Elena Shipovalova — additional english teacher

Since I gained my Bachelor of Arts in English language and Linguistics in 2016, I have started my exciting journey of working at international schools. My first experience in such an organisation happened in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), which is also my hometown. I had various roles at Bishkek International School including librarian, EAL and RAL teacher, IB Primary Years Programme co-teacher and extra-curricular activities coordinator. Having tried different jobs there, I realised one thing for sure – I love working with students and colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds! It makes me open-minded and leads to the way of exploration, new knowledge and experiences.

We all look different, but we want the same. We all want to be happy, have a lovely family, friends and enjoy life. I like to keep this in mind because it makes me feel united with others, like as a school we are one big family. A language is another way of feeling unity. It is incredibly wonderful that speaking a foreign language helps you communicate with people from different cultures. I feel blessed being able to pass my language knowledge on to my students. To my mind, the more commonalities we share, the easier it is for us to develop strong friendship bonds and change our world for the better.

Because I come from a mountainous country, one of my hobbies is hiking and spending a lot of time in nature. In addition, I enjoy baking, walking with my dog and working out at the gym.

As any other teacher, I love it when my students progress and develop their skills, which is one of my goals here at ISSPb. My teaching approach is based on mutual respect between a teacher and student. I believe that each student is a unique individual, with their own interests, abilities and motivation. Thus, I adjust my teaching style to the student’s needs, keeping in mind the ultimate goal – to learn the language and improve everyone I encounter at ISSPb!