CGA Teachers: Meet Rebecca Close! Rebecca Close from England shares her personal interests and motivations in being the Commerce Teacher and UK Tech Lead at CGA. 

Teachers at CGA spend on an average 180 days a year with students. They constantly help us gain knowledge and improve our skills, however, we do not get to know who they are beyond the screen. Our first feature teacher is Rebecca Close, who teaches Business and Economics to the Greenwich students. I conducted an interview with her via Email and she thankfully spent time answering the questions. After reading the article, I hope you feel you have interacted with Miss Close at a personal level and been inspired by her life journey. Possibly even wanting to have her as a teacher!

Interviewer (I): “Tell us about yourself!  (Eg. Where you live, what are your interests or hobbies outside of the classroom, etc.)”

Rebecca Close (R): “I was born and raised in the United Kingdom, but I’m currently living on a small farm in France where my partner and I grow fruit and vegetables whilst trying to live a simple life.”

(I): Why  did you decide to study Management Sciences at university?

(R):“I chose Management Sciences for it’s broad content and real life application. I enjoyed the Maths side involved in decision solutions, which were the core modules in that BSc degree. As an A Level student I chose subjects I genuinely thought were interesting and got pleasure from studying and whilst researching degrees I decided that the best option for me was a course that had many pathways that could change with me over the 4 years (with placement year). Management Sciences gave me huge flexibility by offering so many electives; I went on to choose mostly Banking and Finance and Information Systems modules.”

(I): What motivated your decision to become a teacher at CGA ? 

(R):“I have always followed a route in teaching that focused on harnessing edtech tools and I had already left the traditional classroom to work for online education providers, both teaching and tutoring remotely. I wanted to join CGA as it kept the synchronous element to teaching whilst exploiting the technology to deliver it all remotely. It was exciting to find this pioneering organisation that offered me the chance to teach to such a diverse set of students in my classes.”

(I): What is your favorite part of the curriculum that you teach and why?

(R): Externalities because I find it helpful to teach topics through diagrams and the externality diagrams is when it gets exciting for AS Economics students. It also links to my interests in environmental economics.

(I): What is your favorite part of your current job and why?

(R):My favourite part is forming relationships with my students. I get to see my full time students every day! This results in everyone really knowing the different characters in the class.

(I): Describe your teaching style or philosophy.

(R): My philosophy of teaching revolves around active learning, i.e learning by doing and receiving and acting upon feedback. Therefore, with the power of the online tools, I am pretty confident I know what my students do and do not understand through the evidence they provide during the class and assignments. One of the best teaching tips I was ever given was that I should prioritise marking but to only give feedback that was valued and acted upon, essentially I am always trying to make individual student’s learning visible which cannot be done unless I am viewing their work in real time. So to answer the question I hope my presence in the classroom is not as a master of the subject by explaining the whole specification but instead challenging and supporting students to improve their current understanding.

(I): How would you describe your transition experience into an online school and the dependency of technology it created?

(R): To be honest there has been very little difference! My previous face to face schools all had mobile technology in lessons, so my lessons already incorporated tools such as socrative, kahoots, and shared online live documents (like kami or google education suite). 

(I): What does a typical teaching  day look like for you?

(R): 1/3 in live lessons, 1/3 marking, 1/3 planning & updating flipped learning activities and managing the department. 

(I): Crimson Global Academy has a culturally diverse student population with varied academic backgrounds. What are some qualities that prepare you to effectively teach in this kind of environment?

(R): When I was fourteen I flew, unaccompanied, to Hong Kong to spend a holiday with my Cantonese friend from school. I have always loved experiencing different cultures and religions. I have created the opportunity to travel and work around the world as much as possible. It seems perfect that I am now part of an international school community; I feel that my openness and appreciation for different cultures are qualities that help me teach at CGA. Everyday I feel so lucky to teach and learn from the diverse student body.