Teaching English with a Creative View
Although I´ve graduated in Fine Arts, I started working as a private English teacher by giving remedial work to primary and secondary students.
In fact, I hadn´t planned becoming an English teacher at that time. I was encouraged by my eldest sister to start teaching and I am very grateful for her. Without noticing it, she pushed me through a wonderful and fascinating career.
As I had no experience then, I started giving classes to one student only; I will call him "Gustavo" in order to keep his privacy. I can tell you I was a bit anxious and worried as I always considered teachers very responsible and persuasive professionals. "Gustavo" would come to my classes and trust me as a guide, a facilitator or even a "doctor" who could prescribe miraculous formulas to help him overcome his difficulties. That´s really a great responsibility!
However, I could also feel like helping people who didn´t master the language the way I did and being an upper-intermediate student made me aware of a chance I would have to study the language more deeply.
Without taking part in any teacher´s training or learning any methodology, I had to start teaching by myself "listening" to my good sense and experience as a student.
Therefore, I began sticking to an idea that has helped me in my practice, since the very first class I gave: "Put yourself in the student´s shoes".
Post taken from the e-book "Teaching English with a creative view"
Cheers,
Maria de Fátima
English teacher and pedagogical consultant
whatsapp (11) 93031 6063