Andrea Looks Back … and Forward.

Andrea Magee graduated in 2011 with a BEd (Primary) degree. Below she looks back at her time at Stran, she explains how her teaching career has taken her from Belfast to Finland and to Switzerland, and she flags up an up-coming conference in Athens.

‘I always wanted to be a teacher – when I was very young I used to line up my teddy bears and ‘teach’ them on my toy blackboard! I used to tell them to be quiet! I loved school as a child and I loved learning, so it seemed like a natural progression for me to become a teacher, and I was over the moon when I got into Stranmillis.

Little did I know at the time that my goal to become a teacher wasn’t ‘achieved’ as such – the journey had only just begun. To become a teacher is a never-ending journey. As I remember being told at Stranmillis, as teachers we are the ultimate role models as lifelong learners. In order to enable learning to take place, we need to lead by example and remain open and curious to new learning opportunities ourselves.

My favourite memories from Stranmillis were those courses and modules which I chose for myself, through which I felt fundamental joy as a learner. I rarely thought of myself as a teacher when I was training at Stranmillis, but now I see how it shaped me to become the teacher and learner that I am today.

Stranmillis opened unimaginable doors that ended up shaping my career in ways I could never have dreamed of! During my third year, I spent an Erasmus exchange semester in Turku, Finland, with the help of the wonderful staff from the College’s International Office. It was a requirement to write a blog at the time, detailing my personal and professional development. II found this a lot of hard work, but in the end I found it so rewarding and fulfilling to have that blog to look back on that I’ve written several other blogs since!

That Erasmus semester completely changed my life. After graduating from Stranmillis, I returned to Finland where I studied for my Master’s in ‘Learning, Learning Environments and Educational Systems’. I met my now husband during my exchange; he is Swiss, and that’s what eventually led me to move to Switzerland, where I now teach. I teach in a bilingual international school in Zug, Switzerland. The children in my 2nd Grade class are 7-8 years old, and I also have the role of ‘Support Intervention Coordinator, through which I support children from 1st to 6th grade (aged 6-12).

In my spare time, I have recently co-founded a non-profit organization with other educator friends working abroad called ‘Embrace Joy in Education’ (emJoy education). We organise events through which we aim to bring teachers together and create a community of support and inspiration that will lead to joyful learning for all.

I host a monthly meet-up in Switzerland called the ‘edupat exchange’, when teachers and anyone passionate about education can meet, discuss and exchange ideas at the local library. We also have emJoy seminars in Helsinki and our biggest event coming up is a conference in Athens in October called the ‘Joyful Festival of Education’.