Being a Spanish Teacher

Alba Aller is a full-time Spanish teacher at Vamos Let’s Learn Spanish and part of the school’s Academic Team. In addition to teaching Spanish to adults of all levels from beginner to proficiency Alba also plays a central role in the development of our Young Learner courses for GCSE and A level students.

A Day in the life of Spanish teacher Alba Aller

“What is a typical day like for me?

Well, what might seem like a very easy question to answer, actually isn’t as every day of my working week is different. Let me put it into context.

When I started working for Vamos almost three years ago, my role as a Spanish teacher consisted mainly of preparing and teaching my lessons and checking my students’ homework. But over the years I have become increasingly part of the Academic Team and now I collaborate on several different projects. This means I attend weekly meetings and spend time working on the projects I am involved in.

So back to the initial question; a typical day starts around 7am and when I don’t have an 8am class, I like to prepare my lessons and catch up with emails and students’ homework. This is also the perfect time to work on my responsibilities as a member of the Academic Team.

At the moment, the main project we are working on is creating books and materials for our GCSE and A level courses, which means every week we have a department meeting to discuss the work we’re doing.

Courses for GCSE & A Level

Apart from teaching group lessons in the morning, I also have one-to-one students, some of whom have been studying with me for more than a year.

In the afternoon, I have a Spanish for Business group and in the evening I have my B1 and B2 groups.

Most of our new students join the school as beginners and like to stay with the same teacher and same group as they continue to higher levels. All my evening groups have been with me for at least one or two years.

I love to see the students’ improvement – some of them did not even know how to say hola (the h is silent) and now they can speak with fluency! What is most important to me is that my students improve while having fun. I truly believe learning does not have to be boring so I break down complicated concepts and make my classes as enjoyable as possible.

Courses at Vamos always include interactive activities that encourage speaking, such as games and role-play with teams, groups and pairs, so my students have as much fun learning as I have teaching.

Live, online classes that students can join from anywhere.

I also love sharing Spanish culture. I think that learning a language allows you to connect with people and look at the world through a different set of eyes, and I try to convey this in my lessons. From time to time, I am in charge of teaching our free speaking and cultural classes we offer students on Friday evenings. I am part of the team that plans and creates these classes too, which requires another weekly meeting.

As you can see, I do not have time to get bored! But that does not mean that I do not have time to have my daily 5k walk, rest a bit and have a drink with my lovely housemates after work. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to carry out a job that I am passionate about and that is truly rewarding.”

To find out more about Vamos Spanish courses please visit www.letslearnspanish.co.uk