I am a native English speaker from South Africa, living in Portugal. I have a BA degree, a Master of Education degree, a teaching diploma, a diploma in Library Science as well as a recently completed 120-hour eTEFL certificate.
I have been teaching for over 25 years and am passionate about empowering people to develop skills, such as being able to communicate in English, that will enable them to be, or become, anything they aspire to. In my years as a teacher-librarian I have developed and implemented a curriculum to teach skills such as information literacy, research skills, thinking skills, writing skills and reading for meaning.
My goal is to create a safe and comfortable learning space for students. I always try to make them become responsible for their own learning by getting them to become actively involved in their lessons. I use teaching strategies such as props, , rewards and positive feedback. I enjoy the interaction with students and try and make each lesson as interesting and enjoyable for them by using physical movement.
I also have experience teaching adults. I have always involved the teaching staff when teaching skills such as reading for meaning, research skills, information literacy as well as thinking skills. I have trained the teachers to use these strategies in their classrooms. I have lectured second-year university students on Children's and Youth Literature. In addition I have had the privilege to do research work for the Center for Social Development at Rhodes University to evaluate their teacher development programme. This involved observing teachers in the Foundation Phase (Grades 1-3) teaching their children to become literate in Setswana as well as English. I have learnt so much about teaching English as a second language from this experience.