I was born in the South West of England, daughter to an English woman and a Welsh man. They divorced when my older brother and I were both little. As a result of the divorce, we lived with Mum in term time and went to school in an English cathedral city. But in the school holidays, we lived on a small Welsh hill farm with Dad and Mangi and Dadcki (that’s Welsh for Grandma and Grandpa). The good things that have come from this childhood are many: a strong bond with my elder brother, a love of small cathedral cities, a deep and abiding passion for the countryside and, most relevantly to this present text, the knowledge from the inside out that there are different languages and different ways of living and doing and thinking. In short, that there are very different cultures and they all have things to recommend them.

I started working early… by helping out on the farm, by dog-walking, waitressing. It was necessary financially but I also found it extremely interesting. Again, I was learning about different cultures… this time occupational ones.

After school (which I hated until the sixth form) and university (where I had to study very hard to keep up), and some travel (ah! why do women fall in love so young and so impossibly?!), I had some more challenging jobs such as being International Student Officer at the National Union of Students and Field Officer at the Martin Luther King Foundation. Then I retrained for English Language teaching. I found my feet as a language teacher by staying for 2 years at a wonderful little private language school in north London. Then I went on an odyssey. I only meant to go away for a few months but it took me about 7 years, I think, to go via Hawaii (oh Mr Obama were you there when I was there?) to Japan, to short calls in Asian countries and then via Switzerland for 2 years before settling back in the UK in the South East region where I am writing this today. I left on my adventure with one large bag and returned with the same bag (much bashed about) but, luckily, with a very nice friend too, to whom I am now married.

And after all those changes, I have enjoyed a period of great stability, in the sense of staying put in one region, for the last 20 some years. The stability has come from the fact that, all that time, I have worked in the same fields, those of English language teaching, at Hilderstone College, Broadstairs, and journal editing for Pilgrims, Canterbury. With this stability however, has come the variety I need too. For I have had the chance to work as an EFL teacher at all levels, a pre- and in-service teacher trainer, professional development co-ordinator, trainer-trainer, writer, editor, disability support tutor, travelling trainer, course developer, external assessor, publisher, IATEFL President and ‘Uncle Tom Cobbley and all’, as the song goes! Of course, I would not have been able to take up so many chances for different things if I had not been both part-time at my college and also supported there by a boss who has always, by her scheduling and supportive attitude, helped me to do new professional things outside the college. I also would not have been able to do so many interesting things if I had not been asked to do them by kind and trusting colleagues in the field such as Mario Rinvolucri and Peter Grundy.

So you see, just as when a child I lived between two places and two differing family cultures, so, as an adult over the last 20 years or so, I have worked mainly between two employers and two differing occupational cultures! I see a pattern there!

The TeachingEnglish team have asked me to list some of my recent publications and projects so here goes:

Recent Publications

Ways of working with teachers (2004), Headstrong (2006), a series of 5 articles under the title ‘I think, therefore I learn’ in English Teaching professional (2008-9), regular articles in the Teacher Trainer journal.

Recent Projects

• IATEFL President 2006-8.
• Chair of the ‘Teaching thinking’ symposium at the IATEFL Cardiff 2009 conference.
• Achieving 23 full years of the magazine I edit and write for, the Teacher Trainer journal.

When I am not enjoying the pursuits mentioned above, I like walking, being with horses, singing, reading, being in the garden and seeing friends. I also like learning new things and that is why I wanted to be a guest writer on the TeachingEnglish web site. I had a slightly unnerving video interview, which I hope you can see somewhere on this website. And that will give you an idea of how inexperienced I am with this sort of medium! And next I would like to learn more about blogging. I need to learn how to initiate and respond to postings of the many-stranded nature typical of this new (to me) kind of communication. I hope you will bear with me during my inevitable mistakes!

Anyway, I look forward to meeting you online soon!

All good wishes

Tessa Woodward

Tessa's blog is now closed for comments - check the Guest Writer's page to see who our current blogger is.