July Andrea Cruz

JULY ANDREA CRUZ  -  ENGLISH TEACHER

• What’s your experience as a teacher?

I started with little children in preschool; it was only a replacement for three months but I actually learnt a lot about working with kids.

After that I started working in a project called Computadores para educar and I developed some activities but not in English; it was in Spanish because I’m also a Spanish teacher.

Later I gave classes to third, ninth and eleventh graders at a school. It was an opportunity to get to know high school students as well as elementary students.

Then I was in charge of the preicfes preparation for the 11th grade. It was challenging but it was so good for me.

Later I started working at the Universidad Católica teaching vacation courses. It was great because I worked with adults and people of all ages.

So my experience is quite complete as I have worked with people of all ages and different levels.

• Why did you decide to be an English teacher?

I decided it because I wanted to do something related to languages and human arts. That’s most important to me; also because it was easy for me. I find it interesting, easy to understand, easy to get into and besides, English culture is very important to me because I relate to it. Besides, I didn’t want to be in an office working alone. I like to be with people and to teach them and learn from them. The most important thing is to learn all the time. So you study and study and study and then you keep on learning from the students because they know a lot of things about life. I think it’s a very good job; that’s why I made this decision.

• Have you been abroad?

No I haven’t but I have been in contact with a lot of foreign people all my life. It was at the university when I started to know foreigners, especially musicians. I worked with them and that gave me the confidence to learn and understand foreign cultures.

• What kind of work did you develop with those musicians?

I’m a video maker, a video performer. I actually record, edit, and mix videos in live performances so I met a lot of DJs from all around the world who were working here in Colombia. I’ve been in contact with the best video performers in Colombia. I got the opportunity because I love music. I stopped last year; I don’t have time because all the performances are at night: Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I work on Saturdays and on Thursday it is impossible because I work here. I’m taking a year off but I’m not going to stop forever. I will always do something like that. I love working with videos and documentaries and that’s something that I plan to do in the future.

• What kind of music do you like the most?

Rock music is my favorite; I love it. But electronic music is the one that I know the most because I work with that. I have a very good ear to mix videos. I can understand the sounds, I know the trends and anticipate what is going to continue.

• Do you have any funny experience teaching English?

YES. In 2010 I was with my eleventh graders and we were working on a project but they decided to do an adaptation and another class decided to do a soap opera. It was so funny because soap operas are so sentimental. They did their best; it was awesome and so perfect. We had fun all the time. Every single Friday we recorded the rehearsal; it was so funny. The other group did an adaptation of “Chavo del Ocho” in English. It was so amazing to see how they can turn Spanish expressions into English and they were very funny. I have the CD we recorded and I use it as an example to encourage other students to do this kind of activity. It’s hilarious to see “Chavo del Ocho” in English.

• How could you help our students to improve their English?

I think that my strength is that I can take English into real life; that’s something we have spoken about with Gloria and it’s like we have to take the context into our reality. We can’t only stick to the books because we have to expose the students to current issues and situations that are meaningful to them. That’s the most important for me. I want them to create speaking presentations and acting activities as well as role plays.