I have been teaching English so far for more than 3 years. My first students were kids and teens with different levels of English, but most of them were beginners. After some time I have realized that I would like to teach adults and it was the best decision ever since it gave me lost of joy and understanding that I would like to work with adults.
My main rule for the lesson is that we speak 90% only English! There are of course some exceptions, but everything has to be explained and discussed with the help of English. I am a firm believer that the more you speak the faster you learn and get rid of the fear that you will make a mistake and nobody will understand you. Moreover, I let my students choose the topics they would like to talk about during the lessons. In case they do not have any idea what exactly they would like to talk about, then I would give a choice to choose from. People learn better when they can relate something to their lives or experiences. That's why I give them the opportunity to decide.
My teaching purpose I would divide into “short-term” goals and “long-term” goals. My short-term goal being a teacher is to find out what for my students need English and how often they are ready to work toward their goals. My long-term goal is to convince my students that learning English is a possible task, which can be done with lots of love, pleasure, and motivation!