Teacher
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"Whatever you do, do not become a teacher!” my senior lecturer father used to say whenever we were discussing my potential career and often when we weren’t. “It’s a mug’s game." So when my school career advisor suggested teaching as a possible career for someone who wanted to study French, I discounted it immediately. But then, in 1984, I landed myself a job in a recruitment agency and part of my remit was to teach word processing (back then a very newfangled concept) to the typists we were sending out on jobs. One main reason I got that job was that my father had taught me to use a word processing program called WordStar in order to prepare the synopsis for my first book concept, French Tarts. My mother, then teaching typing at the local college, taught me to touch type. Hmm. Two teachers in the family…
I was sent on a course to learn how to use a machine called a Wang and had to create my own course documentation ready to start teaching. In short, I loved it. I loved writing the course and I loved teaching it too. |
When I moved to Dubai as a newlywed, I found myself work in another recruitment agency, again teaching word processing but when, five years later, we were posted to Oman, it seemed no similar opportunity existed, which was when, with a lifetime of creative writing and 13 published books under my belt, I decided to teach writing. I discovered that I loved that too and that teaching and writing had inadvertently become a perfect portable career that filled me with joy and had the power to make a difference.
Postings took us to Norway, back to the UK and onto the Netherlands and still I taught, always to adults and always on topics I knew well first hand. After running a business for many years I ran classes on networking and marketing on a shoestring. After earning my keep writing articles I started to teach others to do the same, creating a course called Definite Articles. Of course, I taught people to write books too and Release The Book Within followed suit. In 2010 I decided to research and move into writing life story, and created Write Your Life Stories. All three courses can now be taken online with me on a one-to-one basis by email and/or the workbooks can be purchased alone.
In the 25 years or so that I have been teaching, hundreds – if not thousands – of people of countless nationalities and all abilities have sat before me, taken up their pens and started to write. It is a privilege to be part of this.
Postings took us to Norway, back to the UK and onto the Netherlands and still I taught, always to adults and always on topics I knew well first hand. After running a business for many years I ran classes on networking and marketing on a shoestring. After earning my keep writing articles I started to teach others to do the same, creating a course called Definite Articles. Of course, I taught people to write books too and Release The Book Within followed suit. In 2010 I decided to research and move into writing life story, and created Write Your Life Stories. All three courses can now be taken online with me on a one-to-one basis by email and/or the workbooks can be purchased alone.
In the 25 years or so that I have been teaching, hundreds – if not thousands – of people of countless nationalities and all abilities have sat before me, taken up their pens and started to write. It is a privilege to be part of this.
Want me to come and run a class at your premises? Three-hour or one-day workshops available on the following:
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