Questions provided by Amy Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University.
What are you hoping to achieve with your YouTube channel? Any plans for future content?
We set up our channel with the aim of helping to promote positivity for teachers. With the pressures of the job, more and more educators seem to be turning away from teaching. We love what we do despite the workload and want to help others to manage their time with our tips and tricks! In the future, keep an eye out for videos that involve technology resources for the classroom. We also want to tackle issues like appropriate social media use for children and provide support for teachers who have to deal with this on a daily basis. We want to create an entire community of support on our channel. We have recently built a website which we hope to use as a hub for all of our content.
What kind of subjects do you cover on the channel and why are they useful for teachers/students?
Currently, our main audience is teachers from the UK who are new to the job or training. Surprisingly, over 88 different countries have viewed out content - It seems there are a lot of educators from around the world who find our videos useful! We cover anything from behaviour management tips to setting up your classroom. We also have a particular focus on teacher work life balance as we believe this is extremely important for new practitioners.
Is the channel mostly for students and those beginning in teaching?
For now! Just you wait - we have almost 12 years of experience between us and we certainly have ideas to share with teachers who have been in the profession for a long time. We believe our channel has unlimited potential when it comes to education related content.
What made you want to start up a channel and when did you first have the idea?
Ryan and I have worked together in the past so we already knew we wanted a project to focus on. We noticed a lot of negative education related posts online (for example, "those who can't do, teach") and people complaining about the job and decided to inject some positivity. YouTube is the perfect platform for us. We know that as we grow we will have the chance to collaborate with international teachers from all over the world!
How did the two of you meet? What is your background story?
Ryan and I met 5 years ago at a school in Manchester. I was an NQT, he was in his second year. We were drawn to each other both as colleagues and as friends. Working in a school that dealt with difficult behaviour meant we relied on each other for support; We always knew how to keep the staff uplifted when times were tough. After three years we knew we had to make memories in a new country, so we moved to Hong Kong with our friends and that's where we currently work! International teaching is incredible. We will be making a video in the future about our transition story in order to inspire others to take the same path. Ryan took his PGCE at Lancaster University, and I graduated with a BA Honours Teaching degree from Sheffield Hallam University.
You say you've had some experiences teaching abroad, can you tell me some of your most interesting stories?
Since moving to Hong Kong, we have been ticking off as many countries around Asia as possible. Hong Kong is located centrally which makes flights cheap and gives us plenty of travel opportunities. We cuddled raccoons in South Korea, danced with robots in Japan and shared a candle lit dinner in a paddy field in Malaysia with our friends (and a couple of cows...) We know how lucky we are to be living this life and would recommend international teaching to all educators.
Is teaching what you expected? What are the positives and negatives?
The positives of teaching outweigh the negatives. Yes you will be drained, exhausted and tired for the first year, but you are gaining invaluable life experience that can be applied in many areas of your life. As you grow you will learn to find a work life balance. Every day is different; Every class is unique. Worst case scenario, remember the summer holiday will come round quickly and you'll have the chance to explore the world. I've also met some of the most incredible, inspiring and creative people through teaching. Teachers are stronger than they realise, and must be positive influencers for the next generation.
Anything else?
Please visit our channel and click "subscribe" This action will help us to reach a larger audience and will indirectly make our videos available to a wider audience. All you need to do is type “For Teachers” into a YouTube search and we are the first result that pops up. Stay tuned for our future content and please share with any teachers who might find our advice useful.
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