Hi Rocío! Before we begin with some of the questions, let´s start with you introducing yourself and maybe you can also tell us about what you do in your spare time when you aren´t teaching. 

Hi!! Yeah, sure. Well as you know, my name is Rocio, I am 26 years old and I work at EUROACE as a Spanish teacher. In the free time (that I have left) I love to read, the truth is that I really am a bookworm and I love reading whenever I can. I also love series and films and love to go to the cinema when I can too. Spending time with friends, family and my boyfriend is really important to me too and I also love to go shopping. I think that may be my guilty pleasure. Well, I also love Sonny Angels and I go crazy for them, but that is another story.

And how long have you been working at EUROACE?

I have been teaching at EUROACE for 6 months now and before that, I was a Spanish high school teacher for 2 years. I found the job searching for Spanish schools and academies that were looking for teachers.

Have you always wanted to be a Spanish teacher?

The truth is yes, from a young age I have always loved the thought of teaching and I´ve always wanted to be a teacher. I didn´t know in what sector I wanted to teach or anything like that, but it has always been a thought of mine. In the past I have taught literature but here at EUROACE, I teach Spanish language.

You have a lot of experience then! Talking about your students here, what age and nationalities are they?

Nearly all of my students have different nationalities and the age range is anywhere between 20-40 years old. It really is a big mix of nationalities and people and I love that about my class.

And in general, what is your preffered level to teach?

I really do like all levels and they all have their advantages and disadvantages but I think that I am most comfortable with is A1-B1 because they understand enough to be able to have a solid conversation with them. These are the groups I like the most.

I completely understand, it´s always nice to be able to have a chat before and after the class. How do you usually prepare your lessons?

Well as the school doesn´t follow a specific book, we always use a variety of books that we have here already or we search on specialized websites. We use materials and resources that we know will interest our students but of course, it depends on the day and what I need to teach them.

Would you say that you prefer to work with a book or without one?

I have to say that for me, I do like following a book because that way you can work in order and its also kind of good for the students because they know what pages we are up to and where the class is at. However, without a following a book you also have the freedom to do more interesting activities. For example, I can teach by showing them videos and they can interact a bit more with eachother and express their opinions. I don´t want to choose between the two, but the truth is I do like a mix between them both.

We can both agree that there are advantages for both ways then! Would you be able to give us an example of how you organise a grammar class?

Ok, so for example, I really love grammar classes and I love to prepare them. Normally, If I am preparing either a grammar or vocabularly class then I will always start off by talking. I always try to find out new things about my students, how their weekend was, what they like to do, just so they open up a bit and tell me things. This way, they relax a bit and they don´t feel embarassed or shamed (in preparation to do the grammar etc).

Afterwards, I always try to incorporate questions specific to the theme that we are studying or that we will study during the class. An example would be if we were talking about protests, I would ask the following questions: Do you like Valencia? Is there anything that you would change about the city? Do you agree with the rules and processes? Once they answer, I explain the grammar point or theme in full, they have some time to do activities related to the topic and after we always end with a group activity. An example would be for them to organise a project following a certain theme or they could ask questions in their groups to improve their fluency. I think it is very important for my students to always practice through speaking activities and it is really good for them to be able to have the chance to practice amongst themselves after they learn new themes.

Thank you for such a detailed description of one of your classes. I agree that speaking skills are extremely important and it is nice that the class is big enough to be able to constantly practice with eachother! Sounds great! Speaking of activities, do you usually do interactive activities with your students? 

I don´t prepare interactive activities in all of my classes because I like to have a good balance regarding what materials and resources I use but when I do use them, I usually use videos, audios (I actually use audios a lot because I think its a great way to train their listening skills as they don´t have any hints through videos or images of people in certain situations). I lalso love to put some songs on during class so they can get a taste of Spanish music and culture.