Hi,
I’m Karl, a Senior Teacher here at EC. In addition to currently teaching the Advanced class and the Cambridge FCE, I teach an Intermediate level English course in San Francisco (Intermediate Writing, here at EC San Francisco). I think it’s a great place to work and study, and I’ve been around.
I started off as an actor. My wife and I had our own small theater for four years, and then spent over five years in Hollywood, where I acted in film and television (yes, I actually spoke!). When we moved back to San Francisco, we both took a course in how to teach English as a Foreign Language. Then I was hired by the same school to teach the course, as well as teaching English as a Second Language. Most of my work was training new teachers in how to teach.
In a few years, I decided to become a public school teacher, In addition to teaching ESL, I also spent a lot of time training experienced teachers in how to become better teachers. When I returned to teaching adult ESL after ten years in public school, I once again was helping good teachers become better teachers.
I recently finished a Master’s Degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from USC, where, frequently, students in the program with me would seek my advice and help because of my experience in putting theory into practice in real classrooms with real students. I was really delighted to find I was at the top of my class, and to have my fellow students honestly thank me for my contributions to our group. Now, at EC San Francisco, my knowledge and ideas are being shared with many other experienced teachers, who in turn share their best ideas with me. In all my working years, I’ve never been this fortunate, being part of a true team, where the success of one person makes the group feel successful. We also feel the same about our students, that their success is our success, and I firmly believe that the collective efforts of the teaching and administrative staff here are felt by our students. This, combined with top of the line technology, makes EC San Francisco a topflight English school. For me, it’s a fun, positive, energetic place to work, and from what I see, the students feel the same about learning here.