Teacher Profiles

Let’s introduce some of our teachers to give you an insight into the people who bring classrooms to life at the Atlantic Centre of Education.

Dee Maher

Dee has been at Atlantic for many years. I spoke to her to learn about her journey here and discover why she loves teaching at the Atlantic Centre of Education.

So I am a teacher at the Atlantic Center of Education, and I’ve been here for a number of years. I was actually here for several years in the past, and then I left during the pandemic. So I didn’t teach for about two and a half years. And then I came back in March 2022. At the time, I had been copywriting which I like, but not full-time.

I had always really, really enjoyed teaching, and I had always enjoyed my time here at Atlantic, so I came back. In 2022, Atlantic decided to focus primarily on Erasmus+ education. I was asked by Alex, the Director of Studies at the time, to train on the English Professional Communication course.

That was the first course. And from there, I just really, really liked the Erasmus+ teaching experience. I liked the type of content I was delivering. I liked the people. I liked the fact that we teach one-week courses.

You would have a group of people arrive on one day. I really like to see how the dynamic and the friendships grow in that week because participants can get very close, and they bond and it’s really nice. And by Friday, they’re the best of friends and they’re all exchanging contacts. Sometimes you might go for a coffee together or you might even go for a drink after the course on a Friday.

It’s interesting for me to teach Erasmus courses. I’ve worked on creating some of the Erasmus programmes, the newer ones, which really makes my job more interesting as well because I love the teaching aspect, but I also really like syllabus development and being part of it.

So, yeah, some of the courses I teach include EPC, EMI, CLIL, Content and Language, Integrative Learning, and English language & Irish culture. I actually created quite a big part of that. I love something you’ve developed and I love delivering and teaching it.

My background is in journalism and media communications which I studied in college, followed by a post-grad in digital marketing. During the 2008 recession, I thought to myself that I’d do an English language teaching course, and maybe I’d teach and go abroad. But I ended up teaching here starting in 2013 while working in various writing jobs.

Once I had started here, I just got the bug. I really liked teaching. What I really, really like about here, though, is the atmosphere between my colleagues. So there’s a really good atmosphere between in the staff room and in the office. Aoife, our Director of Studies, is amazing. She’s such a nice boss. She’s such a lovely Director of Studies. She’s very approachable. She is very professional, and, I think it’s a big part of why people stay. Teaching here, the students, it’s all great and the atmosphere is really nice.