English Teacher: Pedro

Hey Teachers!

Today I have Pedro from Englishdesdecero who is an English teacher. When I was looking for teachers to interview I realized everyone I have interviewed have been women. I knew that I wanted to make sure to offer both men and women’s perspective in education and I found Pedro’s page. Like most of us, Pedro found teaching later and this is his awesome interview:

1. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

-Well, first I wanted to be a musician, I learned to play guitar when I was 12 but 5 years later I started to teach how to play to my friends, since that experience, I´ve enjoyed sharing what I learn with all people.

2. Is there a moment that sticks out to you that you remember from school with a teacher you had growing up?

There were many teachers but I had a moment that I will always remember. It was when I learned that sometimes teachers are not only for teaching, I would never imagine that my chemistry teacher would make me cope with my parents' divorce when he saw me depressed and without wanting to take a test, he intuited that I did not feel well, and with his advice, I managed to understand what was happening to me when I was only 14 years old. I've never received that empathy before.  

3. How did you get into teaching English in Ecuador and why did you decide to start an Instagram about it also?

It's kind of weird how I became a High school teacher because I´m an agricultural engineer, I have my MBA as well and I worked for the government for ten years but everything started 4 years ago, I quit my job and I went to visit my Father in Florida a couple of weeks, then I came back from the US, my mother in law got sick and she asked me to replace her in her science classes in a high school, a few months later the School needed an English teacher and since then I´ve been teaching Science and Language Arts to Teenagers. 

Thanks to my students enjoying my classes, some of them recommended me to their friends from other schools, and later on, my friends called me as well, and I started to give private classes.

Most people told me that they had a bad experience in their learning with English, and they asked me to teach them from the beginning, from zero, that's why I decided a six months ago to start my IG business page as "English desde cero" (from zero) and everything is going well until now. I've received a lot of positive feedback from my students.    

4. What is your go-to tool you use with children?

We know that every child is a different world, sometimes I use puppets, sometimes music (they love learning with music), Dr. Seuss stories, and now in online classes is harder but not impossible to engage them with some of this activities meanwhile the quarantine continues.

5. Is there anything you do to accommodate your students and how often do you find yourself using that accommodation?

We are teaching online now in my Country and as I told you before it´s harder to engage them but I use some platforms and good apps to motivate them, with some music, trivia, or gamification before starting the class and it works for me.

6. Your store is so fun, what inspired you to create it?

I wish I could have more time to post more content but because I work for a school in the morning and an institute at night it demands me a lot of time.

I like to create my content, looking for idioms, and common expressions that we use in a conversation, I take some good ideas from my classes, from my speaking club, and I like to use a cartoon that I created from a webpage that you can find on my profile photo and some post.

7. Any advice for a new teacher?

I would like to say enjoy this adventure, break paradigms, always try to innovate and create new study methods, teach with their heart, and believe in yourselves, It's ok to make mistakes even if you are a teacher, it's also part of the journey. 

8. Have you had to work virtually since the Pandemic, if so how has it been?

- Since the last year, I´ve taught virtually but only in a one-to-one class, but It's so much different now because to teach to 40 students at the same time it's crazy and a little scary at the beginning but after two months giving classes I can say I´ve adapted and I feel much better, I had to learn a lot about web security and look for more interactive applications for my classes.  

9. A lot of people have been saying they hope things start to change in education since this Pandemic, do you think anything will change from it?
- Sure!, this Pandemic has taught us a lot, from how to be resilient and improve trying to learn as fast as possible in order to be ready for the classes on May, in only two months we had to learn a lot, help each other, making plannings, preparing our virtual classrooms. It has been a big effort, most teachers had to invest in their computers and internet connections by themselves because probably we will continue all the school year on this virtuality.

10. Last but not least, where do you see yourself in ten years?  

Even now if I look back ten years I had never thought to be here right now, in 2010 I was helping farmers to create auto sustainable crop systems and how to increase their profits and now in the present, I still love my job but now helping kids, teenagers and adults to communicate with the world and improve their lifestyles, it makes me feel really happy, and I hope to create my own language institute in the future.  

Thanks so much Pedro!

Happy Teaching