My name is Douglas Hill

I am a State of Ohio born native, specifically from the City of Canton (just 1 hour South of Cleveland, OH). Canton is most known for the Pro-Football Hall of Fame - which is located next door to my High School Alma Mater. American Football's origins proudly began in my hometown.

I am a two time Masters Certificate TEFL Teacher. I also am a beginner Spanish speaker and an intermediate French speaker, a lover of all languages!!

Since the graduation of my 2nd TEFL Course, literally 2 days later, (after I had accepted a position), I found myself driving to San Luis Potosi. This is a city I had never heard of. But, I was very excited to utilize my own skills and the new information that the language school in Puerto Vallarta taught me, it was great!! Not only was I immediately was able to apply all of the things that I'd learned there, but, I also have had the chance to teach in other Mexican cities like: Cancun, Merida (Yucatan), and lastly in Cabo San Lucas in late 2017 - before returning to Phoenix, AZ where I currently live. My desire was to stay longer, but I needed to start over in my process of applying for my work visa - which was costly.

Since Mexico, I had been struggling with finding opportunities to continue my TEFL teaching, and honestly did not think about / know about online options. I'm so excited to be able to teach English again - and engage with students worldwide!!

My passion is encouraging people, learning languages and experiencing culture.

Within these - I have been able to teach adults, business professionals, teens, and youths from other countries of various languages. My experience with teaching youths started as a youth pastor and later as an operator of my own internet cafe business with a community-outreach focus - before teaching in Mexico.

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~ Completed the required 150 hours of LEARN TEFL Masters Coursework (online)

~ Completed the required 250 hours of ICEP TEFL In-Class Training in Puerto Vallarta, MX

~ Early Summer, I finished (07 of 2017) teaching English with St. Giles Juniors International Language Camp (In L.A.) - as a live-in English Teacher / Counsellor

~ Spent most of 2016 teaching in Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, San Luis Potosi, Merida (Yucatan), & Cancun - then lastly in Cabo San Lucas in late 2017.

~ 3yrs as a Youth pastor of Antioch Miss. Baptist Church (approx. 300 youths), I implemented a tutoring program comprised of adults, high school & college graduates to assist with teaching / tutoring alongside myself. I was also in charge of all event planning for the church and youths.

~ 2 Summer youth music program (teaching clarinet and saxophone / Jr. Pro-Football

H.O.F. youth marching band) in my hometown, Canton Ohio.

~ 6 mos Substitute Teacher for J.O.G.'s (Jobs for Ohio's Graduates)

~ 6 mos International Teams Missions Agency (training curriculum in

Chicago/Prospect Heights. IL)

~ 2yrs as an Independent business owner of an Internet cafe which doubled as a

community outreach, I personally trained my entire (amazing) staff. The cafe was open 24hours per day during summer months.

~ Pathfinder Community Award for "Business Excellence" (Annual award given to 5

community leaders) regarding the positive impact of the internet café.

~ Columbus Literacy Council (tutor for small classroom of 5 non-English speakers

and others), this was on a volunteer basis.

My pedagogical approach is very simple.

As an innate teacher, I desire to keep the students active both using a fun approach to learning as well as discovering what may be one's specific weakness.

I love playing a game that I created called "What America HEARS" - for the more advanced students, where they learn to hear syllables used in really fun and crazy sentences. Over the years, I have learned the most common errors (especially with Spanish speakers) and work to make sure they understand those subtle differences that might slip them up when trying to communicate effectively, like the letter B & V, or D & TH as a quick example.

There's no rush to learning (as I have experienced from living in the students shoes - while living as a foreigner in Mexico) -- and it may be one small thing that halts a students efforts towards fluency. But, in the workout gym of learning MUSCLES always GROW well.