Teach Middle East Magazine Sep - Dec 2020 Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 46

A Moment with
of Information Technology (IT) and he
went on to sit the IT examination at
the GCSE level where he was awarded
an A. Atif’s love for IT continued as
he became a teacher and later the
founder of Teacherly.io.
In this article we learn more about
this passionate educator, turned
entrepreneur and the Teacherly.io
platform, which is designed to help
educators collaborate and plan more
efficiently.
Who was your favourite
teacher? Why?
I actually had two, Mr. William my IT
teacher and Mrs. Bond my Geography
teacher. They were both passionate
about their subjects which motivated
me to go beyond what was taught in
the classroom. I believe it’s my interest
and curiosity in these two subjects
that led me to having a career in
Computer Science and education and
also ignited my desire to travel and
experience different cultures.
What or who inspires you
most?
A MOMENT WITH
ATIF MAHMOOD
BY LEISA GRACE WILSON
I
am convinced that teachers
make excellent entrepreneurs.
The qualities required to be a
good entrepreneur are the same
needed to be a good teacher, a good
entrepreneur needs to be flexible,
resilient, resourceful and a good
communicator, just to name a new.
These are the same qualities that a
good teacher normally possesses. In
this article I speak with Atif Mahmood,
an entrepreneur who made the leap
from teaching, to the world of business
and entrepreneurship.
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Atif was born in a small town in the
Midlands in the United Kingdom, his
father emigrated from Kashmir at the
age of 14. He was the eldest brother
of 6 siblings, he had the responsibility,
very early on in his life, of going to
work in order to earn an income to
help his family to survive. His father
loves to learn but unfortunately he
never got the opportunity to gain a
formal education.
Atif attended a very multicultural
state school. Mr. Williams, who was
his IT teacher, instilled in him a love
After The Bell
My 7 year old daughter, Huriayya,
inspires me most. When I need
motivation or the extra hunger to
succeed, I think of her. She actually
talks about Teacherly.io with her
friends and teachers at school. When
asked what she wants to do when
she is older, she says that she wants
to have her own business. She loves
drama and dance and her dream is to
create a dance app.
What prompted your move
from being an educator to
becoming an entrepreneur?
I have always championed the use of
technology in education, as well as
being involved with teacher training
in schools. After working in the
field of education for some time, I
realised that the majority of education
technology solutions on the market
were aimed at the students and that
there was very little technology aimed
at the educator. While studying for my
Post Graduate Certificate in Education
(PGCE), a number of students dropped
out because of the workload. It was
then that I began to think of ways of
preventing this from happening.
I wanted to develop a product that
embodied a good user interface
and user experience aimed wholly at
teachers. My main aim is to eliminate