IB Geography Head of Department, TOK Teacher, and IB Examiner for Geography Paper 3 and Extended Essays, Holds BA (Hons) in Geography with Over 20 Years of Teaching Experience.
Tutor Bio
I have over 20 years of teaching experience in the classroom and running a busy department. I am head of Geography and also teach TOK. In addition, I work as an IB examiner for Geography. I have worked in international schools in South America for the last 10 years and understand the varied requirements of the full range of IB students. I have developed IB internal assessment programmes, written IB course companions and can support students through every stage of their IB Geography or TOK journey to gain exam success.
Teaching Experience
2011-2021 @ Markham College Lima Peru
IB Geography and TOK
Run the Geography department for the last 10 years. Teach HL and SL Geography students. Have taught the IB programme and optional themes. Have developed internal assessment and fieldwork programmes. Have produced and published course companions to support the Geography IB programme. Supported students with EEs in Geography. Have taught TOK programme and supported students with TOK essays, presentations, and displays.
2014-2021 @ International Baccalaureate Organization
IB Examiner for Geography
I am currently an examiner for the IB and have examined Geography IAs, Geography Paper 1, 2, and HL Paper 3.
2006-2011 @ London Nautical School, Waterloo, London
Head of Geography and taught GCSE Geography and History
Taught A-level using a variety of approaches to meet the needs of mixed ability groups.
2007–2011 @ OCR
A-level Examiner for OCR
Examiner for the OCR board responsible for marking and assessing Geography A-level papers.
1997- 2005 @ Hornsey School for Girls, Crouch End, London
Geography, History and English Teacher
Taught Geography, History, and English in a busy London secondary school where many students had English as their Second Language. Developed valuable skills in SEN and ESOL.
Education
University College London, UK
BA (Hons) in Geography
Teaching Skills
Subject
Level
Assignments
Geography
SL, HL
Internal Assessment (IA), Extended Essay (EE)
TOK: Essay and Exhibition
Tutor Teaching Style
In the classroom, I use a variety of strategies and encourage students to engage in discussion work to explore new ideas and concepts. In tutoring my methods are slightly different. The focus is exploring what the students know and building from this base to enable them to quickly develop in areas where they may be weaker. The goal is to encourage students to become independent learners who have the skill set to tackle the IB assessments with confidence.
In the first session with students, I would use guided questions and traffic lighting to find out how students feel about their knowledge and understanding of key concepts and skills in the IB programme. Then we would develop a plan together of where they would like me to focus their time and on obvious areas that have been highlighted in the traffic lighting exercise. Finally, I would set them a short skills task and a written exercise to gauge their current level of understanding and their writing ability. This will provide me with a wealth of information to determine their level in Geography or TOK and how I can best support them in future lessons.
Tutor Reviews
Grazia from Poland
Tutor Quote
A professional personable teacher who takes the time to understand the individual needs of each student - Jon Lowe (Head of Middle School at Markham College)