Content, context, experience

This is my commitment to you and that’s how I truly believe our work should be.

The following words guide my teaching since day # 1:

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

William Butler Yeats

I’ll offer you everything I know! I’ll be right here with you: face to face! I’ll listen to you! I’ll understand you!

You will scatter your hopes and dreams…

And I’ll care for them until they flourish…

And I truly hope you grow stronger in knowledge of our amazing English speaking world as well as to your full potential!

And try not to focus only on the journey’s end, but instead, enjoy what you are becoming along the way!

I welcome you all! We’ll create magic! At least for me: this is magic!

Teachers, learning and education

Today we celebrate Teachers’ Day in Brazil. It’s a day to express our appreciation of the work and dedication of teachers. Consequently, it’s a day in which the focus of interest and debate should be on learning and education.

I basically keep two things in mind throughout my work:

  • The student is not a bucket.
  • I want to give the students the resources for them to think about their issues, understand them and find the answer by themselves. I want them to think for themselves. Hehe…

Although it is difficult to swim against the current, we do find support along the way. The Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall, back in 1979, already said that!

Roger Waters wrote this song about his views on formal education. He hated his grammar school teachers and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The bricks in the wall were the events in Water’s life which propelled him to build this wall around him, and his school teacher was another brick in the wall. The song is meant to be satirical. Waters explained: “You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ‘50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The song is meant to be a rebellion against the government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that.”

Don’t miss it! Learn and practice the lyrics here!

Habits for Highly Effective Language Learners

Write down your small, measurable monthly goal.                                                                         

Prepare a deadline.                                             

Create a routine.                                             

Prepare lines and conversations ahead of time.                                           

Long study hours will burn you out and result in failure.                                             

Come back and review.                                             

Look for solutions.                                             

Focus on what you are good at.                                             

Do not procrastinate.                                             

Remember that learning a language is a marathon and not a sprint.                                             

Don’t cram.                                             

 Have fun.

Click here to listen to all these sentences.