Montserrat Rocha

Details

Introducing Montserrat

My background

Thank you for looking up my biography! Hello, my name is Montserrat. I am a qualified and experienced native Spanish teacher and I’ve been teaching Spanish at two outstanding and multicultural schools in London for GCSE and A levels.

You can check some of my teaching work and FORMAL RECOMMENDATIONS at my professional TEACHING PORTFOLIO in the following link: https://montserratrocha.wixsite.com/website

I am a CELTA graduate teacher for English as a secondary language at Cambridge University and I did my teaching training at Canterbury Christchurch University with 9 face to face observations in the classroom and two observations teaching online for ESL students at West Thames College in London.

Since I’ve been teaching my school students online, I have decided to continue my career as a part-time teacher online to combine my work at a private school in London. I am a specialist in conversational speaking skills, and I have a vast knowledge base in preparing students for their AQA examinations KS4 and KS5. I joined classgap because I love teaching tutorials, and I can help you to improve your exam skills. Outside of this topic I love swimming and spending time with family.

In my teaching online I use:
-PowerPoint presentations, interactive whiteboards, photocards, flashcards, role-play, worksheets, and many other resources to teach speaking conversational skills.
-My students practice four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Depending on your needs and goals we will decide which skills to practice in the lessons and which ones you will be working on independently for your own improvement outside the lesson.

Achievement and Teaching

During my time at Gumley House Convent School and during the completion of my teaching training I have acquired experience in teaching large groups of students up to twenty-five and I am fully familiar with the English National Curriculum. The Department has always placed trust and confidence in my responsibilities in teaching students. In one observation my mentor commented on my capacity to build good relationships with the students and my wittiness in the classroom. In the final observation, my tutor commented with the heads of the languages department how impressive my lesson was and the high levels of engagement and motivation that students show in the lesson.

I have always been constant in my work at schools, producing resources and in constant communication with teachers and Heads of subjects to discuss pupil progression and explore different assessment strategies that needed to be implemented to support the individual pupil. I have assessed, tracked, and monitored students’ progression closely. I have built strong relationships with my learners and used an effective system of sanctions and rewards with troubled teens. I show a strong capacity for classroom management and instructions. Students know what they need to do in an activity and the purpose of doing it with success.

My role also has consisted of helping students to improve their grades by determining areas of the language where they were failing. In my sessions, I have taught them how to develop exam skills in the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. I have worked with small groups of students who have improved their grades and overall marks. I have found out the ways to help them to overcome barriers during the learning process. I have supported students with Special educational needs in different areas of the Spanish and English Language. I have always received excellent feedback about the improvement of my students from other teachers and followed pupils' performance closely. Students who have attended my sessions regularly have improved notably. I have used different strategies to support individual pupils with the latest and more innovative teaching strategies. I have planned my lessons carefully, including all students studying preferences, and I have challenged advanced students by adapting my pace to their language skills. I have contributed with my resources focused on the coursebook themes and specific uses of grammar at different levels. I have taken part in an active life at school, supporting drama and language activities.


During the completion of the Award in Education and Training and the Certificate in Education and Training at Canterbury Christchurch University, I have developed strong TEACHING SKILLS in the classroom and strong speaking skills during this time preparing students for examinations in GCSE and A levels. I can anticipate the student's needs and how to implement new strategies to improve their skills in the target language. I enjoyed my lesson plan producing support worksheets with chunks, frames from speaking, key expressions, grammar reminders, flashcards with prompts, and different quizzes and strategies. I always set high expectations and underline the goals at the beginning of the lesson. I use extension activities for more advanced students to let them progress further. My sessions have always been student-centered with activities that encourage participation, problem-solving, and collaboration. In my sessions, students help peers to answer difficult questions. It has allowed me to monitor the students closely and take notes of their practice. I have reassured students and prepared them for a mock exam day. I have provided them with very detailed feedback fixing errors, adding vocabulary to expand their answers, giving sentence examples, remarking good expressions used, and giving guidance on how to improve speaking with an action plan. I have used varied types of exercises and approaches during the speaking practice to develop students' confidence in the language and passion for learning. I have always differentiated my students and levels, used different levels of complexity for the tasks, and adapted the appropriate pace for a group or a student. Constructive feedback and comments on their performance have encouraged students to speak with a positive attitude to the target language. It helped me to let students know where I want them to be. Students must be able to reflect on their work and understand what they need to achieve to aim higher. Celebrating success is as important as highlighting areas for improvement. I challenge and guide students with achievable targets that I have checked and revised. I have always used the school marking code strictly. Students can see from the marking strategy how they can improve their work and what they have done well. I have used official mark schemes and assets of students in speaking conversation. I have used different levels of difficulty in my tasks, starters, reflection, and plenary activities.

Others

I studied the French language at the French Lycée in Madrid for three years. At the beginning of my teaching career, I volunteered in a Primary international language school in the role of teacher of Drama in English as a Foreign language. I wanted to create something original with my students that I could adapt to their ideas, thus I wrote a theatre presentation which I called Dreams can fly. Students perform at the end of the academic year for parents, teachers, and the rest of the school groups. Currently, I am working on this new project, and planning to release the bilingual book version of Dreams can fly. With all the benefits from this book, I want to help a charity to sustain the education of the children in Cape Verde.

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