New challenges in teaching kids after the teacher training course<

New challenges in teaching kids after the teacher training course

My name is Noelia Caridad. I am a music teacher and I also teach Txistu, which is a traditional Basque instrument. My professional experience has always been geared at teaching children, but last year it was broadened to include adults.

For a while I had been thinking about doing a SPanish teacher training course, but I hadn't found either the time or a course that suited me. I found a suitable one at Instituto Hemingway. So I began my first contact with teaching Spanish. 
With time, I made the decision to move to Edinburgh, so I thought that the course I had started would be useful. 
I don't have any experience as a language teacher, but as a student, I spent years studying Basque in a Basque language center, where you can experience total linguistic immersion from the get-go in the center. 
I attend English classes in the city I am currently living it, but I am not making much progress thanks to the method used. So I constantly think about things that I can improve, add or include in my future classes.
As I have said before, my time at the Basque language center opened the door to a less conventional way of teaching the language. In the lower level classes, more importance is given to oral expression and to teaching vocabulary than grammar. All this is done through games, acting and even activities away from the center.

For me, it is important A1 and A2 students can develop their oral communication skills more quickly and with less stress. When students show oral fluency, then can focus a bit more on grammaer without forsaking oral expression.

In my opinion, it is also important for the classes to be in Castillian Spanish first, that we avoid making references in the other language, and that we use explanations and mimicking to make the practical side more comprehensible.

With the course over, I now have to tackle the most difficult part, actually giving classes. I have got a job as a Spanish teacher at a nursery. It is a challenge teaching children who only want to play, so I will have to make the most of it