Ruth Y.
About me
| Ruth Y. | |
| English and Related Literature | |
| English | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Alcuin | |
| 2007 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| English teacher | |
| British Council | |
| Spain | |
| Education | |
| 2008 | |
| £7500~7500 | |
| £7500~7500 |
Like this profile?
Add this profile to your favourites so you can return to it later from your account.
A day in the life of a English teacher in Spain
Courses taken since graduation
Cert TESOL Trinity College London
Where I hope to be in 5 years
None as yet. There is plenty of room for progress in day to day teaching.
My advice to students considering work
Take some time to live abroad if that´s what you want to do, it´s one of the most enriching things you can do.
What I do
Working in a private academy teaching English as a foreign language. This involves giving classes to students of a range of ages, usually after school or evenings, and Saturday mornings. Some people work with primary age kids, but I work with ages 12-14, 15-17, and 17-21. Most of the work is preparing and giving classes, which are either in 2.5 hour blocks, once/week or twice at 1.25 hours. But we also have a lot of contact with the parents, for example there is a parents' evening half-way through the year. There is a good atmosphere since it is such a large language school, and plenty of opportunity to share ideas in the staffroom. We are encouraged to teach creatively and use various materials and use projects as well as follow a syllabus, which means, as well as thanks to the students of course, that it is never boring.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Teaching - through the British Council Language Assistants programme.
Degree skills:
Multitasking during busy times, creative thinking in preparing classes.
Team work - we often team teach or share materials.
Extracurricular skills:
I did some teaching in the APASS summer camp programme in Poland; customer service - developed through work in catering. volunteering in YSIS - awareness of Jolly Phonics.
What I like most
The challenge of motivating classes of teenagers to use and enjoy English.
Also we are trained and encouraged to develop professionally through training sessions and conferences, as well as given opportunities to peer-observe.
What I like least
For such a challenging job, more than a month-long TEFL course would be better preparation.
What would I change? Not much, perhaps a year-long teacher training course.
Next steps...
If you like the look of Ruth’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Ruth a message to find out more about their career journey.