English Second Language Teacher
Public School Madrid
Madrid, Community Of Madrid, Spain
Working as an English teacher in Spain was quite the adventure! As a non-Spanish speaker teaching English to Pre-K-6th grade students, I had a wonderful opportunity to showcase strong qualities of mine such as patience, innovation, communication (especially non-verbal), collaboration and creating a fun and inviting atmosphere conducive to learning! My biggest lesson from this presented itself in remembering the importance of creating an environment where creativity and innovation are valued and encouraged for each individual. In working with kids, I came to realize how mechanical I had become in my routines and goals as an adult. Working in an environment where my verbal communication skills that I had heavily relied on with my background working in sales & account management weren't really useful, I was given the opportunity to realize skillsets that I hadn't paid attention to in a long time. What I came to discover was that in creating a welcoming environment where each person feels innately valued for exactly who they are, creativity and innovation thrive, and people will naturally step into being the best versions of themselves and acting on their natural capabilities. When there is an environment created where a person is free to experience frustrations, successes, crazy ideas, creativity, mistakes, etc. without the fear of comparison, judgement, or their worth being tied to their performance, the amount and quality of output is significantly increased. It's also a lot more fun to work this way! The lessons I learned from this job helped me to pivot career choices from working in sales to working with people 1:1 and through training programs as a life coach!
