Why CLIL?

This time I am going to write personally, as a teacher.

I started teaching English by a coincidence, being a poor student who wanted to have some pocket money for books and parties. My qualifications at that time were simply limited to knowing basics or more of English, having some books from times when I was a pupil and being really desperate to succeed. So I started fighting for students to teach them one-to-one.

Some of them didn't come back after the first lesson.

I didn't realise how difficult and time-consuming it was to TEACH!

At the same time I began giving lessons in the kindergarten. 8 children, 1 classroom and me in the middle. I ended up in tears frequently. Sounds terrible? Yes, it was a nightmare.

Looking back from the perspective of over 10 years I have to say that the most difficult part was to stop concentrating on myself. I had to learn the student; become empathetic, patient, open-minded, willing to help. It's a toughest part of the job. Teachers tend to forget they are to serve, indicate, support those who they teach to.

When I managed to "kick myself out" of the centre of attention students stayed with me longer and longer. In fact, some of them I know longer that a half of their lives.

But that's not the answer to the title question yet. So why CLIL?

The revolution in my mind started a year ago. Having my own children I started wondering what is a right attitude towards children? How can I be a better parent than my mother was? At the same time I met some people who represent a completely revolutionary methods of upbringing. All these factors made me more aware of what children want from adults; how they want to be treated.

CLIL is a combination of language that I am used to teaching, content that I really love including into my lessons and empathetic assessment and perception, that I personally think, is a key to success in teaching on the whole. Another element most important for me as a teacher, mother and citizen is that CLIL shows children how to be independent, assertive, communicative and tolerant to others. All these aspects I had to learn as an adult that definitely was a reason for some failures in earlier stages of my life. I would like to save it to my children and students.