My name is Nikki . I’m 39 years old and a mother of four boys and happily married to my Polish husband. I’m originally from Savannah, GA, USA but I’ve lived in Wójtowo for the past 12 years. While living here I earned my degree in English Philology and received my CELTA. My work history consists of military, business, and now education for the past 12 years. My knowledge of the language is quite wide due to my work history. My hobbies are painting, DIY projects, extreme sports, and traveling.
My preferred method of teaching is made up of two different types:
1) The Silent Way emphasizes learner autonomy. The teacher acts merely as a facilitator trying to encourage students to be more active in their learning. The main idea of this way of teaching is for the teacher to say very little, so students can take control of their learning. There’s a big emphasis on pronunciation and a large chunk of the lesson focuses on it.
2) Communicative Language Teaching class, for example role play, information gap, language exchanges, simulation, discussion, game, pair work, and group work. All these techniques can engage the learners in the communication process. All material is repeated every second lesson and the students are corrected immediately through the chat and then discussed.
I do enjoy using my own materials and helping others with inspiration on their own as well. Throughout the years I’ve conducted workshops for international businesses, attended quite a few, created children programs for a private school, and also have worked alongside LinguaHouse and International Language Institute in contributing to materials that are successfully used by other teachers.
During my lessons, students use all of their skills within a session. Whether it be taking their own notes or reading from a topic that they were given previously. Vocabulary is always revised alongside any grammatical concerns. Conversation classes are centered around various topics and often the students choose the topics. 🙂
I always start my courses with a share-and-tell which can be very entertaining. Students are allowed to ask 10 questions about whatever they would like to know about me or where I come from. The fact that I am such an open person means that they are encouraged to ask even the deepest of questions which enables them to be more comfortable and open themselves.