Michael Bird
Curriculum Vitae / Resume

(Nationality:- British Citizen. +60 1117956731. birdymike@yahoo.co.uk)

Personal Profile
I am educated to postgraduate level and have taught English for over 6 years, including 3 years as an Mentor. I also have 18 years of business experience in the field of engineering. Available from April 2016.

Education
July 2009–September 2009. Business English Certificate, TEFL International, Ban Phe, Thailand. 12 week distance learning course with 12 modules and 12 written assignments.
June 2009. TESOL Certificate, TEFL International, Ban Phe, Thailand. 4-week/120 hour intensive course, including 30 hours of teaching practice.
October 1994-July 1995. Postgraduate Diploma, Land and Water Management, Cranfield University, England.
October 1988-July 1991. BSc. Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, England.

Career History

October 2012 –September 2015. Mentor and Team Leader, Brighton Education, Segamat, Malaysia.

Brighton Education is an international educational organisation, working for the Ministry of Education in Malaysia, tasked with improving the English Proficiency and Teaching Methodology of Malaysian English teachers, in low performing primary schools. I headed a team of three native speakers, responsible for mentoring 45 Malaysian English teachers, in 15 primary schools. Our focus was on Level 1 teachers in Malay, Chinese and Tamil schools; mentoring both optionist and non-optionist teachers.

Team Leader duties:-
Managing a team of three native speaking mentors, to ensure the team adhered to the contract and job description.
Organising and delivering weekly English Proficiency and Teaching Methodology workshops for Malaysian teachers.
Reporting and presenting our challenges and successes to Brighton Education and the Ministry Of Education.
Creating educational materials for Brighton’s publishing arm.

Mentoring duties:- I helped to improve the Teaching Methodology of 15 teachers in 5 primary schools by:-
Assisting teachers with lesson planning and preparation in order to create fun, student centred lessons.
Assessing pedagogy skills via classroom observations and co-teaching.
Introducing fresh teaching ideas via classroom-demonstrations, workshops, co-teaching and one to one consultations.
Periodically reviewing the progress of teacher’s pedagogy skills and agreeing new pedagogy-goals.
Responding to bespoke training requests from teachers.
Areas covered included giving instructions, concept checking, identifying target language, language modeling, differentiated teaching, student centred activities, music, poetry and TPR.

Mentoring duties:- I helped to improve the English Proficiency of 15 teachers in 5 primary schools by:-
Organising and delivering weekly English Proficiency workshops, to help teachers with their general English and with their understanding of the national syllabus.
Periodically reviewing the progress of teacher’s language skills and agreeing new language-goals.
Responding to bespoke training requests from teachers.

Special Achievements:-
Our Segamat team achieved all KPI’s set by the Ministry of Education and Brighton Education.
Increased the visual presence of English in 5 schools by developing a range of posters for display around schools.
Created a range of supplementary teaching materials for teachers, closely aligned to the national curriculum.
Organised and delivered various special events for students, such as English Fun Day’s and Music and Dance Events .
Trained an additional 15-20 teachers and 200+ students from schools outside of the programme.
Attended company exhibitions and contributed regularly to Brighton’s project blog.
Wrote a mentor manual entitled ‘Grammar for Mentees and co-wrote ‘Working with Young Learners and Adolescents’, both of which are due to be published by Brighton Education.

July 2009-August 2012. ENGLISH TEACHER, Australia Centre, Medan, Indonesia.
Australia Centre is a language centre delivering over 40 English courses to around 1000 Indonesian students. I taught General English, Academic English, IELTS Preparation, Business English and English Conversation. Class sizes ranged from 1-25. English proficiency varied from elementary to advanced. Ages ranged from 7 – adult.
My principal duties included:-
Preparing and delivering 15 ninety minute lessons per week.
Assigning and marking homework and exams.
Monitoring student progress, providing individual feedback, and writing student reports.
Sourcing, developing and creating teaching materials.
Special projects relating to Business English, Academic English and IELTS Preparation.

Achievements:-
2009-2011. "Special Project : Syah Kuala University”. I was selected to teach two 5-hour classes per month, to 30 law students in Aceh. The objective was to raise English proficiency from IELTS level 4 to 5.5. I taught 4 academic English courses plus IELTS preparation with 100% pass rate. 60% of my students achieved IELTS level 5.5 or higher.

I was selected to teach Business and General English courses to 5 local companies involved in oil palm, banking and coffee industries. Feedback was very positive and all companies re-enlisted for subsequent courses.

February 2006-November 2008. U.K SALES MANAGER, KSB Limited, Loughborough, England. U.K.
KSB is a pump and valve manufacturer with a turnover of €1.8 billion and a global workforce of 14,000. I was responsible for the sale of products in southeast England, managing clients and achieving an annual sales target of €1.5 million.

February 2004-February 2006. EUROPEAN SALES MANAGER, Craneflow Limited, Cwmbran, Wales, U.K.
Craneflow is a multinational pump and valve manufacturer with a turnover of €30 million. I was responsible for the sale of products in northern Europe, managing distributors and achieving an annual sales target of €2.5 million.

February 1999-February 2004. SALES ENGINEER, Flotronic Pumps Limited, Bolney, England.
Flotronic is a pump manufacturer selling equipment to UK industry. I was the prime technical contact at the office and a key member of the sales force.

August 1995 - February 1999. MANAGER, Advanced Irrigation Systems, Newport, England
AIS distributes irrigation equipment to agricultural business’s throughout the U.K. I worked unsupervised contributing to all areas of the business including sales, purchasing, advertising, logistics, accounts and administration.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Fully computer literate with detailed knowledge of Microsoft Office and particular expertise in Excel and Word.
Languages: Fluent English (native speaker). Intermediate Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malay.
2011: Cambridge University seminar: “Energising Students through NLP”.
2007: Vocational training (KSB Limited): “Effective Communication and Presentation Skills”.
1998: Vocational training (Engineers for Disaster Relief): “Water Engineering and Logistics”.
FULL U.K and international driving license.

TRAVEL
November 2008 – July 2009. Traveled extensively throughout India, Nepal and south-east Asia.
July 1991 - July 1992. Worked and traveled throughout Canada and the USA.

HOBBIES & INTERESTS
I am a keen guitarist and writer of music. I have written music for primary school teachers for use in song competitions and for my own personal pleasure. I have also written many poems to help students and teachers to learn English. In the past, I have been a keen sportsman who has enjoyed hockey, football, rugby, snowboarding, mountain biking, and martial arts. More recently, my interests have expanded to include traveling, learning new languages and understanding new cultures. .

REFERENCES - details available on request
Chris Storer, Project Manager, Brighton Education, Malaysia.
Peter Clarke, Director of Studies, Australia Centre, Medan, Indonesia.
Ryan Harb, Project Manager, Brighton Education, Malaysia.