Zorica Kovacevic is a CELTA tutor at IH Belgrade, Serbia
How long were you an EFL Teacher, and how long have you been a teacher trainer?
I have been an EFL teacher for more than 30 years and a teacher trainer for 25 years.
Did you have a different career before EFL?
No, teaching has been my greatest love and that is why I decided to move into teaching training as well.
I think good teachers can change the world!
What are your hopes/aspirations for your trainees?
My hope is that they will know how to create a good and positive learning environment in their lessons to cater for individual language and learning needs. I give my trainees my full support and believe that they will also offer a lot to their students to be able to ask for good performance. I hope they will learn how to guide their students and how to reflect on their own development. My CELTA trainees learn about latest developments in our profession but understand that teaching is a life long learning process.
Once the course finishes, I stay in touch with many of them and offer additional professional guidance.
When you were an EFL teacher what did you like most, and how do you bring that into the classroom for your trainees?
I liked the challenge when a student had difficulties to understand something. It would only encourage me to find an alternative, personalised way to approach the learning challenge and offer creative variety.
Also, I train my students in learning strategies, so that they can become more autonomous in their learning.
What advice would you give your trainees for successfully completing the course?
You need to be open, to start implementing all you learn in input and through observations and reflect on how to bring your teaching to a higher level.
Use feedback constructively, it is a great tool to help you develop more
What advice would you give your trainees for an interesting and rewarding career?
Love and enjoy your work, continue learning and developing, work in different contexts to learn about other cultures and include that experience in your teaching.
Love the challenge. Use the TD options, and there are many, form free webinars, conferences to other teacher training courses like Delta.