Our teachers are the backbone of what we do, and we’re thrilled to shine the spotlight on another one of our dedicated teachers. Meet Sayra.
Sayra lives in Glen Allen, Virginia, and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Diversity. She has been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) with Global LT for over a year.
She started teaching in 2008 and then spent five years as an instructional assistant for exceptional education students in a local high school.
Then, in 2019, she became an online ESL teacher at VIP Kid, a company that provides language lessons for Chinese and Japanese children, where she earned her Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate.
Continuing her passion for helping others, she transitioned to a career advisor and went back to school for instructional design. She knew she wanted to teach, but she wanted to be able to teach her own lesson plans, so she began to search for open teaching positions.
“Being a career advisor, I was already active on LinkedIn, so I decided to search for teaching positions and found one posted by Global LT, and now here I am. I’m just so happy to have this opportunity to share my gift with students and other teachers.”
There’s nothing better than doing what you truly enjoy, and Sayra enjoys teaching and connecting with her students. She uses whatever they’re going through in their life to structure the lessons around. “For example, if they’re getting their driver’s license, I’ll use that vocabulary to help them prepare. I also walked one of my students through career advising after the lessons were over, and she got a new job because of it. It’s so sad to see students leave when their time is up, but I’m also so happy to see them achieve what we set out to do.”
Learning a new language takes time, effort, and dedication. But when you find your learning style, and get matched with the right teacher, it helps you keep your focus. Sayra’s advice for anyone learning a new language is, “Practice. You can’t just be in class and expect those 30 minutes to teach you. You have to practice and open your heart to speak with strangers in the new language. Find new outlets to practice that language, especially in English because there are so many derivatives.”
If you’re thinking about learning a new language, we’d love to match you with the perfect teacher to help you get started. Just let us know!
This blog post was written by Megan Tully, Marketing Manager.
