SpanishWish

At the age of ten in my small port town of Ribeira, Spain, I developed the uncommon yet overwhelming desires to learn English and become a teacher. To this end I happily committed the next fifteen years of my life, leading to a Master’s Degree in English language and literature. Since then, I have taught Spanish in five different countries, including IB for nine years, GCSE and A-Levels in the UK, IGCSE and A-Levels internationally, and American core Spanish in the USA and abroad. Additionally, I have enjoyed my involvement as an IB examiner in three different components for the past eight years.

As a teacher I work to inspire my students with a passion for languages that instills in them essential skills in inquiry, communication and risk-taking. I love being a part of the development process as students begin to speak and understand the target language, while challenging their perceptions of Spain as a country and Spanish as an identity. Many people have a preconceived notion of Spanish culture, and through my upbringing in Galicia, which would not be considered “Spanish” in the most traditional sense, I feel I am able to give my students some perspective. That is, I am able to challenge stereotyping. This gives my teaching style some texture and resonance. As a result, the learning process is less theoretical and more practical, providing a base that students can use to explore both language and culture for themselves. One of the things that motivates me in my work is when students begin to grasp the underlying structures of the language and begin creating phrases, challenging themselves rather than pulling from memory. This is when a student moves from rote memorization to conceptual understanding. A light goes on. The student has made the leap. I teach for these moments.

My Spanish ab initio and IGCSE results are consistently well above international average. One of my students gained an award from the British Council for achieving the highest grade in my subject (IGCSE Spanish) within the whole of Egypt.

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