Personal Statement: When I reflect upon what originally attracted me to teaching, I can identify a variety of desirable benefits.

I learned something new every day. I had multiple interactions with a variety of personalities daily. I was allowed to be creative, spontaneous and work with children. I had a direct impact on how someone else day and future could turn out. Those same benefits still draw me in today exciting me and feeding my enthusiasm about my career. As I made my journey through the years, I can see various phases my own learning and education went through. Initially in my first phase of public school teaching, I developed a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding in my field as well as honed my classroom management skills. The second phase of my teaching in public school focused on why students werent performing as I expected sometimes on formative and summative assessments. I developed a series of strategies to help students approach the curriculum including visualization and concept maps. The third phase of my teaching in public school took me into honors classes where I added more depth of knowledge. I found creative ways to present difficult concepts from plays of photosynthesis to outside gardens which were awarded the National Garden Award. At this point in my life circumstances were such that I was able to start thinking about teaching overseas. Ive always been interested in travel and seeing the world. My Department Chair at the time knew I was looking for an overseas position, and he convinced me to follow him as a stepping stone to a half French half International school called Awty International School of Houston. My intention was to stay only a couple of years and then move overseas. As it turned out, through contacts at the school I started working every summer for Oxbridge Academics in Cambridge England. This satisfied my desire for travel for the next twelve years. During this phase of my international school teaching, I learned the IB program, coached tennis and cross country and became Department Chair of Science. Eventually however I decided it was time for more of a challenge and to reinvent myself as a teacher in order to enrich my skills. One of my first students at Awty called me one day, knowing I was looking for an overseas post, and informed me that he had a job for me. When I asked where it was, he said it was at The British International School of Jeddah where he was the IB Coordinator. So off I went and this is where I have been for the past two years. Ive enjoyed the challenge of reinventing my teaching style into more of a student based classroom, upgrading the Department with current equipment and technology, and bringing in enthusiastic engaging teachers. I am happy here, but still feel the urge to move east. Ive always wanted to see the Far East and experience the culture. I would love to bring my thirty four years of experience, knowledge and understanding to a new environment. I have fifteen of those years in IB HL and SL biology experience. I have taught grades Y9 through the IB 2 in biology. I am currently involved in converting my lessons with UbD and current technology like Show Me and Infuselearning. I would like to bring my wealth of knowledge, humor and enthusiasm to a new culture and in turn gain more knowledge and enrich my own global perspective. Sincerely, Pegeen Crockett