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How creative Cambridge teachers help us develop classroom resources

Curriculum  

When I was asked to write about our teacher consultants and the important work they do for us, I was reminded of my own experiences starting out as a teacher.

Often, when I was planning lessons, I found that the resources to hand were never quite right for that one particularly demanding class.

Just like many other teachers new to the profession, I had to learn how to adapt and create my own resources so that my students could meet their learning objectives.

For teachers, it is so important to be able to access creative, innovative and stimulating resources but it can be extremely time consuming!

Good teaching resources can help change learners from passive to active, from uninterested to engaged, and help students transition from being overly reliant on their teacher to being responsible for their own learning.

We know that when it comes to writing and reviewing outstanding teaching and learning resources our teacher consultants play a vital role in ensuring our support materials are relevant, clear and engaging.

In May, my colleague Laura wrote about the continuing success of Resource Plus one year on. In part, what makes Resource Plus such a success is the consultants who design and make the resources. With the new materials due to be launched in February 2019 for yet more subjects, we knew that we were going to need teacher consultants, and lots of them!

Who are our teacher consultants?

Our teacher consultants are experienced teachers who understand the Cambridge Learner Attributes and want to reflect this in the work they do for us, whether that’s writing schemes of work, creating teacher guides or mapping our syllabuses to local curriculums.

They are from all over the world, providing a wealth of teaching experience from different countries and cultures.

Our teacher consultants understand the pressures in the classroom and the need for lesson resources to be easily accessible and responsive to the needs of the learners.

They draw upon their understanding of different teaching and learning styles to enhance the support materials that they write.

Meet consultant Iain Davis- Teacher of English King Henry VIII College, Malaysia

Working as a consultant for Cambridge International is a very rewarding experience.

You are commissioned to develop a range of diverse resources for learners and teachers which are published on the Teacher Support Site.

This is exciting as you are directly contributing to the quality of teaching and learning that is taking place in classrooms around the globe.

It allows you the opportunity to share the good practice you have developed in your own teaching, and produce outstanding, practical resources that can be developed and used with your own learners.

At the same time, it also enhances your professional development as you must reflect on and engage with the assessment objectives of the IGCSE or A-level course you are working on, and how the course is delivered and assessed.

Furthermore, you are fully supported and supplied with clear guidance and feedback as you work through each stage of every commission.

I have worked on many projects for English and Literature.

Each project has:

  • exposed me to new software/ skills
  • allowed me time to conceptualise the course in a way you are not always able to in your day-to-day teaching
  • given me a real sense of accomplishment and pride on what I have created

Why become a teacher consultant?

Becoming a teacher consultant is an amazing opportunity to share with teachers the skills honed in the classroom by creating support resources.

Our teacher consultants have a unique opportunity to help their teaching colleagues on a global scale.

They are sharing best practice and outstanding pedagogy not simply with those in the same school, or even the same town or city, but with all Cambridge schools.

This helps Cambridge International to continue to have a strong and united focus on education and learning, that ultimately helps our teachers develop and our learners achieve.

Furthermore, because all of our support is written in English, it provides an opportunity for all teachers across the world to communicate in the same language.

Writing support materials allows our teacher consultants to continually reflect on their own practice as they revise successful materials they’ve used in their daily teaching.

Similarly, it provides teachers with the opportunity to stay informed of any changes to the syllabuses, always considering how they might adapt their own teaching to changes in the assessment criteria.

How do you become a teacher consultant?

Becoming a teacher consultant is simple. An interested teacher completes the form on our website to give us information about their teaching qualifications, experience and which kind of support they would like to develop.

We can then match them with a resource that allows them to show off their skills, knowing that they are helping other teachers along the way.

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