TEACHERS

OUR STAFF

Over the years, Made in English in cooperation with Cambridge Academy has built up extensive experience in teaching Young Learners and developed a method which is respectful of learners’ individual learning styles and multiple intelligences. Our teaching staff are all highly qualified, has acquired vast experience in teaching different age-groups and have been fully trained in the Montessori methodology. Classes are completely taught in English, which means that the learners are fully immersed in an English-speaking environment. Made in English has designed its own staged curricula based on the Early Years Foundation Stage. We are deeply convinced that highly qualified staff makes a difference to children’s learning and this is the reason why our teachers are accurately selected and trained. Apart from educational recognitions (teaching license) and previous teaching experience, our young learner teachers are involved into pedagogical studies and child psychology. Our staff include passionate, enthusiastic and energetic people who have a personal inclination for teaching young learners, which is an inborn and essential requirement for this job. Their passion for teaching is contagious. It gets our students passionate about learning, it ignites their inner curiosity, and it gives them confidence in their own capacity to learn. Passionate teachers generate enthusiasm, which brings out the best in their students and allows their performance to soar.

Key Skills and Strengths

• A love for working with small children:  Our teachers spend each day in a room full of little kids, singing, dancing, playing games, and reading stories..
• Classroom management: Our teachers are able to hold the attention of the young students.
• Interest in childhood development and psychology: Teaching young learners isn’t just about ABC’s and story time. Our teachers are prepared to give plenty of feedback to parents on what you are doing with each kid and why what you are doing matters.
• Energy: children have a lot of energy, so teachers need to have enough to keep up.
• A love for your work:  People who are passionate about their work love what they do and it affects how students act and how well they can do. Thanks to our teachers and their constant work, learning becomes fun.

The communicative approach

The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language.

The communicative approach could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction. It was also the result of European migration after the advent of the European Common Market when there was a large population of people who needed to learn a foreign language for work or for personal reasons.

They felt that students were not learning enough realistic, whole language. They did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions; in brief, they were at a loss to communicate in the culture of the language studied. Interest in and development of communicative-style teaching mushroomed in the 1970s; authentic language use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in real communication with one another became quite popular.

In the United States, it was the linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes who developed the concept of communicative competence. Communicative competence redefined what it meant to “know” a language; in addition to speakers having mastery over the structural elements of language, according to communicative competence they must also be able to use those structural elements appropriately in different social situations.

The main principle of our didactic approach is that of active learning. Our AKTIVE (Acquiring Knowledge Through InnoVative English) Learning Method for young learners foresees a first approach to learning through dialogue, communication, experience and emotions. The emphasis is on the child’s expressive, creative, cognitive and social-emotional skills, combined with innovative techniques and materials. The activities the children are engaged in are dynamic and creative and provide constant input, enabling also the youngest children and absolute beginners to learn. The experiential approach based on ‘learning by doing’ stimulates children’s receptive skills, attention, motivation and memory and encourages them to actively participate in the second language acquisition process. Our learner-centred approach means that we adopt a wealth of resources and teaching strategies to meet the needs of all children, whatever their learning styles or whichever form of multiple intelligence is prevalent for them, be it verbal/linguistic, mathematical/logical, musical, visual/spatial, kinaesthetic, intrapersonal or interpersonal. This means we can fully develop each child’s potential, doing away with – or at least significantly reducing – the feelings of frustration and inadequacy mainstream language teaching often creates. In other words, our methodology makes it easier for children to achieve the goals set, thus increasing their self-esteem and their ability to identify and manage different kinds of problem, which proves to be extremely rewarding and reassuring for them. The AKTIVE Learning Method promotes cooperative learning, a teaching method by means of which students learn in small groups, helping each other and feeling jointly responsible for the achievement of learning objectives. The teacher acts as a facilitator and organiser of activities, creating learning environments in which every activity is turned into a group problem-solving process directed at the attainment of specific goals. However, the distinctive and truly innovative feature of the method is its cultural dimension: the art, music and drama labs, role-playing, and interactive team games all contributing to increased learner motivation and achievement.

Montessory Teaching

Our school Made in English is associated with the American Montessori Society, an International non-profit Organization based in New York City with nearly 13,000 members worldwide.

AMS is a vibrant community of schools, teachers and families determined to make Montessori a strong and positive force in education.

The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Dr. Montessori’s Method has been time tested, with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.

It is a view of the child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. It is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, cognitive.

The teacher, child, and environment create a learning triangle. The classroom is  prepared by the teacher to encourage independence, freedom within limits, and a sense of order. The child, through individual choice, makes use of what the environment offers to develop himself, interacting with the teacher when support and/or guidance is needed.

In early childhood, Montessori students learn through sensory-motor activities, working with materials that develop their cognitive powers through direct experience: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste and movement.

In the elementary years, the child continues to organize his thinking through work with the Montessori learning materials and an interdisciplinary curriculum as he passes from the concrete to the abstract.  He begins the application of his knowledge to real-world experiences.

Our teachers, who have been trained according to Montessori philosophy, are enthusiastically involved into the learning process. It’s often hard to spot the teacher in a Montessori classroom. She may be sitting with a preschooler next to a floor mat, arranging colored rectangles from darkest to lightest, or intently observing as a handful of elementary students dissect a leaf.

She won’t be presenting information for learning by rote. Rather, she’ll be demonstrating specially designed learning materials that serve as a springboard for investigation and discovery.  At the heart of the Montessori Method is the concept that mastery is best achieved through exploration, imitation, repetition, and trial and error.

Working as a guide and facilitator, the Montessori teacher creates a well-prepared Montessori environment and an atmosphere of learning and inquisitiveness designed to move students from one activity and level to the next. A Montessori teacher often steps back while the children are working, allowing them to learn from their own discoveries and draw their own conclusions. Rather than supplying children with answers, the Montessori teacher asks them how they would solve the problem, actively engaging children in the learning process and enhancing critical thinking skills. In most cases, children learn directly from the environment and other children, rather than the teacher.

Dr. Montessori believed that the teacher should focus on the child as a person rather than on the daily lesson plans. Although the Montessori teacher plans daily lessons for each child, she must be alert to changes in the child’s interest, progress, mood, and behavior.

Montessori teachers are scientific observers of children. They avoid using rewards and punishments for good or poor work. Montessori teachers never criticize or interfere in a child’s work. It is only in a trusting atmosphere that a child’s personality has room to grow. Children must have the freedom to choose their own activities and learn to behave without restriction. Dr. Montessori thought this was real work and that the child would reveal their true nature once they found work that commanded their full attention.