My name is Lisa, I am an EFL teacher living in Spain. Quite how I ended up living in a hamlet on the side of a hill in one of the rainiest parts of Spain, I don’t know. It kind of just happened…
The lovely Sandie enjoying the slow pace of life in the country…
Similarly, becoming a teacher kind of just happened too. I have to be honest, and admit that until the local council offered me a remunerative incentive to do a PGCE course way back in 1996 (there was a shortage of modern foreign language teachers then), I hadn’t ever considered being a teacher. With a student loan to pay off, absolutely no idea what I wanted to do in life, an aspiring rock star to support, it seemed like a good option. And so it was that I began my teaching career, working in secondary schools in the North-East of England teaching English and French… And surprisingly, I actually quite enjoyed it!
I forgot to mention that I’m a keen traveller whenever I get the chance (not often enough these days!). After a couple of great years in Northumberland, I started to get itchy feet… And so to Spain, to do a TEFL course in Barcelona. I was planning to head on to Chile but fell in love with Barcelona and ended up staying there.
I lived in Barcelona for 2 years, working for the British Council and International House. I also worked for the British Council in Cairo and Hong Kong as a summer school teacher. After a brief stint in Oporto (at the same English academy J.K Rowling had worked at!), I moved to Galicia where I have been living ever since with my partner Paul, an organic farmer.
After the children came along, the pace of life slowed down somewhat. I spent 3 years giving classes as a freelance teacher to children and adults and I’ve been working in my current position as a secondary school EFL teacher since 2016. I live and work in two, equally small and remote(ish) villages. This, my keen interest in using new technologies for teaching and learning and a desire to get back on the road someday, has led me to my latest venture, teaching online…
So that’s me: Mum, “farmer’s wife”, teacher of teens and adults, aspiring online teacher and resident of a hamlet on a hill (with frequently itchy feet!).
