Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
Hi, my name is Rob. I’m a teacher here at EC SF. I have an English degree as a qualification for teaching. I also worked as an editor and a writer and took the CELTA course. I am now a CELTA qualified English teacher. I taught here 4 or 5 years. But before coming here, I also taught for about a year and half in London, and for about a year in LA.
What do you like most about being a teacher at EC?
I enjoy talking with different students that I encounters every day, because I learn from them through conversations with them. I usually ask them questions about their experiences.
What is your favorite skill to teach?
I love reading. So I like to introduce new things to students that they might never read before. But I also like listening to clips, audio, Youtube, TV and music to drill pronunciation. I likes listening to eclectic music.
What is the hardest part about being a teacher?
When sometimes the students ask him the question, he doesn’t come up with the answer immediately, you have to go away and he has to check the answer. It’s a difficult part of teaching.
What do you consider a “success story”?
When I see the students who struggled a lot understanding and communicating in English after I teach them, which is the most rewarding.
What is the best advice you’ve been given about teaching?
Just carry on. Teaching is sometimes like war. I have a plan at the begging, but when the things are about to start, the plan goes away.
What is something you wish you teach in your classroom but you can’t?
I think higher and more challenging lessons that help students flex their muscles and try to do new things. Also, I like the challenge that gives them the opportunities to try to do new things.
What’s the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you in your classroom?
I often don’t feel embarrassed in my classroom. That is because I knows that it’s difficult to explain something in the different language. So if the students feel embarrassed, they are not learning. Therefore, I want to make everyone feel comfortable to each other. And we can learn and laugh as long as everyone feels comfortable to each other.
What is a word/phrase that you repeat so much in your classroom?
BRILLIANT!!!!
Teacher Rob, EC San Francisco will miss you heaps!
This interview was conducted by our student ambassador Mao
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