I started kickboxing
when I was nine years old.
I've won some British titles,
some European
titles, I won a world title in Greece.
I went through a stage of
competing almost every
weekend somewhere different
around the country,
which has been such an amazing
experience.
I did a year at college and
I just got a little bit fed up,
because I thought, "I want to
be out there doing something."
It felt like I'd spent too
much time at school then.
My brother really, was really keen
on opening a martial arts gym.
So, we opened a martial
arts gym and
I was teaching there full time.
I really got the buzz out
of teaching someone
something new
and seeing people improve,
and then I got to a stage where
I thought, "I want to be teaching
people, but in a different setting,
and I'm going to
follow my childhood
dream of becoming a teacher."
I work in a secondary school
as a cover supervisor.
Some days it might be maths,
English, science,
geography: it could be any subject,
any age, any class.
So, it's really nice because I
get a huge variety of students
to work with, different teachers
to work with as well, and
I learn lots as well.
I take home so much.
Well, I've lots of responsibilities:
I work five days a week
at the school. When I get
home from school,
I have something to eat;
then it's all the study books
that come out.
So, it's really,
I'm working every single day,
in the evenings, on
my assignments, and
then over the weekends as well.
I also enjoy lots of different hobbies,
being outdoors,
and I've got a partner,
which is also - a relationship,
it's something else you need
to weigh up.
So it is a lot of different things
going on, but
you only live once, so I think,
"Do as many things as I can."
This is my fourth year
with distance learning studying.
I'm studying for a BA Honours in
humanities. Half is English language and
half is religious studies.
I've had a really positive
experience. And every year I
see myself improving.
I had no idea what
critical thinking was.
Everything I read I just thought,
"Oh, that must be right,"
but now I know that I can
challenge it,
and that as long as I've got
evidence or even my own opinion,
they're not
always right.
Writing critically was difficult
at the start.
There was an online activity
about critical
understanding, where you had
different sections of
different peoples' work
and you had to
look at critiques:
look at ideas that
were against them,
ideas that were for them, and
you worked your way through
this online activity.
And I found that really, really useful.
There were activities
where you had to pick out the
key words that you had to use, and
I literally followed it step by step.
There was a lot of hedging,
it's called, where you
say, "So and so suggests,"
or things like that,
so they're always the good words to
look out for.
And then obviously you've got
the "howevers," which are
looking at the other
side of the argument as well.
I would definitely say that
my critical thinking skills
are really useful
within life generally.
Now I feel critical about
anything I read,
anything I see.
I use critical thinking a
lot at work,
especially working with students
and children as well.
And I always say to
them that it's so important
to have an opinion on anything
they read and
anything they watch.
Go the distance.