Stalwart teacher of the Maths department, Mr Allan Shannon, recently added a few extra letters after his name!
In itself, that isn’t unusual—teachers at Illawarra Christian School regularly update and expand their professional qualifications. But Mr Shannon’s recently awarded Masters degree has certainly rounded out his qualifications—in fact, it’s a whole new area. We asked him a little about the thinking behind this move.
I have been teaching Maths since 1989—that’s a lot of Maths! I decided a couple of years ago that it was time to update my qualifications. I contacted the University of Wollongong to discuss the Master of Education program and after this discussion, I decided to enrol.
However, I wanted to expand my teaching qualification and so I attempted a language-based program rather than a Maths-based program. I began the course in 2014 and was challenged by subjects in grammar, psychology, assessment practice, and IT, as well as subjects about problems with language acquisition. I finished the last subject in January 2018 and enjoyed my graduation on 31st October with a Master of Education (TESOL–Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Not sure where I go from here but looking forward to the next challenge!
At ICS, we’re proud that our teachers so highly value their own professional development—we know it keeps them at the top of their game and is part of what makes them so engaging in the classroom. Congratulations to Mr Shannon on this fantastic achievement!