About me and the school
Hi! My name is Miranda.
I love kids, I love languages and I love making language learning fun! So I'm trying something new and I hope you like it too.
Feel free to get to know me and my philosohy behind starting this English Play School.
Who am I?
I was born in America and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. I grew up with dual citizenship, language, identity and all.
I love teaching and I love languages, so I got my university degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. After university two big milestones in my life led me to my passion for children.
First, my husband and I lived and worked in Japan for 4 years teaching English in the public school system, mostly in Elementary, Kindergarten and Junior High school. I learned to LOVE those young ages. Children are free spirited, willing to try new things and simply want to enjoy life! After a year of just doing what I was told and following a lesson plan script, I brought up the courage to ask if I could plan the lessons myself. I found that I really enjoyed coming up with ideas and the children really seemed to enjoy my classes! I had so much fun realising my ideas, creating materials and enjoying English conversation classes with the children! My last two years in Japan, I was given a leadership role. I was then responsible for leading and training the group of English teachers in the city where we worked (over 40 teachers).
After we returned from Japan, we started a family of our own. Raising two little boys has reinforced my passion for making life fun for little ones. Coming up with activities for my kids has helped me realise that they learn so much through just doing a fun activity geared to their age! With my English Teaching experience always in the back of my mind I have also learned that you can focus on specific skills (like language) without the kids even knowing that they are learning.
I've had this English School idea for a while now and have been dreaming about the possibilities over the past years. Now we just moved to Gent with my husband's new job and I am very excited to finally have a chance to put my dreams to the test! So, let's get started!
Inspiration corner
My philosophy
"Tell me and I forget,
teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn."
~Benjamin Franklin~
"What we learn with pleasure,
we never forget."
~Alfred Mercier~
You've probably heard the saying "learn by doing". Some things are very easy to learn by doing (science through experiments, biology through nature walks, math by counting with real objects) and other things require a little more creativity, or just plain old fashioned studying.
Language learning can be a little of both. I want to help with the DOING aspect by providing a fun English environment. We will enjoy activities which use language, focus on particular themes and grammar (in a non-textbook way), and provide a lot of repetition without making it boring.
Learning is NOT fun when you are forced to do something. Children in my classes are given the freedom to interact, speak and join activities at their own pace. Simply listening and observing can also do wonders.
Of course I do encourage to speak and participate, but I do not push children to do what they are not comfortable or willing to do.
