That’s a good question, and one I find hard to answer. I started calling this page “Who am I?” but as I reviewed later what I had written, I decided this was perhaps a better question for the answer I had written.
This is my current attempt at a response:
I am originally from the UK and I grew up there, living in Wales and England. For no particular reason, and also many reasons both good and bad, I have lived quite a nomadic life, and have so far also lived in Colombia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Malta.
I studied Mathematics and Hispanic Studies at university, which led to a life-changing year in Colombia (very weird to go somewhere you’ve never been before and feel like you’ve arrived home for the first time in your life). I then qualified as a mathematics teacher, and shortly afterwards moved into international teaching. I fairly quickly moved into a leadership role, not because of any particular ambition but because I saw a need, a problem to solve. That theme of problem-solving has been (I have later come to realise) a constant theme, leading me to take on further challenges as the opportunities presented themselves.
Over time, I have moved through various leadership roles in schools in various countries. Since 2016, I have been at Verdala International School (VIS) where I was originally the HS Principal (and for a while the interim Secondary Principal). As of 1st February 2020, I have moved into the new-to-the-school role of Director of IT Integration. I am also the Director of Studies, a role I’ve held for a number of years. Together, these two roles mean I have a lot of input into the quality of teaching and learning at the school.
So, what is this blog about? Good question. I’ve had many wonderful conversations with many wonderful people across the years, and done a lot of great thinking. For a while now the awareness that it would be good to start writing has been gently prodding me in the back, but the question was always – write about what? I don’t particularly want to contribute to the echo chamber.
But then I have come to realise a few things. One is that we do not think in order to write but we write in order to think. Another is that I won’t work out what to write about until I start writing. Something else is that although I don’t want to just shout out into the echo chamber, there are some things I am absolutely passionate about. The phrase that keeps coming to mind is “wearing your heart on your sleeve”, and I think it’s time I started to do that.
What I do know is that it is going to be about education. What I am sure about is that I am an educator, and I am passionate about education and about learning. That is something that is going to end up with its own post.
Writing to Think 