Bio:
Greetings! I am a certified English teacher with several fancy papers to show my qualifications. Outside of that, I love what I do and I do my best to make it fun. I live and work in creative chaos, as a result my lessons are full of energy :) I specialize in conversation lessons and general English, but I have experience (and a certificate) in exam preparation as well. NOTE: If you don't see your preferred time listed in my calendar, please shoot me a message, I might be available :)
My teaching methodology:
- I don't usually rely on books unless needed. I am partial to some books though, such as Keynote (which uses TED Talks as resources) and websites with online resources. I prefer making or adapting my own resources where possible.
- Evaluation is a constant process, though I also take notes on areas I feel need more work and keep track of the progress that way. I do like doing occasional revisions or small testing so both me and my student can see how the work is going.
- I like using reasonably simple (in terms of rules) games that don't initially seem like much but are, in fact, useful in various areas. For instance, a game of taboo is quite useful for expanding vocabulary (learning synonyms) and practicing descriptive language.
My teaching background:
I officially started dabbling in teaching, while I was still undertaking my Linguistics degree, by teaching a couple of adult students online for nearly a year. After I completed my Master's degree, I almost immediately started work in a highly acclaimed language centre, where I worked for 1 and a half years with kids and teenagers, A1-B2 language levels. The pandemic hit not long after I began teaching, so I very quickly became experienced with online teaching too! Staying too long in one place wasn't ideal, however, and one of the best things about being an English teacher is that you can find work pretty much anywhere, so I continued my career through experiencing different countries (and cuisines!)! I used to live in Poland, where I worked with all age groups and language levels, minus complete beginners :) Currently I work for a language center in Bulgaria, preparing teenagers for FCE, CAE, CPE, and Bulgarian matura exams, and teaching conversational English to adults.
My background outside of teaching:
English isn't my first language - I've also had to learn it and I studied it for years, in fact, in various scenarios (at school, at language centres, with private tutors, at summer schools, on my own...), so I have a pretty good idea of the process involved in learning it first-hand ;) Other than that, my roleplaying hobbies often turn out to be a great bonus, from a conversation topic to engaging students in roleplaying and storytelling. My academic and hobbyist dabbling in psychology, as well as my overall life experiences, also serve me well in quickly and easily building a good relationship with my students so far, and my openness to feedback makes me very adaptable to students' needs :)
