Teaching

It seems I have been teaching all my life. I started helping kids with English lessons at the age of 17 and then I decided this is what I wanted to do. My dream was to be a trained teacher so I studied at the English Teacher’s Training College and then moved on to English Philology and Spanish Philology. This way I fulfilled my dream and became a language teacher.

Over many years I taught English, Spanish and even Taekwon-do ITF! Becoming a diving instructor was a natural step for me as I wanted to share my passion with my students, give them the best experience and see them develop. Because everybody learns in a different way, I try to adapt my teaching style to a particular person using my experience and the knowledge of cognitive psychology. If you do not know what cognitive psychology is – look below:)

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is psychology of mental processes, so it basically explains what happens to our brains when we perceive the world or learn. In simple terms we can call it “psychology of learning”. This was the missing element in the whole puzzle for me. As a trained teacher I knew how to explain things, plan lessons and create tasks for my students but little did I know what happens next.

Then one day I decided to do a one year post graduate studies of cognitive psychology and I learnt much more than I had ever expected. It was a real eye-opener for me as I realized that I had been forced to learn things at school but nobody had ever showed me HOW to learn them. During these studies I discovered how to use my right and left hemisphere and remember things much faster and much better than ever before. I learnt fast reading and fast writing techniques as well. What fascinated me most, however, were personal differences, as I realized people are more different than I had thought. Everybody has a unique temperament, way of thinking, interests, motivation etc.

Thanks to this knowledge I understand my students much more than before and I can help them better. Although I cannot change my way of thinking, I can adjust it to somebody else’s and try to explain things in a different way, if needed. I also find it absolutely fascinating how unique each of us is and how much we can learn from each other.