Gavin

I`m a 30 year-old psychology graduate currently studying to be a counsellor. I am from Edinburgh and have spent the majority of my life in Scotland. However, I have travelled a lot and spent periods living in Brazil, Spain, and Palestine. As well as being a native English speaker I have a good level of Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and British Sign Language.

I love getting to know new people, especially from different parts of the world. I am passionate about teaching and learning, and although I graduated from University 8 years ago it doesn`t feel like I`ve ever stopped learning. Amongst others, my main interests are: promoting well-being, gardening, politics, dancing, yoga, playing the ukulele, and learning languages.

I have a very person-centred approach to teaching English, and I take a distinct approach to each student based on their needs and goals. However, with all students I take a gentle compassion approach and encourage them to make mistakes in my classes as this is the way to learn. I also want to make all the classes enjoyable, even humorous, as I believe this can help the learning process.

Availability: Tuesday - Friday: 9am-7pm

Willing to travel: 1 miles

Experience: I have a lot of teaching experience, including working with children and adolescents in Barcelona in 2014 and then since June 2015 I have taught adults as a self-employed tutor in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I have also done voluntary English teaching with children in Brazilian favelas, and with refugees in Manchester. I did a 20-hour TEFL short-course in 2009 but most of my skills and knowledge comes from first-hand teaching experience and personal study I have done since then.