Hello, my name is Alex and I'm 50 years old and have lived in Poland since 1988. I am a native English speaker and teach Business, Legal and Medical English. I have been teaching since 1988 and I am also a fully qualified firefighter/paramedic.

I have been teaching English and tutoring for twenty-eight years. I moved to Poland because I received an ETP (English Teaching position) to teach at a language school in Warsaw. I believe it is important to integrate cultural aspects into the learning process in order to give teaching and learning English a context and purpose.

I enjoyed working at the school so much that as my contract was nearing completion, I decided to stay in Warsaw and work at the school to continue teaching English there, as well as to work on integrating project-based learning into the ESL (English as a second language) classroom. I also created the curriculum for an afterschool program we were trying to implement at the center. I have co-created a Teacher Training programs at the center and currently do projects and activities.

I qualified as a firefighter/Paramedic and work as an academic instructor at the Main School of the fire service in Warsaw, whilst running my own language school.

I have been teaching English for twenty-eight years, with a mix of tutoring, teaching in the classroom and online teaching. During the past four years, I have taught English as a second language to firefighters and paramedics and also adults, all with varied English levels. I have taught beginners, intermediate and advanced classes. In Warsaw, I worked at a teaching both English and introduced British and American culture into the classroom. I also have been teaching TOEFL classes for the past two years, have prepared students for the GRE, and have helped students get ready to study abroad.

I have taught several writing courses for those preparing personal statements, a statement of purpose and resumes in order to work or study abroad. I also taught an English beginner's online course to adults through Schoology. So I have experience teaching English online, as well as in the classroom.

If not teaching directly in the classroom, I worked behind the scenes to create projects and the curriculum to be used for the certain classes. I worked on task-based projects for the teenage classes we taught, as well as creating a curriculum for the afterschool program implemented at the institution in order to engage learners at a young age and to increase their passion in reading and English comprehension.

I like to have an interactive approach to teaching and draw upon the Communicative Approach. I think it is important to keep the student engaged in the learning process and to use all four language skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading) in order to fully understand English.

The best way to learn is to understand how English can be applied to ¨real world¨ settings. I want to know the expectations and needs of each student so I can adapt my materials and teaching techniques to each student and ensure that they get the most out of each lesson. Speaking, understanding and focusing on communicating effectively are three of the main goals that my students will work on, along with having fun in the process!