Personal
Information:
Name: Kaddy
Beck
Country:
United Kingdom
Occupation:
International Baccalaureate coordinator in Baku, Azerbaijan
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-What mostly
attracts you in teaching?
Being with
young people. Motivating them and helping them to achieve their dreams.
-Tell us a
little about your experience, have you ever worked in international schools out
of your home country?
I have
never actually worked in a proper international school. Outside of the UK, the
schools I have worked in have all been bilingual schools, with mostly national
students who are learning English.
Colombia and two different schools in France. In the Gambia I was a
volunteer working in a missionary school for local students.
-The most
difficult time of your profession.
The most
difficult times are always when you are asked to do something that you don’t
agree with, or that you know won’t work. This happened in the UK when the
school I was working in wanted upper school students (16 – 18 years old) to be
given after school detentions as punishments for doing something wrong. I found
this really difficult.
- The most
memorable moment from the school practices.
I had a
student who was passionate about Biology, but had never been successful in any
academic subject before. I watched him grow in confidence and in the end he
managed to pass IB Higher level Biology. Nobody thought it was possible. But he
did it.
-What do
you see as the perfect pupil, and do actually ideal pupils exist?
No. And if
I did think that the perfect pupil existed, then I couldn’t be a teacher.
-The most
important quality of a teacher, in your opinion.
Empathy.
-How do you
deal with stress at work?
I suppose
that I just take things as they come – one thing at a time.
-What is
the greatest lack of modern education?
I have no
idea what modern education is. For me education is just education. It is when
you work with students to develop their understanding of your subject, their
analytical skills. It is when you teach them how to learn. I think that this is
what education has always been about. The problem is when teachers think that
it is about them.
-What would
you advise to parents, when they choose a school for their children?
As a parent
myself, I really don’t know how to answer this question. I made awful choices.
Maybe you could look at the faces of the children in the school? Talk to the
teachers? But even then, the school is only as good as the teacher that your
child has.
-3 words
characterizing your teaching style