Information About Kate - Aberdeen teacher -

(3 reviews)

Personal Description:

I was born and raised in the Netherlands by an English mother and a Dutch father. As teacher I am mentor, conversation partner, coach, motivator. I have lived in the UK for the last 20 years. I have a diverse career path, from semi-professional tennis in my youth, to an MSc. in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, a PhD in Coastal Engineering from the University of Aberdeen, to the arts. As a multi-award-winning visual artist and filmmaker I work collaboratively with dance, music, spoken word and Artificial Intelligence. I use my academic skills where teaching, sharing knowledge and refining skills are key ingredients, and apply that within teaching Dutch.

Teaching Experience:

I have a great track record of tutoring university (bachelor and master) students, marking exam papers and lab books, guiding and supervising secondary school pupils, teaching English and Dutch to secondary school children and teaching English and Dutch to young adults in developing countries. Over the years I have had many students join my online programme. I create a very tailored lesson programme for each of my students. Individual assessment forms part of every lesson to make sure the participant has studied and understood.

Teaching Approach:

The student's needs and requirements are discussed and targets are set to address these.

I use the ‘Delft Method’ which is a communicative learning pathway that suits the needs of language students: understanding, speaking, writing and reading Dutch. All lessons are conversation lessons in Dutch. Meaning, pronunciation and grammatical structures are offered and learned through the given texts. The most frequently used words of the Dutch language are used in the texts.

As homework I encourage my students to write me stories of their day, work, or hobbies. This then provides ongoing and enjoyable topics of conversation during the lesson itself. With some of them I talk about art, and we translate poetry. We will have fun while we learn and get to know each other.