Information About Clara - Edinburgh teacher -

(10 reviews)

Personal Description:

I am an inventive and witty professional, always seeking to update my profile to the latest innovations in my field. I am passionate about my job and my culture. Every day I spend in this profession (teaching lessons as well as doing research, planning or developing materials) is extremely gratifying and fulfilling. I have some competences that make of me an excellent teacher. My extroverted character helps to maintain a close relation with the students, which eases the cultural interchange. I am very organized and efficient in my lesson planning, although flexible when adapting these plans to specific students necessities. I have an excellent command of new technologies and I like to use e-learning tools frequently in my lessons.

Teaching Experience:

Being graduated in Philosophy and Education, my qualifications are interdisciplinary. I graduated in Philosophy at Complutense University of Madrid in 2009, continuing my studies with a Master's in Teacher Training which I obtained in 2010, at the same institution. During this period my main focus of research has been in the field of Philosophy of Language and Language Acquisition, being this interest the seed of my passion for Language Teaching.
In 2011, I started my career in Languages Education when I was selected as a Grundtvig Language Assistant at an adults education institution in Belgium. I collaborated there in several conversation tables and cultural events in 10 different sections of Spanish, levels from A1 to B2 of the CEFR. I assisted four primary teachers, and developed e-learning teaching materials, translations and varied administrative work in this institution.
In 2012 I received a scholarship of the Spanish Ministry of Education to study English abroad and I came to Edinburgh, where I finally stayed until August 2013, when I travelled to the United States of America to work as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at a public University in Saint Joseph, Missouri.
During this period, I have been primary instructor of four sections of Spanish 100 and two sections of Spanish 101 (A1 and A2 levels of CEFR respectively). I have designed and evaluated each of these courses with complete autonomy, performing at the same time the role of Cultural Ambassador of my home country, and developing several cultural events and seminars for the institution as well as for the Department of English and Modern Languages. My evaluations are over the average and are available on request.

Teaching Approach:

When teaching a foreign language the communicative approach is the way to success. Using mainly the target language (in this case, Spanish) I try to make a balance between the five competences (reading, writing, speaking, listening and gaining cultural knowledge).
I use authentic materials in my lessons, trying not to limit to European Spanish texts but also Latin American Spanish. My students are prepared to interact with multiple speakers of different countries of the world. I also have a genuine interest for on-line and multimedia materials and resources, on which I frequently base the activities.