Cameron Kennedy

I began teaching after responding to an online advert for a learn-on-the-job TESOL certificate. The work placement I was given was at a Catholic school on the outskirts of Bangkok. After spending a year there, I did a volte-face and found myself teaching banking executives Business English.

Ultimately, I found myself in Indonesia where, for the first time, I began teaching teenagers preparing for their IGCSEs at a Private Catholic school in East Jakarta. This was the most challenging role of all up to that time and I really did have to learn/relearn everything I thought I knew about lesson planning and structuring, class management, discipline and rewards - the lot. It was a rewarding learning experience however, and a year or two later, I decided that teaching was my calling – not merely an excuse to live in warmer climates AND get paid for it! It also made me realise a very basic (but exceptionally important) tenet that the quality of work a class produces depends on the quality of teaching put into it.

Later I moved to a new, Singaporean school but found myself doing two jobs: as well as the requisite 25 hours in the classroom teaching IGCSE ESL and Junior High EL, I was registered with an Australian University and tasked with presenting lectures, explaining and regularly testing facets of Academic English, i.e., where and how to add citations, bibliographies, academic terminologies and so on. This resulted in a heavy workload, but it paid off in the end.

After an extremely tough first year I was able to transfer entirely to the school’s higher education faculty. I spent three years there until the college moved campus to another location which, sadly, was simply too far for me to commute. The most unusual aspect of my work at Raffles College was that, on top of lecturing Academic English, my most important job –not to mention my job title- was that of Academic Coordinator for Business & Accounting.

By sheer good fortune, not long after Raffles Academy moved campus, I was invited back to my old school with the role of “Head of Languages”; as well as resuming my regular role of IGCSE ESL teacher. As I was head of ALL languages, I was tasked with checking the weekly lesson plans, plus summative and formative tests of not only ESL, EFL, and (Junior) English Language, but those of our German and Mandarin teachers as well. This proved something of a challenge in itself as I speak neither of those languages!

My final position in Indonesia was in a different city, where I taught as an IGCSE ESL teacher (as always), but also Global Perspectives and Geography for Junior High.

After completing my contractual two years I resigned, with the promise of a job back in Thailand offered by my old boss where I was set to become Head of English Services for a new school near Bangkok. Sadly, Covid-19 had other plans, and I was not allowed to enter Thailand. So, disappointed, and with a non-renewable Indonesian visa, we (that is, my family and I) were forced to return to the UK.

So here I am, two years on.

And so here I move on to the other important topic, which is my teaching/tutoring style.

I like to describe my teaching style as relaxed but productive. In smaller (and sometimes larger) classrooms I like to sit close to the students -in a “learning circle” where possible- discussing the topics and learning outcomes directly with the students. This may seem to some to blur the line between teacher and student, but I feel, quite strongly, that the days of teachers standing at the front of the classroom, droning on about the learning outcomes, without interacting properly with the students, are long gone.

In my opinion, the only time a teacher/tutor should be announcing learning outcomes across the classroom is if they are new topics, and the teacher is demonstrating them for the first time to the class.

In a one-to-one session, I would introduce new concepts and topics quite openly - it’s fine to tell a student what is expected of them after a lesson.

So, I shall leave it there. I hope that describes everything you need to know about me.

Hope to speak to you all soon.