Name: Kasia Franica 

Nationality: Polish

How long have you been teaching?

I’ve been a teacher for 6 years, but I started giving private lessons even before that, probably 9 years ago.

What are you teaching? EFL/ESL

I teach EFL at various levels in a primary school as well as a secondary school. Additionally, I work for two language schools and do regular classes plus Business English classes from time to time.

What certifications do you have?

I have a BA as well as an MA in English.

How did you get into teaching English?

I think I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to be since I was a kid, especially after my uncle started teaching me the language while he was doing his MA in English. In secondary school I had no second thoughts about the profile I was going to choose and continued my education at university. During my 3^rd year, I had to do an internship at school. When I was finished with it, the headmaster offered me a full-time job for the next two years during which I’d be filling in for a pregnant teacher. I took the job with no hesitation and that’s how it all began.

Where are you currently working? Country, school, companies, etc.

I work in Racibórz, Poland. I teach in a school that consists of a primary, a middle and a secondary school and sometimes I find myself teaching all possible levels between the ages of 7 and 18. On top of that I work for two language schools which sometimes send me out to companies to teach but I don’t work directly for those companies.

What kind of contract are you working under?

I’m working under a one-year contract that is renewed every September. There are a few levels of promotion within the school system in Poland and now I’m on the second level (‘a contracted teacher’). If I manage to pass the exam and reach the next one I will get a tenure for life but will still have one more level to reach.

How long have you been working there?

I have been working for four years now in that particular school.

Where else have you worked?

I worked in a middle school in Poznan, Poland. Then I moved to Racibórz and have worked for the same three schools since.

Where do you prefer teaching English?

It’s difficult to say. I think I prefer language schools because most often you get to teach adults who simply want to learn and don’t feel the pressure of state exams that they have to pass. I don’t feel the pressure of those exams either so in effect we can focus on more practical skills during our lessons.

What do you love about teaching English?

I love the fact that English might actually be the most useful thing that you can pass on to your students. They may or may not use the knowledge they acquire in other lessons, but they will surely have to use English one day. Whenever I get a more advanced group I really enjoy having discussions with them and recommending books and films to them which we can later talk about. It’s like creating an English-speaking bubble for yourself.

What are the advantages to teaching for you?

You get the opportunity to use the language all the time and if you have so many different levels as I do, you really have to make use of all your knowledge at all times. It’s a great exercise for your memory.You have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and talk to them about various topics and very often I find myself learning a lot of things from such conversations as well.

What are the disadvantages to teaching for you?

In state schools you do get stuck with one course book for a few years and it sometimes can get extremely tedious to go through the same exercises for the fifth time.

In Poland being a teacher in general is not the best career option possible. It’s very much underpaid so you have to look for additional part-time jobs in language schools and it all just takes a lot of time. Also, students treat English as another subject they have to learn just to pass their state exams. It’s difficult for them to understand it’s more of a skill than a set of rules they can memorize.

Do you do another job?

I don’t simply because teaching takes up a lot of my time.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Kasia for sharing her English teaching experiences with us. You should all go over and check out her You Tube channel about books called Katie O’Books http://www.youtube.com/user/katieobook?feature=watch. There she does book reviews, book hauls, tags, and talks about all kinds of bookish stuff.