Who Am I?

ESL by Amber -- but who is this Amber character?

In short : American. Mother. Sister. Daughter. Friend. Teacher. Coach. Trainer. Instructor. Translater  Interpreter. 26 years old. Lives in Roubaix, France.

When my fifth year of teaching came to and end and I still had the desire to be a teacher, I realized that in short, I had "made it". The first five years are the make-it-or-break-it years for teachers, especially when you live in a foreign country. Lots of people fall into this job because it's something they can do in their foreign country while they are learning the language or while they are in transition. I am not one of those people. Teaching was a deliberate choice for me, even more so teaching language.
I can proudly say that in my sixth year of teaching, I am a "young veteran" of ESL in France, and that after six years in this country, a year of which I have been teaching independently, I still love teaching, but I love pedagogy even more.

So I'm a teacher. But who do I teach?

I teach babies. I teach toddlers and little kids. I teach big kids. I teach adults that think they are big kids but behave like little kids. I teach the serious, the laid-back, the old souls and the young at heart. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, smart or struggling... in short, I just teach.

I spent a year teaching primary school and a year teaching preschool. I spent four years teaching in a private business school parallel to teaching adults in companies. I've spent the last year specializing in English coaching and training for Web and IT professionals, from back/front end developers to designers, from SEO project managers to web analysts, from the big boss to the secretary -- I've taught them all. My clients at the moment are web agencies full of dynamic individuals who need to use English for their jobs... but that doesn't mean that's all. I go through life with my "teacher hat" on -- if people ask me questions, I answer them. If there's any opportunity to teach somebody something, I take it.

But how do I do it?

With a carefully planned schedule and an open heart and mind, that's how! More specifically though, I use the direct method. That means that my learners and I speak English, or the target language, 100% of the time that we are together from the first day of their classes to the last day, whether we are in the classroom or in front of the coffee machine. They learn through speaking, through making mistakes, and being corrected first by their peers, then by me. They learn through prompts which encourage them to speak on their level, about a variety of subjects that have meaning to the student. They speak within their learning zone by building on prior knowledge. We learn together by correcting eachother, asking questions, and motivating each other. 

For my students and I, confidence, trust and security are the key elements to creating a positive environment for fostering learning. 

Okay. Is that all?

No. I also teach teachers. I pride myself in my network of education professionals because just like our students, we can also learn from each other! I believe in sharing my experiences and explaining the difficulties I've come up against and how I managed. Most of all, I believe in learning from our mistakes, testing out new ideas and concepts, and encouragement, encouragement, encouragement.

The majority of the adults I work with come to me with excuses -- "sorry for my bad accent!" "Excuse me for my weak vocabulary!" "Oh, this would be easier in French!" -- afraid to make mistakes or be laughed at. In my lessons, we laugh with each other and we learn and grow together.

But what makes me different?

I like best practices. I like learning from the people I teach. I want to create a user-friendly, ergonomic method of education. I want to create social learning where different teachers share ideas and can adapt them to whatever audience they may have. I want to promote a method of learning that will encourage and foster open, positive communication.

So why the blog?

I'm doing this for two reasons:
1) Every year I meet new teachers. They always have the same issues -- classroom management, not enough direction, boring resources, difficult age levels, misunderstanding of cultural norms. If I can share and encourage others to share their experiences with these issues, then we can all be more efficient and reduce the time it takes to adapt to a new group and get the learning started faster.

2) Every year I see new (old) resources. The same books and the same lessons over... and over... and over. I haven't found a single textbook that is tailored to my students' needs. I make a lot of my own stuff and I'm sure other teachers do too. Why not share it, why not adapt it, and why not use it? After all, nobody ever said that they wanted to "get rich teaching". We can't make a fortune off of this stuff, so why not "get rich" in experience instead? How can we do that? Well, first of all... by sharing!

So that's why I'm here. I'm here to share, to exchange experiences, and to grow as a teacher, a learner, and a human being. I'm here to give, and maybe to take. To ask you questions, and to answer yours. I'm here to motivate you to find a passion for learning and teaching, and to hopefully contribute something to your life, no matter how small.

Happy learning, happy discovery, and most of all, happy teaching.

Amber