Stephen J Mccool Email and Phone Number

In my most recent role as a Tutor at Heriot Watt, there was a vast range of responsibilities I had to undertake in the workplace. For instance, one of the main responsibilities included leading a class of fourteen international undergraduate and postgraduate students and teaching them how to correctly write an academically sound essay. My public-speaking skills and presenting skills helped me immensely in this job as I was able to prepare and give presentations that helped both the undergraduate and postgraduate students in my class. I was accountable to prepare lessons regarding how to reference properly, how to plan and structure an academic essay and how to properly evaluate academic sources among other things. In addition, another responsibility I had in my work experience was to concur with other members of staff in order to correctly assess students' work. By sharing this responsibility with my fellow colleagues, I was able to get the best out of not only my own students I taught but other student’s I had assessed in other classes. Moreover, whilst working in all levels of education, I came across some students who were struggling with the work for a variety of reasons. As their first port of call, it was my responsibility to aid them during their time at university. If it was regarding academic worries,I would create lesson plans and even arrange one-to-one calls with students to facilitate any queries they had regarding their essay or academic sources they were using. For students who had any personal issues, I would reassure said students that my superiors and I wanted the best outcome for them. This would involve me arranging one-to-one weekly calls in order to facilitate their personal requirements, for example, arranging English lessons for those with lower language levels. Other day to day responsibilities were to build students' confidence and create a positive environment for them to thrive whilst studying away from home.

Whilst working in Spain as an English teaching assistant, I taught a class of 25 sixth year students. Through collaborating with the teacher and head of year, it was agreed that my role would be to help these struggling students to pass their reading and writing exams. I took said students out of English class every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour, with classes split between reading and writing. For reading classes, I started by giving the students exam papers from previous years and analyzing each section of the paper individually to get the students comfortable with the exam format. For writing I approached this differently; I gave the students essay examples so they could understand how they were structured and we would highlight important grammar structures present in the essays and compile a list so that the students could reference these grammar structures and use them in their own essays regardless of the topic. For vocabulary, again we highlighted vocabulary specifics to the topic and made a list related to different topics. I taught them to research synonyms for topic specific vocabulary so the students had a variety of words to use in the exam. I instructed the students to do the written assignments in groups, to help them get started. Then over time began to implement individual writing tasks,to encourage the students to work individually and use their own initiative. Moreover, I had set up some private one-to-one classes with students struggling in English . I would speak to the student with the parents and establish an outline for what they wanted to achieve. Then, I would arrange weekly classes with the students to help them improve their English. This involved giving exam advice, showing the exam structure, what subjects could be in the exam etc. and then I tailored lessons to each student’s requirements.

Whilst working and living in Spain, I also formed a public-speaking lunch club at the primary school where I worked. This club was for children in their final year of primary school and the aim was to help the students gain confidence when answering in class in both English and Spanish. The lessons included public speaking and debating techniques that the students could apply later in life. The results from this club were that the children gained more confidence in their language abilities and they were able to communicate and express their opinions in a more concise and logical manner.

Conducted several telephone interviews per day with multiple clients from around the U.K on a variety of topics. Organised interviews in a short and concise manner as to keep up with monthly objectives. Gathered data from interviews and allocated data into separate files.