P AGE 6 - NEW TEACHERS - PRIMARY
SCIS C HRONICLE
Getting to know you, getting to know all about you! This is the corner that was specifically designed to introduce the new teaching staff of St. Constantine’s International School. These articles are all written by students. In this edition, we meet a variety of primary and secondary staff who joined us in January. We also catch up with a few August starters who we missed last term (sorry for that - Ed).
August 2013 Starters Ms
Susan Phillips who hails from Canada is St. Constantine’s Primary Music teacher. She has been at St. Constantine’s since August last year, which makes it five months from now. Growing up in a teaching family, her father being a teacher and her mother being a music teacher, music was there throughout her life. She then worked as a music therapist. Music therapy is the use of music as a means to achieve a goal, improve one’s well being and decrease depression. "Music reaches us on an emotional level and is very stimulating," she says. Mrs. Phillips points out that she absolutely enjoys teaching the younger students because they are very open minded and have lots of ideas of their own. Whether its song-writing or improvising, they are very different from the students she taught in North America. When she first arrived at the school, she remembers thinking it was "very green” and that it showed a healthy and positive environment. One of her greatest obstacles was to arrive and find out that she was going to teach four hundred and thirty students that she would only get to see once a week. At first it was a big challenge to make a meaningful impact on their education, with just forty-five minutes once a week. However, it’s all about the relationship she has with them. Susan is gradually adapting to the situation and the students to her expectations. Her role model is a Canadian music teacher that uses classical music to inspire kids. Overall, she has read about her, studied and used her work several times. Not only is she just a primary music teacher, she is a singer-song writer as well. Before she even became a music teacher, she had already succeeded in creating her own CD. We ended the interview with her last words to parents in which she expresses her deepest appreciation for the students’
openness to experimentation, creative ideas and their willingness to take a step into the unknown. All in all, their courage! Dora John (Yr 12)
Mrs
Jane Tyson who joined St. Constantine’s last August is one of the Year 3 teachers. Jane, who is from South London, teaches Maths, English Social Studies and ICT. She started her career in 1996 and was inspired to teach by the fun teacher s she had when she was a student. Jane was also inspired to teach because she didn’t find school easy herself. Jane instantly fell in love with the school’s outdoor space, which encourages her to get her students out of the classroom. She loves her pupils, many of whom are curious, lively fun and eager to learn. Her greatest obstacle is balancing her time with her children and wanting to teach, which is her passion. Jane is happy to have come to Tanzania with her family; she wanted both her children to come here and have a fantastic experience. Her role model is her former fourth and fifth grade teacher who used to love to dress up like Sherlock Holmes and other characters she had read about. Dora John (Yr 12)
January 2014 Starters Miss Siobhan Dooley joined SCIS in January as the new 5th grade teacher. She is from South Africa but grew up in Seychelles. This is her first year as a teacher and she currently teaches English, Mathematics and Social Studies. She majored in English Literature and will soon be joining the Secondary Department in September 2014 to teach ‘A’ Level English. Her first impressions of this school are that it is friendly and welcoming. She became a teacher because she didn’t want a PhD or an office job straight away. So she found a way she