{"id":949,"date":"2012-08-06T08:43:25","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T08:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=949"},"modified":"2012-08-06T11:06:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T11:06:37","slug":"voices-from-the-itdi-community-2-malu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/voices-from-the-itdi-community-2-malu\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices from the iTDi Community 2 \u2013 Malu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malu Sciamarelli — Brazil\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Malu Sciamarelli is an EFL teacher in Brazil. She teaches in language schools and in companies, where she\u2019s developed a new concept of ELT in the workplace. She’s passionate about helping students find their own motivation. She believes that if we, as teachers, create these motivational conditions in the classroom, learning will be a pleasant adventure. She’s also an enthusiastic runner and musician and she loves dogs.<\/em><\/p>\n

What are you passionate about, Malu?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two words excite me: curiosity and creativity. I feel the need to know, explore, understand, learn, predict\u00a0 — in fact anything that may lead to a new way of thinking. Maybe that’s why I’m so passionate about teaching: because I can affect how students perceive the world around them. I believe I can ignite a spark of curiosity and help them develop their own creativity. I feel I can help them overcome fears, express themselves, initiate ideas, plans, actions and \u00a0a desire for lifelong learning. What I have found is that the more I teach, the greater my own need to learn develops both professionally and personally – my own inseparable challenges! Once a colleague asked me ‘Why do you care so much? It’s just a job!’ For me, it’s not just<\/em> a job – it’s my life. It’s what drives me. It’s who I am.<\/p>\n

How and why did you become a teacher?\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Picture a group of girls, sitting under a tree in the school garden, earnestly promising to stay together through high school and university.\u00a0 We were only ten years old at that time but knew we loved English.\u00a0 Being a teacher didn’t occur to us then, so we promised to follow our dream by studying English Language Translation and Cultural Studies and go on to work all together as translators.\u00a0 I was the only one who kept that promise.\u00a0 The others fell by the wayside to courses such as Business and Dentistry.<\/p>\n

In my junior year at 18, I was offered a position in a multinational bank abroad and a promising career in Business. Imagine the reaction from\u00a0my friends and family\u00a0as I turned it down to go on with my translation studies. There was one person, my father,\u00a0who offered support, urging me to follow and live my dream — though I knew even he wasn’t entirely happy about my choice.<\/p>\n

As a newly fledged translator, I was ready to translate the world.\u00a0 However, to help out a friend I agreed to teach her English classes for just three weeks.\u00a0 As you all know, teaching is contagious!\u00a0 The weeks became months and years.\u00a0 In fact, now picture me having taught for nearly 19 years. There is no other profession where our passion can ignite determination in others to follow their dreams.\u00a0 I could never see myself wanting to do anything else!<\/p>\n

What are you most interested in right now, Malu?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now I’m very interested in the implementation of a project that I\u00a0developed with a teaching colleague\u00a0in a software company in Brazil.\u00a0 We have both worked teaching English in companies for over 10 years and came to the realization that while we might be teaching business<\/em> vocabulary and practising the textbook exercises, our students weren’t\u00a0learning much they could actually use.\u00a0 Our students were aliens in a business world.<\/em>\u00a0 We immersed ourselves for 6 months in the company, participated in meetings, conference calls, analyzed methodology and evaluated real needs.\u00a0 As a result we identified three points to target:<\/p>\n

1. Teachers often visualize Business English<\/em> very differently from what a company wants.<\/p>\n

2. Students often visualize their own knowledge quite differently from what they can actually do and what their company needs.<\/p>\n

3. Business books often visualize the world in a generic and superficial way that is far from reality.<\/p>\n

So…our answer!\u00a0 We created EBP\u00a0– English Boost Program.\u00a0 It’s an innovative way of teaching English.\u00a0 The syllabus and assessments are developed focusing on each student’s needs, making use of simulated meetings and conference calls. We developed the structure of the program and delivered it in the company, full-time,\u00a08am-6pm, Monday to Friday.<\/p>\n

Now as teachers, we see we have to understand how the company works, be aware of the trends, and observe\u00a0each student in action to develop an individualized\u00a0plan.\u00a0 Before we started this program, the software company had been in\u00a0jeopardy of losing their main client because they couldn’t communicate effectively. Now, due to the improvement in real skills, they have not only kept the contract but\u00a0also opened new offices in\u00a0Latin America,\u00a0Asia and the USA.\u00a0 I was responsible for training teachers to implement EBP in offices in\u00a0Brazil, Argentina and China.<\/p>\n

What things do you do to help you get better at being a teacher?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are various things that help me develop professionally.\u00a0 For my skills and knowledge, I subscribe to EFL magazines and websites and participate in webinars and\u00a0courses online.\u00a0\u00a0 For teaching practice reflection\u00a0and\u00a0self-awareness, I do frequent peer observation: twice a month I observe other colleagues\u2019 classes as well as be observed.\u00a0Each month, we have a feedback and development session. Also, after each class, I do a reflective practice<\/em> with my students, which not only helps my own development but also their perception of learning, and it works as follows:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 At the end of the class we review what we did and list the results.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 We analyze the results and discuss how I, as a teacher, and they, as students, influence the outcome.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Finally we plan what we will do differently the next time.<\/p>\n

But from my point of view, my PLN (Personal Learning Network) and communities of teachers are the best ways to share knowledge, skills, theories, practices, materials, experiences and new trends in ELT. I also believe that participating in conferences and having the opportunity to network face to face with these communities is vital.<\/p>\n

What’s the biggest challenge you face as a teacher?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One big challenge that I\u2019m facing at the moment is how to maintain students\u2019 motivation until the end of a course. Initial motivation flows easily but to know how to sustain it in individual students is much more challenging. What I\u2019m working on is making learning stimulating with motivating tasks that protect and build students\u2019 self-esteem.\u00a0 In addition, I’m promoting both independence and cooperation among student groups.<\/p>\n

With these practices, the objective is to increase their satisfaction and help them continue to reassess individually what drives their learning, so that they can maintain it until the end of the course.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to a teacher just starting out on a journey of professional development?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Simple – ask for help whenever you need it! Accept advice and suggestions from more experienced teachers and also be willing to share your opinions, beliefs and teaching practices. A community is the best place to do it and it has a big impact on our development.<\/p>\n

I also believe that one key point in teaching is to know your students, so that we can meet their needs and create a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom. And when the students know that the teacher is getting to know them, they will know that the teacher cares!<\/p>\n

Malu, is there <\/strong>any blog or online link you’d like to recommend?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I follow some blogs, but must confess that I read different posts everyday. What I do is check what teachers from my PLN in Twitter and Facebook are posting daily, then select the ones that interest me most. It\u2019s a great way to keep up with the trends in ELT and also select what you need to read at a specific moment in your teaching development or simply be inspired by what other teachers are writing.<\/p>\n

What’s your favorite quotation about being a teacher? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe teacher in you shines through in all your actions!\u201d \u00a0— \u00a0Yehuda Berg.<\/p>\n

I believe teachers\u2019 lives become examples and inspirations for students to follow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malu Sciamarelli — Brazil Malu Sciamarelli is an EFL teacher in Brazil. She teaches in language schools and in companies, where she\u2019s developed a new concept of ELT in the workplace. She’s passionate about helping students find their own motivation. She believes that if we, as teachers, create these motivational conditions in the classroom, learning … Continue reading Voices from the iTDi Community 2 \u2013 Malu<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-from-the-itdi-community-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}