James Barron

My first experience of teaching was in 2016, when I was asked to deliver a talk to a group of 16-year-olds on what it was like to start your own business. I immediately knew I wanted to become more involved in teaching but I didn’t know where to start as I had not previously considered a career in education. A few weeks later I agreed to teach a class of Chinese students from the Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics and Information, who had travelled to the UK to learn English and Software Engineering, after that I was hooked. Within the next few years, I taught hundreds of students of many different nationalities, aged from 16 to 60, and from levels 2 to 6. I focused my time teaching with Bath University and Bath College for several more years until I felt a change was in order. For the last few years, I have taught remotely with several private training organisations, provided dedicated one to one coaching sessions, provided consultancy on teaching and assessment practices and written about my experiences as a teacher. I plan to continue with my current activities for the foreseeable future but I’m always open to new teaching experiences.

swot

What Is A Personal SWOT Analysis For Students?

Abstract This article delves into the significance and application of SWOT analysis, a crucial tool for business, marketing, teaching and individual self-assessment. Originated in the 1960’s by Albert Humphrey, SWOT, originally known as the SOFT analysis, evaluates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an entity, be it an organisation or an individual. While businesses employ

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own resource design

Evaluate the Effectiveness of my Design and use of Resources to Engage and Meet the Individual needs of Learners in my Own Specialist Area

Students are provided with 3 working programs, along with the source code. Each of the programs approaches the task of breaking the password in different ways. Students are expected to run the programs, evaluate each of the programs and explain how the programs work. The first method is very straightforward, easy to understand and has

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legal resources

Legal Requirements of the Development and Use of Resources

Traditionally organisational email provides all communication between students and staff, the primary benefit being all emails are recorded and monitored to ensure safety of both staff and students. An extremely important aspect is that all students and staff have organisation email accounts. “Most younger (and, increasingly, older) learners use social networking sites to keep in

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resource design

Theories, Principles, Models of inclusive Curriculum Design informing Resource Development

When designing resources, it is important to consider the theories, principles and models that are to assist the process with the goal of creating better resources. For example, different resources will suit different stages of the Kolb learning cycle: Concrete Experience is best suited to resources such as Realia or using relevant equipment, allowing students

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teaching resources

The Purpose of Resources in Teaching and Learning

While teaching I make extensive use of resources as I feel they assist my students learning and make me a more effective teacher. The three primary resources I use are PowerPoint presentations, Handouts/Worksheets and Realia. Beyond these there are others that are ubiquitous to my subject area, such as computers, internet and specific software, such

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targets

The Importance of Reviewing Learner Progress and Targets

It is fundamental that learner progress and targets are reviewed on the date originally specified when creating the target, without the review students will not be motivated to meet the target and all future targets will be undermined, being considered optional by students. Reviewing targets also lets students know they are on the right track,

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support targets

Approaches to Support Learners to Create Personal Learning Targets

When a student is struggling and behind with their work it is common for them to block out all correspondence from the teaching establishment and ignore any messages from tutors and lecturers. This is a theme that in my experience is consistent with all learners, no matter their age, level of study, gender, etc. This

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