When I decided to stay in Peru and become an English Language Teacher there, I knew it was a challenge to tackle. Apart from my 3-year-old pupils calling me “gooood mownin” (as they were convinced I was saying my name every time I entered a classroom), it was not all fun all the time. Yet, it still is the time in my life when I learned the most.

1. It’s all about energy

When you’re a teacher, there’s no such thing as hiding behind your computer or snoozing in a meeting. Once you’ve entered the classroom, you have to give 150% of your attention and energy to your students.

Teaching a language to kids under 10 years old means first and foremost entertaining them: creating meaningful activities and interesting games to make learning fun.

We’ve all had teachers who sat behind their desks, reading the coursebook without looking at students or passing slide after slide reading every word on them: how useful was that?

If you want the person in front of you to have a good time and believe that what you’re explaining is worth learning, you have to embody that energy and belief yourself.

Drink a lot of coffee, keep believing in what you’re doing and more than anything, use the kids' energy to replenish yours. They have so much to give: receive it!

2. What you teach is not necessarily what they learn

I read this sentence in a book (Scrivener), and although it felt weird, it resonated with truth.

You may have planned a well-paced lesson, full of vocabulary or grammar items, included a lot of questions to check your students’ understanding, sometimes they’ll miss it.

One day, a student asked me to translate English expressions on some stickers he had: one read “WTF”. After seeing my face, hearing my explanation that the F word isn’t supposed to be said in class, I’m sure he didn’t focus much on my lesson.

Sometimes they’ll remember one word out of the entire hour of class, because they’ll associate it with a mimic you’ve had. Sometimes they'll focus on a word they find odd, and stop listening to what you’re saying. And other times they might not be mentally present, troubled or caught up in their thoughts.

Be patient with every kid and remember that it’s not because you said it that they’ve learned it.

3. Every child has a story - and wants attention

Having a turbulent child in a classroom is a pain in the ass. It disturbs others trying to learn, enrolls fellow pupils to hide behind desks and sometimes, just interrupts you with a “teacher!” for no reason.

While I thought discipline was the answer to such behaviors, I learned that LOVE was the most appropriate reaction. A kid acting like this isn’t bad at heart: they simply want attention.

Often, when digging a little deeper in their personal lives, I found out that their parents were having a divorce, or had addiction issues, or that they were living with their aunt and six other cousins. When a child lacks attention at home, lacks attention from a grown up, they will look for it every day at school, surrounded by teachers. They just want us to acknowledge them, saying “It’s ok, I see you, I know you’re here, and I even have something for you”. Most of the time, those kids love to help and to feel useful.

When they start disturbing the class, instead of punishing or lecturing them, ask them to finish their exercise with another student, then help a struggling student, cut the handouts, etc.

Find out about your students’ personal situations. Then teach them that they are worthy of love.

4. It’s all about adaptability

One of my mentors once told me “teach the students, not the plan”. It is so damn true.

9 out of 10 lessons you’ve prepared won’t go as planned. Why? Because we are dealing with human beings. Each student has their moods, their preferences, their pet peeves. There might be some frictions between classmates, especially with kids, as taking a best friend’s ruler without asking for permission can lead to a diplomatic incident.

The key is to stay flexible, anticipate as many issues as may arise, and allow yourself some extra time to deal with in-class issues. They may not understand the concept straight away, they may finish the activity faster than you thought, or they may be too distracted to play the game you’ve thought about.

On my second day teaching 3-year-olds, I had planned two activities. The first one consisted in cutting small pieces of yellow paper and pasting them on the sun. Two minutes after setting the task and noticing that they weren’t doing anything, I realized that kids this age don’t know how to use scissors. Well, we never got to the second activity, I ended up teaching them how to cut papers and nothing about English, and that’s how you learn!

5. Don't take your knowledge for granted

Why can I say “Go away” to someone but not “get away”? Why is a cat sometimes referred to as “it” and sometimes as “he”? Why “through” and “though” don’t have the same pronunciation?

Knowing something and being able to explain it are completely different things. As a teacher, there are some moments when we don’t know how to explain a concept, a definition, because it feels ‘logical’ or ‘natural’ for us to speak like this. Yet, we too have learned these concepts at some point, and we often tend to forget it.

Empathy is key: you have to put yourself in your learner’s shoes, trying to remember what is was like not to know. What helped you understand. Don’t assume that it will be the same for everyone: each student has its own leaning process.

And sometimes, the answer will just be “because”.

Organization, empathy and patience are your best allies – along with Peppa Pig videos. Your brain will trip switching between three languages. You’ll have panic moments when you’ll see students get bored or not understand what you’re explaining for the second time.

But at the end of the day, it is the most rewarding job I’ve ever done. After hiring Instagram influencers for digital campaigns, serving fries at KFC at 1am on a Saturday night or selling silk blouses to suburban women, it’s clear that the sense of purpose is beyond compare.

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