British Council: The Heroic Teacher
Glenda
Miss Glenda has been teaching in Han Chiang for up to 4 years, since 2019. Her greatest professional accomplishment was when she got her master’s degree in England for applied linguistics and TESOL. She is easygoing but sometimes strict when needed to get her students to behave appropriately as she thinks that the more students misbehave, the more they don’t get things done, resulting in them not being able to learn anything throughout the classes.
Hence, she has rules for her students and finds ways to earn the ball so that they can get the most out of the class. However, when students find that the tasks are too difficult to complete, she motivates her students by giving them a clear understanding of the task given, letting the students know that she has high expectations for them and organising team competitions within her students so they will be motivated to win, enabling them to learn and have fun at the same time. Besides, Miss Glenda thinks that interaction and teamwork also help to motivate the students. Her strength in teaching is that she can go within strict and simple ways to get the students to learn. Whenever her students are struggling in her class she tries to find out the root of the problem and observes by asking them in a considerate and friendly manner so they don’t feel threatened and allowing them to provide some answers. After she listens to her students’ struggles, she finds ways to motivate and solve them accordingly.
Miss Glenda mainly adores teaching because she loves the feeling that others can learn something from her and loves interacting with students. Surprisingly, she used to learn Shotokan, a Japanese karate style and went all the way up to the level of brown belt in her younger days. Nowadays, she likes to go hiking or read during her free time. Miss Glenda advises her students to work hard, try their best, find their strengths and focus on them. If they come across any problems or difficulties, ask someone for help and try to find out the problem.
Alicia
Miss Alicia has been teaching in Han Chiang for up to 2 and a half years, since 2019. Besides teaching in Malaysia, she has also taught students in Vietnam before. Her greatest professional accomplishment was to see her students improve in leaps and bounds.
She motivates students by simplifying the tasks. When the students realise the task was achievable, they thrive harder and start pushing themselves further. She thinks that teachers themselves should treat their students as their equals and take their classes as an opportunity to connect with them. Additionally, she has a high rapport with her students – humorous and engaging. She feels that the humour and thoughtfulness of the student’s hard work have contributed are the greatest asset in her teachings as it inspires them to do their best.
Miss Alicia is quite comfortable with her schedule as her assignments for the students depend on how progressive each class is. If a student faces trouble in her class, she would provide more attention to the student or have the student pair up with a partner who is stronger to help them carry out the activity. She believes that British Council is quite distinctive as it is one of the best companies for ESL teaching. Not only are the teachers all qualified from Cambridge, but they also have at least a CELTA(qualification for teaching English as a second language) and have at least 2-3 years of teaching experience making it a one-of-a-kind company. Moreover, she stated that most of the British Council classes are well prepared and mainly focus on higher quality education as well as more communicative activities as it is a core part of the language. She highly supports this idea of teaching as she believes that English is one of the most popular languages around the world. Therefore the British Council connects people through English.
She hopes to be able to go back to the United States and have a family there with her husband. Shockingly, Miss Alicia has written a book before, but hasn’t been published and has been writing since the age of 12. Miss Alicia has a wide variety of hobbies and interests, including cooking and trying out new foods.
Tom
Mr Tom has been in Han Chiang for around 6 years, since 2017. He taught in Vietnam and England before coming to teach in Malaysia. Due to his friendly and amusing characteristics, students are close to and in awe of him. He motivates his students by changing the tasks according to their interests so that they feel at ease in their comfort zone.
During his teachings, Mr. Tom tries to find creative ways to maintain an easy-going environment for the students during his classes. He loves teaching as he likes the experience when students learn new things and get excited about his classes, this motivates and keeps him going. He is particularly good at teaching and communicating with students of different ages enabling him to be able to create tasks that are suitable for them. As to the modern time with the increase in tests and exams for students, Mr. Tom tries his best not to put any additional stress on his students.
He suggests students who are struggling, try to learn from one another as teachers aren’t able to help them all the time. Besides, he also advises students to be patient and not expect to advance instantaneously as he deems that learning a language takes time.
Taking into consideration, the British Council provides a higher quality education since they are quite selective of their teachers, “Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.” – Charles Kuralt.
Leticia
Miss Leticia Wallace from the United States, has been teaching since 2010 during her high school years and was first exposed to this field when she volunteered to teach some immigrant students in the U.S. and became enamoured by it. Miss Leticia has taught all over Asia and decided to settle in Penang with her family around May this year.
Her greatest professional accomplishment was when she helped a couple of teachers at the British Council in Seoul, North Korea to set up a workshop and it was particularly memorable for her as it was a great success. Miss Leticia believes that the sternness and caringness she should depend on the culture of the students. She found out that the students here in Malaysia usually respond well to teachers who are stern but when she was teaching in Saudi Arabia, the students there accepted kinder teachers. She usually distributes her students into groups and the winning team at the end of the lesson will be rewarded. Miss Leticia believes in the idea that anyone learns best when they are having fun hence she tries to bring fun games into the classroom whenever the students are respectful and obedient. She thinks her strength is her passion for her job, letting her educate her students in the best way possible.
Miss Leticia expressed that teaching in Penang might be her most memorable experience as she feels connected to the students and respects them for working very hard under the teachings of their parents. Miss Leticia hopes to get a master’s degree and help students with disabling disabilities that are suffering from a decline in support. She has quite a busy life as she has to take care of her family of four and prepare her classes for the students at the same time. Miss Leticia indicates that education plays an important role in every country and she wishes to help the students as much as they can to get into the best universities. Miss Leticia stated that high school is a very tough phase and the students should try their best to get through it, all the hard work will pay off in the end.
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