About Me
Hi! I’m Fiama Zaranis, Managing Director of The Big Life Channel and creator of Big Life Lessons and Big Life Tutoring.
As a secondary school teacher who has been teaching in Queensland public schools since 2008, I experience first hand the challenges faced by both students, teachers and schools surrounding student well-being.
One of the common challenges for teachers, which is often raised in staff rooms, is how to support students when they aren’t necessarily trained in this area. Teachers come highly trained in their subject areas but often wish they could do more for their students on a personal level.
By including wellbeing and values based teachings into schools, teenagers have a greater chance to be happier, healthier, respectful and more confident young people. This will then carry through to adulthood where they can continue to draw on, and build these skills to navigate life more successfully. I realised how important these topics truly are with teachers, parents, the community and even student’s themselves, looking for change.
So I thought, why don’t I do something about it…
So I did and, hence, Big Life Lessons was birthed.
I developed Big Life Lessons to fill the gap that current programs are not meeting, whilst being mindful of teacher well-being too. Therefore not adding to teacher stress levels and workload was equally as important as creating an online program to support student well-being as teachers are already overloaded with curriculum requirements and are not usually trained to teach or develop student well-being initiatives.
The other service that I offer, Big Life Tutoring, was created through seeing the same thing happen over and over again in the classroom. Students in grades 7 – 12 were struggling to ‘do’ more complex Maths as they didn’t have key, foundational numeracy skills. A student cannot understand and apply the processes required to solve problems using trigonometry if they don’t understand ratios, fractions, basic algebra or know the properties of shapes. The key skills of ratios, fractions, basic algebra and knowing the properties of shapes are crucial in being able to solve problems using trigonometry. Therefore, this is the issue Big Life Tutoring addresses; it focuses on building solid, foundational numeracy skills so that students can be successful in high school Math.
Wanting to genuinely help students learn, understand, and even enjoy Maths, has been a lifelong passion of mine. However, due to time constraints and curriculum demands in the high school setting there is only so much a teacher can do to address the core issue of why many students struggle with Maths. When there is one teacher to 28 students in a class and with students all at differing levels, it is unreasonable to expect a teacher to be able to effectively teach the curriculum, extend the advanced students and re-teach key, foundational skills to the students who have difficulty.
Therefore Big Life Tutoring offers a solution. A numeracy course that focuses on the key, foundational skills that students need to ‘do’ high school Maths, at whatever level.
My philosophy is that there are a range of skills that we need to live a BIG LIFE and I believe that being proficient in Maths is one of them. Maths is such an integral part of life. Most people don’t even realise how often they use Maths in their jobs and every day life, even the dreaded Algebra! Hence, Maths is a fundamental skill for anyone to live a BIG LIFE.
I studied a dual degree in Behavioural Studies and Education, specialising in the field of Mathematics, as I’m passionate about human behaviour, Mathematics and quality education. By using my knowledge in these areas, along with my experience as a secondary school Math teacher that’s where Big Life Lessons and Big Life Tutoring were born, and I’m so excited for students to benefit from these programs.
My mission through these online courses and tutoring services is to teach, help and support teenagers in Australia and around the world to acquire the necessary key values, personal qualities and life skills to live a BIG LIFE!
I truly hope these resources create positive change for students, their families and schools alike.
