Dear parent:  

My name is Lilly and I am very happy to be here to help young learners have opportunities to acquire Spanish through fun activities including crafts, music, and story time. I am sure you want to know about my background and experience, so here it is: I earned a bachelor's degree in TEFL at Universidad Pedagogica Expelimental Libertador of Caracas, Venezuela in the year 2009.  I have taught for over 15 years. I taught TEFL in Venezuela and Spanish in the United States. I have experience teaching different levels including elementary, middle school and high school. I have taught students with different nationalities and backgrounds which have strengthened my appreciation for other cultures. I grew up in a Spanish speaking country in South America and have traveled throughout the continent.  This gave me the opportunity to experience and learn the language and its variations. 

What can you expect? As a mother of a 6 year old and a 3 year old, I always wonder what my kids' teachers believe in when it comes to language learning. As a teacher, I can say that I believe everyone can learn a new language, but some learners are more influenced by intrinsic motivation than others.  Some learners have extrinsic motivation to learn a foreign language. and others are about to discover new skills they didn't know they have. Whatever the motivation may be, it is essential that we get to know our students and engage them to continue learning. I believe that every student learns differently and we can find that out through the process. I believe that the best way to learn is by doing and taking part in activities that we enjoy. Most kids like crafts, singing and reading. I have designed seasonal crafts that we can do together. We can sing and play pretend and we can read while we learn Spanish. This is a way to expose them to the new language in a natural way. There are four words that best summarize my teaching philosophy:  engagement, flexibility, creativity, relationships, and discovery.  My teaching values have been influenced by my personal experience learning English in Venezuela with American teachers, which was fun, interesting, flexible, and stress free.  I would like my students to be exposed to the language by doing crafts, recipes, experiments, music and reading all in Spanish. I like to give a lot of comprehensible input and guide my students until they are ready to be more independent. 

Parents are encouraged to request a specific craft, song or book to create a new session. Private lessons can also be requested. 

Refunds, transfers, classroom management and No-Shows Policy: My classes operate under the limited refund policy. Learners can withdraw with a refund up to 3 days before class starts or within 24 hours of purchase. Transfers may be requested 24 hours before the class begins. 

According to Outschool policy: If you miss a class, you cannot get an automatic refund. However, learners may be transferred to the first available section at the teachers's discretion.

Class No Shows: If a learner has not joined the class meeting 10 minutes after the start time, the meeting may be canceled, at the teacher's discretion Class no-shows are considered a missed session, and you are not entitled to a refund. 

Late to class: If your learner joins late (9 minutes after the class starts), please note that I will do my best to keep the late student up to speed. However, I will not re-teach missed portions of the class. 

Classroom management: Classroom behavior expectations are addressed at the beginning of each session. Mics remain on during the portion of the class and students are encouraged to participate at their comfort level. However, the mics will be muted as needed to avoid confusion.