Kerry O'Hanlon

Agnostic, Concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Global soul, Parent, Scientist, Student, World traveler

I am an international school science teacher and have taught in 5 different countries in over 20 years. I emphasise the international because other than my teaching practice and some substitute teaching, I have not taught in my home nation of the UK. Having qualified as a teacher, I worked for VSO as a teacher in a very rural school in Zimbabwe. It was challenging as a Science teacher to have to teach both English and Maths as well and I had to become very innovative in what I could use for science apparatus as there was no science budget. It was here that I learned that a lot of volunteer work does not help the local situation but exacerbates it. As a degree holder, albeit with very little experience, taking the incredibly low salary offered to teachers in Zimbabwe, allowed the Zimbabwe government to keep offering this pittance and rely on foreign help rather than making education a desirable career to enter. The importance of seeking local opinion about what the needs of the community are rather than deciding what was necessary based on our own experiences and culture was driven home by this experience. After having our first child, my husband and I decided to look towards international schools for employment in order to continue our adventures and to give our daughter exposure to a range of experiences while affording us a living wage. I have worked in international schools in Qatar, Oman, Indonesia and am currently in Romania. Teaching chemistry has allowed me to emphasise to students the importance of looking at the basics and building understandings by connecting the fundamentals of the subject together. I feel that Chemistry is relevant to all aspects of life from domestic to industrial, from social to environmental and I endeavour to impart the enthusiasm I have for my subject to my students. I try to foster an environment where discussion and exchange of opinions are commonplace, where debate is encouraged and preconceptions, challenged. If I have been successful in this, students tell me about new advances that have been made and show a clear understanding of the science behind the development through their explanations. An unsuccessful class for me is one where students do not look beyond their textbook and the curriculum. I have particularly enjoyed playing an active role in service activities at school. I have helped to streamline service club activities in order to consolidate our student and financial resources. I have been involved in the co-ordination and supervision of fundraising and help students to organise lessons and activities for children from local schools. I have enjoyed the opportunity to draw upon my VSO experience of using limited resources to advise students in the creation Science Boxes, complete lessons in a box with the materials needed to carry out experiments, for schools with limited access to Science facilities. I have enjoyed travelling extensively throughout Africa, Asia and Europe, although, as I have grown older, I have enjoyed doing that in considerably greater luxury than when I first started work abroad! I take pride in the fact that my children have travelled more extensively than most adults in the UK, and both can navigate airports, immigration checks and most forms of public transport with ease. I still have to visit the Americas, so they are being looked at as potential holiday destinations. Now living in Romania, I enjoy the opportunities afforded by living in a European city - the ability to walk places, cafe culture, not being recognised as a foreigner until I open my mouth, seasons and clean air. I am hoping that my itchy feet don't start to itch for a few more years!

Socialism. I am well aware of the privileged life I lead, but it was not one that I grew up with. I firmly believe in our NHS system, social housing, minimum wage etc. I feel 0 hour contracts need to more highly regulated - if a company is advertising for workers offering 0 hour terms for more than three weeks, then it is clear that this is not a seasonal blip and proper terms should be offered. In a developed nation, I also feel that there should be no need for food banks. When people are relying on food banks to feed their family, particularly those who are working, then there is something seriously wrong with the rights of our lowest income members of our population. Children being independent and taking responsibilities for their own actions. I feel, all too often, excuses are made for students not behaving in the way that is expected, for example not meeting deadlines, but instead of making them face the consequences of their actions we make excuses. Reducing pressures on inexperienced mothers. When my daughter was young, I was worried that she didn't have many words. A lot of other mothers would be boasting about how fantastic their child's language was making me feel that there was something wrong with my child. A good friend of mine, with older children, listened to my worries and then asked if I knew any ten year olds with no words. It is a line I use often with inexperienced mothers worrying about their child not meeting their milestones right at or before the age stated in the books - along with the fact that it is OK to find their baby boring!! Controversially, limiting family size. I get really annoyed when someone who has 3/4/5 children tells me (2 children) that I should become a vegetarian to reduce my carbon footprint!

Using scientific data to support educational initiatives. All too often, initiatives are introduced with no hard evidence of the difference that they will make. The evidence is often anecdotal and can often be countered with other anecdotal information. The relative ease with which we can now collect data on student learning (Big Data) should mean that we can give concrete assertions to any initiative.

Chemistry, Education, Interntional Education, Raising TCKs

I really only came across TED when I started to look for videos to enhance the teaching of the Mole in Chemistry and came across the excellent TED-Ed videos. As an educator we were exposed to a number of talks looking at, for example, why students need to fail, and how our current educational practices need to adapt. But the talk that most inspired me to spread an idea further was 'The History of the World in 18 Minutes' as that caused me to look more carefully at the Big History Project as a course that should be run in schools and I'm currently pushing for it to be an elective at our current school. I first learned about TEDx when one of our students in Jakarta set up a conference. Although he had a co-organiser because he was under 18, he really organised the conference with very little help in the first year. Under his leadership, TEDx grew in popularity and eventually expanded out into the TEDx Salon events. I got involved with the conference, in his second year of running the event, when he asked several teachers to critique some of the potential speakers and then mentor a student to bring their speech up to standard. I was so amazed at the ideas that the students came up with and the professionalism of the whole event that was a student initiative that I decided that I would like to support an event in the school that I moved to.