Following on from World Teacher’s Day earlier this month (5th October), we have three more fantastic teachers from across the globe who inspire us every day.
Meet Julia Anikutina
Teacher at Solovov School, Ukraine
What do you love about being a teacher?
What do you love about being a teacher?I love my job, I love teaching and working with people. I clearly understand that a teacher is not the one who teaches, but the one from whom students learn. The main aim of mine is inspiring students to love languages as well as develop other essential life skills.
Is there a teacher that has inspired you?
My role model is Mr. Solovov, my first English teacher. A sudden encounter with Mr. Solovov influenced my choice to become a teacher. He himself invented his own unique program on studying English. His school is Ukraine’s best private English school and I was part of this school as a student. For excellence in studying I was enrolled into the group of his best students. These classes opened the door into my future life. After the successful probation period I became a teacher of English at Solovov School.
Is there a resource you would recommend to other teachers?
I enjoyed reading Penny Ur’s 100 Teaching Tips. It’s of great use to the teachers of different levels whether they are trainees or experienced teachers. Everybody will derive knowledge and practical tips from this book to implement in the classroom. This book focuses on practical applications rather than theoretical pieces of advice, that’s why it’s valuable and effective. Highly recommended!
Meet Natalia Guerreiro
Aviation English Assessment Coordinator for the Brazilian Air Force, Brazil
What do you love about being a teacher?
How long have you got? For the sake of brevity, I’d say I love people and I love helping people accomplish what they need or would like to do. Being a language teacher, the global lingua franca no less, we can open up a world of possibilities to our students and even help them communicate better in their own language(s). Also, I feel I learn a lot from students. You can’t possibly teach students from all walks of life and not grow as a human being as a result. Finally, when I look around my network of fellow teachers, I just know this is my gang.
Is there a teacher that has inspired you?
I’ve always had admirable teachers, so it almost feels wrong picking one, but I’d have to say my Portuguese teacher in grades 3, 5 and 8, Helimar. My strongest memory of him concerns a book, which is only fitting for a child that loved reading. I was about 8 years old and took a book I liked to school, just to share that with him. I was painfully shy back then, so for me to have the courage to walk up to an adult – an authority, no less – and present something *I* liked was a huge deal. It just goes to show how safe I felt around him and how approachable he was. He did not say much, but looked at the title Menino brinca de boneca? (Do boys play with dolls?), smiled, and asked if he could have it for a while. I didn’t know what he was going to do with it, but later I found out that, in a time when students did not have much voice, he took my suggestion on board and fought for it. Months later, he brought my book back, face marked by defeat, “The coordination has decided we cannot add a book to the list now.”
I never talked about that with him again, but in retrospect, I guess the problem was that I went to a very traditional school. Still, it was him who had us read a book about a princess who did not want to be a princess, cut her hair short and jumped the castle walls. All that in the conservative Brazil of the early 1990s, way before all these strong princesses were a hit!
On top of being ahead of his time, he dispensed hilarious catchphrases that had us all in stitches and disciplined at the same time, in spite of how dry and repetitive Portuguese as an L1 can be in Brazilian schools. We all looked up to him, so it’s no wonder he was one of the role models I had in mind when I chose my degree. Now that I understand what he did better, I realize he had all sorts of qualities: he was very organized; he explained things clearly with concrete examples; his boardwork was Pinterest-worthy, if there were such a thing back them; he taught us to be critical readers, working with a mix of pop culture and ‘high’ literature, helping us value different forms of cultural and artistic expression; and believe it or not, he wrote memorable tests. You have got to be a great well-rounded teacher if your students can still remember your tests fondly years after leaving school!
Is there a resource you would recommend to other teachers?
For those who work with assessment, like me, the ‘Assessing …‘ collection organized by Alderson and Bachman is simply compulsory reading. For teachers, I’d say Jack Richards’ new Key Issues in Language Teaching is a go-to reference book, but I’m also very partial to his Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, a delightful read that helps us not fall prey to allegedly new methods. I also love the Cambridge guides he’s co-edited with the marvelous Anne Burns. The articles in the guides are short and incredibly insightful, so within a book you have a panorama of the state of the art, followed by a useful list of references if you would like to go deeper. Last but not least, there’s Penny Ur, of course, a name that should go without saying.
Meet Anette Fasting
Teacher at Embassy English Cambridge, UK
What do you love about being a teacher?
What do you love about being a teacher?Most of all, I enjoy seeing the transformation in the confidence and abilities of long-term students. I enjoy the collaboration with my colleagues, and the creativity needed to consider needs of different types of learners.
Is there a resource you would recommend to other teachers?
At my workplace we use Face2Face for all levels. I personally often rely on Penny Ur’s Five Minute Activities, Vocabulary Activities and a series she edited, Active Grammar. In more recent times, Teaching and Developing Reading Skills by Peter Watkins has become a valuable tool.
Feeling inspired? See more from other teachers and find other resources.