Christina

How I Started

Panic, fear and feeling inadequate for the job is how I felt at 14 years old when asked to tutor a boy a couple of years younger than me and get paid for it. However, I took on the challenge and began my career in English teaching. From there, I did voluntary English teaching and along with that came some well needed experience and priceless training such as preparing five minute dialogues, monologues, how to create captivating introductions and organise thoughts, which of course is great for writing articles and essays.

Later, I was offered a job in Malaga Spain teaching English to hundreds of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. This was the first time I had to really explain English grammar and it was not easy, you see, when I was growing up in the UK we were not taught English grammar, can you believe that! So the people I was teaching literally knew more about English grammar than I did. I studied hard at night before my English class the next day. On top of that, I had to explain it in Spanish also. As a result, I understand what it is like to learn another language including my own. This I believe gave me an advantage as a teacher, by not taking it for granted that people understand what you are saying, rather, things need to be explained in a simple and clear manner.

My Training

Next, I went to California USA to do an advanced TESOL course on teaching English it was mostly learning interactive and fun methods that many teachers around the world had been using with great success. It was so helpful! It gave me new found enthusiasm and confidence. I believe a good teacher always needs to be a good student also. Check out the website at cie.world. Here I really learned that English classes need to be a balance of academic and fun.

After that, I came back home and applied to various English academies and within a week I had started another job at CESTEATINOS where I taught English classes of varying ages and all levels. This academy used the Oxford University new English File books, which in my opinion were great for both teacher and student. I taught from three year olds up to level C1 and Business English, I gained a lot of experience with English exam preparation especially for Cambridge and Trinity exams.  I absolutely loved that job and stayed there for about four years.

Further Training / Experience

I still felt I needed to improve as a teacher and so I took another TEFL course that focused on explaining English grammar and the use of roleplay. Then, with my new qualifications I got a job at a public school where we taught mainly Cambridge exam preparation. This was excellent training as we got to attend a lot of extra courses provided by Cambridge University and what was especially helpful was I also played the role of examiner a few times during an academic year. After a few years of that I was offered a job teaching nutrition and healthy recipes in a private clinic  for a year and a half.

Online Teaching

Now, I teach English online to my own private students as well as do content writing and health blogs.

I tailor my English classes to each individual according to their personality and personal needs. I like to be creative in my methods and also fun. I research the students’ mother tongue in order to find out the common mistakes that are made from that language into English as this can speed up the students’ progress. I will not just be your one to one English teacher but also, I will coach you on how to make long term progress. Book your first lesson now!