Elisa

Hello there!
My name is Elisa, I am 28 years old and I come from Rome.

At present I am a PhD student in Physics at the University of Sheffield five days a week and a student at the London Waldorf-Steiner Teacher Training Seminar (LWSTTS) on Saturdays. My dream is to become a teacher...and quite a special one!

I learnt most of my English in London, from the age of 11 to the age of 13, the years I was in boarding school at Marymount International. Beautiful lawns with birches but a strict headmistress who would march about the corridors with a ruler, measuring skirts’ length. Not exactly my picture of an ideal school! I remember bringing home through the telephone line stories every night. And my parents listened as if it were a BBC broadcast…
At the age of 18 I lived as an au-pair with the Brun family, a delightful trio from a little town in Burgundy. As a child I spoke some French with my mother as her father was french and she lived in Marseille the first years of her life. But thanks to the Brun I was able to really immerse myself into the language and learn it in all its beauty. My host "parents" are teachers in a lycée literaire and I do not remember another period of my life during which I read as much. Every evening after dinner we used to light candles in the living room and let the stories take us on a new journey every evening. I read out loud Balzac, Flauber, Moliere. But also Celine, Jonesco, les poets maudits. My 10 years old "brother" Antoine, whom I still visit once a year and love dearly, was especially keen in sharing with me his school grammar book… I spoke to him in Italian while playing together and he ended up being as fluent as me!
In 2010 I travelled abroad again for one year. I lived in Copenhagen with a Danish family, was nanny to Johanna, a lovely 5 year old little devil, met inspiring people and again started speaking and writing English daily. I travelled to Denmark with the European Erasmus Project and worked on my master thesis in Climate Physics. I also got the chance to do some filed work in Greenland, drilling ice cores for our research on CO2 content in past atmospheres. Great!
Since I came to Sheffield I have also started to learn Spanish with the university’s Latin American Society "chat club" and despite the fact it still does not come out as easily as English and French I think it will be soon part of the family!
Finding myself repeatedly in international environments has helped me develop a strong sense of group cooperation, against any likely language or culture barrier. The change of prospective I have often been asked to adapt to has revealed itself through the years as a precious key to problem solving through critical thinking and argumentation. My high school studies centered on Philosophy and Galileo’s Scientific Method at the University of Padova (Italy) have surely played a fundamental role.
The Waldorf-Steiner course, on the other hand, is bringing back my artistic side, which I have always hold on tight to. I have played the violin since the age of 6 and in the past three years I have taught myself the guitar. I sang for fun in a quire and in a band. At present I am part of the Sheffield University Drama Society and we are soon starting our summer production, Brandon Thomas’s "Charlie’s Aunt". I paint, draw, do clay modeling and love to be with children, adolescents and… yes, adults too!
These diverse experiences have made me a very ductile and curious person. And a joyful one! My motto is: la vita e` bella (life is beautiful)!
I truly wish to be a good tutor to you and I believe to possess the motivation to face the task with passion and dedication. I have a CBR check as the teacher training in London required it to be able to spend my three observation weeks in class. I have observed in a Steiner School at primary school level (ages 6 to 11) and secondary school level (ages 11 to 18).
I can’t wait to bring to you my experience, especially through language teaching. I think language teaching especially suits me as I possess quite strong communication skills and take special pleasure in sound tasting (an essential element to master a foreign language)!
I enjoy being outside and do all kinds of physical activities, from gardening to climbing (not only trees!), running around on feet or roller skates!
Thank you for your kind attention and looking forward to hearing from you!

Elisa

Availability: I am available every day, Monday to Friday, from 9:30pm to 6:30pm. Any other meeting time can be arranged if there is a special requirement but Saturdays I am always away from Sheffield.

Willing to travel: 10 miles

Experience: I have a very eclectic background as I studied modern languages, drama and philosophy in high school and Physics at university.
I speak fluent French, English and Italian (my mother tongue)and have taught them to children and adolescents of any age. I have also tutored in Physics and Maths at GCSE and A-level to italian students. I only have a little experience in tutoring in England as I have been here for a short period of time but I have no difficulty in learning the English way to tests and exams!