Lydia Rubio Fernandez

I love my job in many aspects but the most important one is knowing that students come to class happy and with energy to learn new things. I am very enthusiastic and love teaching. Teaching has developed enormously in recent times- particularly in how we can teach online- and I really enjoy adapting my skills to both online and face-to-face. There are increased opportunities to enjoy the flexibility that teaching a language offers and I love how I have more opportunities to teach.

With the strong purpose of motivating my students and creating significant experiences, I always research teaching methods, materials, and language games that can be used in class. When acquiring a new language, it is vital to practice verbal and written skills. Talking to partners, considering students’ interests, and providing enjoyable activities, where pupils can be creative, have made the lessons that I plan very engaging and dynamic. I believe it is important to encourage learners to practise vocabulary and assist them in accurately listening, speaking, writing, and reading Spanish. I prepare different teaching and learning activities aiming to help students to understand the topic from various angles. I develop and select the materials, paper based and in digital formats, using learning tools such as Canva, Power point, Kahoot...

A variety of teaching methods help engage and motivate each learner so giving real-life examples, creating a simulation role/play related to the topic, working in small projects, or including games using technology is something that I always try to do with my students. I encourage them to speak in Spanish as much as they can as there is no better way to learn a language than using it. I also like to include activities where they have to watch videos or listen to music related to the topic as this also assists in better understanding., The use of images when teaching also helps students to remember the topic and increase their retention span.

I have also completed a university course in teaching Spanish online, in which I learned about teacher planning and activities as well as the affective dimension on the online teaching. This has taught me to think of different techniques, tools, and strategies to present content and to make input significative and comprehensible.