KATERINA LANICKOVA.

Transcription

1 Teach in g Portfolio KATERINA LANICKOVA Web

2 Table of contents Profile 3 Teaching Experience 4 University Education 6 Languages 7 Teacher Training 8 Referrals 9 References 10 Professional Development 16 Can-do Statements 17 Material 19 Appendix 2

3 Profile I am a professional, experienced and creative English language teacher. Having taught English in a variety of contexts, levels and ages, I have a considerable amount of practical experience that is backed up by vast theoretical knowledge. Along with my excellent communication skills and the ability to establish good rapport with students, I can manage the class very well. Due to my interest in teaching methodology I also continuously work on my professional development. I have been teaching English since In addition to being CELTAqualified, I also hold a university degree in ELT. Currently I am looking for opportunities to develop my teaching career and I would like to enhance the learning environment at your school and becomae a part of the teaching staff. 3

4 Teaching Experience ESL teacher - individual tuition now (Czech Republic and Germany) I specialize in teaching adult learners. I have taught all levels (absolute beginners till advanced) and various kinds of purposes (general English, business English, ESP, conversation lessons, and preparation for Cambridge exams). I have managed to establish learning atmosphere with mutual respect and my lessons have been inspiring and enjoyable as well as challenging. English instructor - at the language school let s talk (Science Park in Potsdam-Golm, Germany) I taught general ESL courses to groups of 4-6 people. In this very interesting science environment I had the chance to work with students from the following institutes: Fraunhofer-Institut, Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max- Planck-Institut and Biotech Campus Potsdam. Along with teaching scientists, I also ran courses for the Fröbel kindergarten chain, where I taught the CEOs as well as the kindergarten teachers. 4

5 Online tutor - education platform sofatutor (Berlin, Germany) I created short clips (5-15 minutes) for children and students. The content varied from English grammar, vocabulary and conversation topics to cultural and literary topics (rhetorical means, the American political system, describing graphs and charts, analyzing newspapers etc.). As an online tutor, I always tried to make the best out of my creative ideas by producing great online lessons that are fun to watch and educational in their content. Should you want to see examples of my work, I can send you files to download. English teacher - language school A School (Brno, Czech Republic) I acquired experience with teaching evening as well as company courses here. I prepared students for their Cambridge exams as well as taught in companies (Télefonica O2). Teaching at A School was the perfect opportunity for me to put in practice those theoretical ideas and techniques that I was learning at the Faculty of Education. This combination of studying and teaching at the same time gave me perfect foundations of my teaching skills and inspired me to develop a career in ELT. 5

6 University Education Master degree - Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany) Study programme: American Studies Main areas of research: Literary and Cultural History and Theory, Reading American Literature and Culture, Intercultural Relations, Identities and Diversity in the US. Master thesis written on topic: Black Female Slave Identities in the Antebellum South: Intersections of Race and Gender. Grade awarded: 1,3 Bachelor degree - Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) Study programme: English Language Teaching State examination taken in: English Linguistics, English and American Literature, Didactics and Methodology, and Basics of Human Sciences. Bachelor thesis written on topic: The Use of Graded Readers in Teaching Pre-Intermediate Adult Learners. Grade awarded: A for the thesis, B for the whole studies. 6

7 Languages English (C2 - Proficiency knowledge) IELTS - International English Language Testing System - band score 8.5 out of 9 Exam taken at British Council, Prague, Czech Republic, German (C1 - Advanced knowledge) Attendance of a German course at Österreich Institut Czech Mother tongue 7

8 Teacher Training Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults CELTA - British Study Centres 2010 (Oxford, United Kingdom) Main areas covered in the training programme: Identifying appropriate lesson aims Selecting, adapting & designing materials Anticipating potential difficulties & suggesting solutions Analysing language (meaning, form & phonology) Providing accurate & appropriate models of language Identifying & sensitively correcting learners errors Providing appropriate practice of target language Managing groups effectively Giving clear instructions Giving learners appropriate feedback Teaching with awareness of learners needs, interests, learning styles and backgrounds Working constructively with colleagues Grade awarded: A 8

9 Referrals For information on my teaching qualities please contact: Carolin B. Schneider Carolin is the director of Studies at let s talk language school in Potsdam with whom I worked for almost 2 years in close cooperation. let s talk c/o GO:INcubator GmbH Am Mühlenberg Potsdam-Golm Germany Simon Brown snickolas2002@yahoo.co.uk Simon is a CELTA teacher trainer based in Oxford where I took my CELTA course. British Study Centres, Oxenford House Magdalen Street Oxford OXI 3AE United Kingdom Michaela Hromkova misahromkova@centrum.cz Michaela is the Director of Studies at A School as well as my previous teacher trainer. Obilni trh Brno Czech Republic 9

10 References Evaluation from the CELTA course tutor: Katerina made excellent progress on the course. She used her previous teaching experience extremely well throughout the course and made good contributions in morning sessions and afternoon feedback. Her planning and language awareness were both strong and this was reflected in the delivery of her lessons. She designed and adapted materials very well to meet the needs and interests of her students and established excellent rapport with her learners. Mo Killip From the Director of Studies (A SCHOOL) Katerina worked for A SCHOOL for two years and she gradually became one of the best teachers in our school. She is an extremely hard-working person, always well-prepared for her lessons, enthusiastic and ready to try new methods. Our school received loads of praise on her lessons. Mgr. Michaela Sobotková 10

11 A letter of reference written by the Executive Assistant at A SCHOOL I have known Katerina for more than two years as she was teaching in A SCHOOL language school. I can evaluate her from two points of view: Because I attended her classes I can evaluate her as a teacher. And because I ve been working in A SCHOOL as an assistant and coordinator for all teachers I m able to evaluate her as a worker in general. As a teacher, Katerina always demonstrated high level of professionalism in teaching. She was always prepared very thoroughly, having many additional and very useful materials for all students. The classes were balanced with all activities, with clear aim and logical course. After the lesson with her I always had a feeling that I had learned very much. As a worker, Katerina always performed her duties conscientiously and cooperation with her was pleasure and absolutely without problems. That s why I would definitely recommend Katerina for a position of English teacher. Mgr. Petra Javurková 11

12 An anonymous letter from a student of my class written for the language school where I was teaching. Level of the student: upper-intermediate Dear Aschool, I am writing to you to say THANK YOU. Thank you for very nice teachers and also environment of this language school. But the second point isn t important. Thank you for the best teacher I have ever had at Aschool (I am attending Aschool for 22 months approx.) and Katerina Lanickova is the best of all of them. (...). But Kate she has a big enthusiasm and she cares about us very well. I like her. She is very nice, pretty, precious, hardworking and is our sun. (...). 12

13 A letter of reference from one of my adult learners. Level: elementary I started my individual tuition by Katerina Lanickova after a very long time, before which I only experienced the language English in a passive way, so I actually started as a false beginner. Now, having studied one year of English attending lessons two lessons twice a week, I can boldly say that my language knowledge has improved unexpectedly fast, which I owe to a great extent to the methodology of her lessons. In my opinion, miss Lanickova is perfectly suited to the role of a language teacher. During the whole time of our cooperation, she has proved to have high working morale which was also expected of me and her lesson preparation has been professional. Always smiling, the teacher did not hesitate to liven up the lesson with some language game-like activity from time to time. Assigned homework has always been carefully checked, and if a mistake should occur it has always been re-explained. The conduct of Katerina Lanickova has always been free of conflict, which I do appreciate, because it cannot be taken for granted. Drawing on my experience till now I can state that if you are looking for a nice, responsible and enthusiastic tutor, I can only recommend Katerina Lanickova to you. Ing. Vaclav Husak 13

14 Assessment written by students when asked to comment on the quality of the course by the director of studies. Level of the students: upper-intermediate the lesson is always very carefully prepared the course of the lesson is smooth, has a clear beginning and ending, and is thought through well good balance between working with the textbook and using supplementary materials from additional sources which are clear and professional everybody gets a copy of any supplementary material, which makes it possible for us to revise at home discussion in pairs is very frequent and the pairs are often made of different people professional, perfect and clear grammar presentations, including revision in the following lessons new words are actively revised homework is checked after each unit there is a test (set as homework) and is corrected collectively in the lessons 14

15 A letter of reference written by a former teenage student of mine Individual tuition with Katerina helped me to pass the entrance examinations at a grammar school and are helping me now to keep up with my classmates who have had more years of English than me at their previous schools. There is variety and fun in the lessons. Katerina is always ready to help me with whatever I need for English lesson at school. Together we not only practise grammar but also English conversations about everyday topics. Gabriela Sulova Reference by another former student Katerina Lanickova was my teacher for approximately two years. I was very satisfied with the lessons. She was always well prepared. There was variety including grammar, listening and practice. The overall learning atmosphere was friendly and fun, that is why I feel I made faster progress and enjoyed the studying more. I recommend Katerina to anybody who would like to be able to speak English and practise writing skills as well. Klara Vyskocilova 15

16 Professional Development Learning teaching is in my understanding a life-long process. I have selected the ELT career for many reasons. First of all, it allows me to be creative and to try out new things constantly. Teaching in different environments, meeting and learning from different people make each day exciting for me. Secondly, teaching gives me a feeling of satisfaction because I can see the results of my work. To help someone learn a new language, to inspire and help achieve language-related goals, be it success at work, a better grade at school or acquiring confidence while speaking a foreign language, are among the things that I love most about this profession. And finaly, teaching has become a hobby of mine. I enjoy the entire process of teaching and working towards becoming better at what I do. In order to be able to continue growing as a teacher, I read ELT blogs on the internet and I read and re-read ELT literature and magazines. Moreover, I have attended a number of conferences, which I have enjoyed very much and hope to get the opportunity to present at some of them as well. I have observed, and have been observed teaching, on a number of occassions both while I was working at the language school in the Czech Republic, and during my CELTA training. This helped me become aware of how complex the process is and what I can do to become perfect. After completing my bachelor teaching degree and the CELTA, I decided that this was only the beginning. That is why I am going to apply for the Delta in the near future, which will help me reflect on my own teaching in more depth. I want to become a teacher trainer or a director of studies, and I think that going through Delta will give me much more insight into ELT, which I will need once I train teachers too. I love being inspired and I love to inspire. 16

17 Can-do Statements I can teach different cultures In my teaching career, I have taught students that belonged to the following nationalities: German, Turkish, Spanish, Cuban, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Russian, Croatian and Italian. I have learned the importance of being culturally sensitive while at the same time trying to make explicit use of the different nationalities in the classroom. The cultural studies at Humboldt University further added to my cultural awareness. I can analyze the language Being a non-native speaker of English, I have spent many years studying indepth all aspects of the English language, from grammar areas to collocations, functional language and pronunciation features. I have gained an expert knowledge of how language works and I can confidently answer languagerelated questions my students ask, from fairly basic ones to the tiny details that often make the difference in meaning. I can quickly come up with an explanation why language works in that particular way, and supplement the explanation with useful examples, pictures, rules and exceptions. I can motivate my learners Reading ELT literature and going to conferences have helped me to maintain students internal and external motivation long after the course has started. I use methods like reminding my students of their goals, managing discussions about language learning, helping them find individual learning styles, showing them different ways to record new vocabulary, as well as introducing a needs analysis. 17

18 I can manage the classroom During my CELTA teacher training course, the area that was identified by my trainers as my main strength was classroom management. I make my students feel I am interested in their learning process, in their lives and I give a great deal of thought to different classroom set-ups and activities. In my lessons, I try to keep everyone busy and interested in order to make the most out of the learning process. I can teach all four skills In every lesson, I try to maintain the balance between teaching all four skills as well as grammar, pronunciation and lexis. I tailor my lessons to my students needs, but I always carry in mind my main goal - that is to get my students to communicate in the foreign language with confidence. I can write in a way that everybody can read My handwriting is very neat, which makes it easy for my students to copy my boardwork. My worksheets are clear and easy to follow and understand, and so is my written correction. I can draw One of my strengths is also the ability to draw nice simple pictures which help me demonstrate different meanings of new words in a very quick and effective way. In addition to this, my students like them and they help them remember. 18

19 Material Here is a selection of lesson material which I myself have created. How can I improve my English? This worksheet can be used to help with students motivation. I like to use this material not right towards the start of an English course, but rather a few months after the course has started, as this is, in my experience, the typical moment when students start to lose their motivation or at levels intermediate and higher they might start to feel that their progress is not as fast as they would like. This worksheet helps them reflect on their language learning process and they go home with new ideas and inspiration. Level: pre-intermediate + Banking and finance This is used for business and ESP vocabulary revision. It combines the useful practice of working with word definitions, opposites and derivation. Level: pre-intermediate + Error sheet This worksheet has proven effective for fighting false friends and other mistakes that the students learned a long time ago and have a hard time getting over. Each student has their personal collection of their top mistakes. I have found out that although recording one s own mistakes is a debated topic in ELT, students overcome their mistakes more effectively in this way than if they are not aware of them. Level: beginner + 19

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