It seems like I was born to be a teacher. My mum was 8 months pregnant with me when she was defending her thesis at Academy of Special Education in Warsaw at Pedagogy department. Furthermore she wasn’t the only teacher in our family by this time! This occupation also shared my granddad, aunts, uncles, grandma from my father’s side, my father… Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise, that finally my destiny caught me!
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Nowadays being a language teacher means much more, than years ago. We are no longer responsible only for checking our students results, but first of all for engaging them into learning process and motivating to learn. English classes more and more often take place in private language schools as extra classes for our pupils. They are not obliged to enrol and attend the classes. It means, that what we prepare has to be very attractive for them. We need to gather their attention for whole school year and motivate them to further learning. To do so, we need to change learning process into pure fun!
In my opinion today – apart from many, many other roles – teacher should be a coach for his students. Teacher should know how to fight for raising student’s motivation to learn. Having all possible resources available, everyone can learn English language alone – at home, for free, as fast as needed. But why people still need English teachers? Many people says, that only organised class with a teacher can motivate them to learning. Only a teacher is patient enough to reformulate a new grammar rule if student doesn’t understand it after few hours of explaining and practising. Only a teacher can create an amusing class tailored for students’ needs and expectation. Teacher is also a little bit like a showman, an idol, who performs a crazy show with very well planned ending.
I wanna be an idol, a guide, a coach, a good friend, a helper and a mentor – that’s why I decided I want to become a teacher.
I was always interested in interacting with people, so I decided to study Psychology. I defended my master thesis in June 2016. During 5 years of studies I worked continuously, mostly as a private tutor for primary school students. I was teaching German, English and other subjects as well.
After 3 years of studies I decided to take a gap year and together with my fiance we went for one year to travel and live in Asia. We settled down in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I worked for an international kindergarten International Children's Academy of Indonesia. It was a life changing experience. I understood why my mum and the rest of my family were so enthusiastic about their jobs. I decided that I want to become a serious teacher.
After 3 years of studies I decided to take a gap year and together with my fiance we went for one year to travel and live in Asia. We settled down in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I worked for an international kindergarten International Children's Academy of Indonesia. It was a life changing experience. I understood why my mum and the rest of my family were so enthusiastic about their jobs. I decided that I want to become a serious teacher.
After coming back I started to work for Speak ART - small language school specialised in teaching EFL in kindergartens in Warsaw.
2017 is a year of changes for me. I gave birth to my first, incredible daughter Celina and I decided to make a big step forward in my career. I used an amazing opportunity I've faced and I started to run Speak ART on my own. Magda, the previous owner trusted me and intentionally made me responsible for leading the school while she decided to leave the company.
I am crazy happy to make my teaching dream come true.
2017 is a year of changes for me. I gave birth to my first, incredible daughter Celina and I decided to make a big step forward in my career. I used an amazing opportunity I've faced and I started to run Speak ART on my own. Magda, the previous owner trusted me and intentionally made me responsible for leading the school while she decided to leave the company.
I am crazy happy to make my teaching dream come true.
After these years I find myself in a place, where I've got 2 beloved pedagogical concepts.
Bloom's taxonomy
Here I can find answers to nearly all of questions asked by teachers, who I work with. In the beginning I thought this theory doesn't really apply to VYLs, but the deeper I get into it, the more I see how wrong I was. It isn't possible to plan a good kindergarten lesson without taking in consideration WHAT precisely our students can and should do with the knowledge that we're teaching. It's strongly connected with setting right goals for lessons.
Formative assessment
I devoted separate page for this topic, but I'd like ti point out here, that this concept is especially important for me.
After 3 years of running the school on my own, I've settled my position on the market both as a language school and my personal brand as a teacher. I am taking first steps as a teacher trainer and my school is more and more associated with "English in kindergarten". For the new school year I have already 3 new contracts with kindergartens for educational supervision in the field of EFL, which is a new area of my operation.