javed, Science Coordinator

Marya Javed

Read the data. Then plan the lesson.

Marya was coordinating science across Key Stage 3 to 5 and knew the subject, but never looked back at a lesson once it was done.

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Priyanshu Malik, Middle and Senior School Teacher in Dubai, UAE

Priyanshu Malik, Dubai, UAE

Speak less. Let the class lead.

Priyanshu cleared every panellist at an interview in Dubai and was still turned down, told she did not know their curriculum.

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Neha Tickoo, Mathematics Subject Matter Expert in India

Neha Tickoo, India

Forty students by day. Recording at 2 a.m.

Neha had been teaching since 2009 and had heard about differentiated instruction for years without ever using it.

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Joining PgCTL course is an added value, a real game changer to my teaching career.

Noura T

Secondary School Mathematics Teacher

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Rania Hassan, Primary Teacher in UAE

Rania Hassan, UAE

From good lessons. To outstanding ones.

Rania taught primary classes at an international school in the UAE, fitting PgCTL around the job.

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Ritansha Grover, Psychology Teacher in India

Ritansha Grover, India

Clinical psychologist. Now reaching the strugglers.

Ritansha had taught psychology to grades 11 and 12 for years and had settled into techniques she no longer questioned, while the students who struggled most stayed out of reach.

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Abdul Malik Sofawala, Mathematics Teacher

Abdul Malik Sofawala

Maths by experiment. Twelve awards in a year.

Abdul was not happy with the results he was getting, and felt traditional methods would no longer work.

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Aiswarya Das, Teacher in India

Aiswarya Das, India

Every module. Tried on her own class.

Aiswarya had just finished her master's and started her first school job, with no teaching qualification and no feel for the pedagogy behind the work.

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Priya Madhava Das, Computing Teacher in Dubai, UAE

Priya Madhava Das, Dubai, UAE

An extra slot. For one student.

Priya has taught computing in Dubai for well over a decade, using methods without knowing what they were called.

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More in Classroom practice · 17

  • Haripriya · UAE

    Learning to design rubrics during a year at home
    1 min read

  • Nazia Nadim · Dubai, UAE

    Inviting colleagues in to watch her maths lessons
    1 min read

  • Zakirunnisa Noor

    Turning acceptable lesson observations into consistently strong ones
    2 min read

  • Dr. Saima Afroze Sajid

    Recording her own chemistry lessons to improve them
    1 min read

  • Assumptarosalie · Dubai, UAE

    Studying through a pregnancy, and finishing first
    1 min read

  • Masoud

    Building a class around talk and group work
    1 min read

  • Artheeta Sarker · India

    Connecting what she studied to what she teaches
    1 min read

  • Monika Srivastava

    Asking the questions that show what students know
    1 min read

  • Amala R

    Learning what a lesson plan actually is
    1 min read

  • Karuna Lobo

    Rebuilding lesson plans under a mentor's blunt eye
    1 min read

  • Shreya

    Reaching the student who had switched off
    2 min read

  • Suzanne Vaidya

    Reaching four-year-olds when the classroom moved online
    2 min read

  • K.M. Kavitha · Dubai, UAE

    Giving students a sheet to track their own progress
    2 min read

  • Seema Altaf

    Learning child development before the first classroom
    1 min read

  • Bushra Mehboob · Dubai, UAE

    Less effort at the desk, more effect in class
    1 min read

  • Baishali Nandi

    Choosing practical teaching over theory alone
    1 min read

  • Lamiya Motiwala

    Finding the rules that make a lesson work
    1 min read

School leadership

Harpreet Gujral, Vice Principal in India

Harpreet Gujral, India

Vice principal again. Near family.

Harpreet had eighteen years in schools and a vice principal's record, but her husband's posting left her searching in a market where leadership vacancies are few; schools offered her a primary post or a step down to coordinator.

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Mahmooda Naseem, Section Coordinator

Mahmooda Naseem

Cleared the licence exam. Then trained the team.

Mahmooda was coordinating a school phase where no one had yet passed the teaching licence exam.

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Suraasa taught me distance doesn't matter. Students can still collaborate, use breakout rooms. Every child has individual needs. Differentiate through virtual workstations.

Humaira Junaid

Section Coordinator

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Izabella Smolinska, KG2 Teacher and Head of KG Team in Dubai, UAE

Izabella Smolinska, Dubai, UAE

A hard year, used well. Then a team.

With more than twenty years behind her, Izabella led the kindergarten team at a Dubai school and was still teaching much as she always had.

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In their own words.

Ashwin James Lal, World History Teacher in India

“PgCTL was more about: okay, if this scenario happens, how do you deal with that?”

Ashwin James Lal

World History Teacher, India

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Ami Marthak, Accounting and Business Teacher

“After entering Suraasa I realised, as a teacher, I might have content knowledge but I was not skilled.”

Ami Marthak

Accounting and Business Teacher

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Deepti Gautam, Teacher in Bangalore, India

“Now after joining Suraasa, I am watching in myself, there is a different kind of confidence I have.”

Deepti Gautam

Teacher, Bangalore, India

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Sharjil Hussain, Business and Accounts Teacher

“One of the key learnings that I acquired from my favourite professors at Suraasa was there to rescue me during the pedagogical exam.”

Sharjil Hussain

Business and Accounts Teacher

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Colette Affaya, Early Years Educator in United Kingdom

“Now I'm coming back here with the PgCTL and my focus now is to become a teacher. Fully fledged.”

Colette Affaya

Early Years Educator, United Kingdom

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Moatasim Salah, English Teacher in Dubai, UAE

“One of the things which I have tried newly with Suraasa is the working station. Working stations has made my classes more active, more engaging.”

Moatasim Salah

English Teacher, Dubai, UAE

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Browse more stories.

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Suraasa

Your story

Every one of these stories started with a conversation.

Tell a mentor where you teach today and where you want to be. They will call you back and map the route.