The trainers

Irina Mutu is a Senior Language Trainer and Mentor. She has over ten years of experience in teaching English to all age groups from VYL to adults.  She graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, in 2008, and has since completed the IH Certificate in Teaching Languages, theIH Certificate in Teaching Young Learners and Teenagers, as well as the IH Teacher Training Certificate.

In addition to being one of the tutors on the VYL course run at IH Bucharest, Irina regularly delivers in-house training sessions on a variety of topics. She loves working with children and being part of their learning process. At the same time, she believes that teaching is an ability that can be acquired with dedication and responsibility. "If you are to do something, do it right" is her motto.

Alina Porumboiu is a Language Trainer and Mentor, as well as an Educational Counsellor and has over ten years of experience in working with children in different contexts. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Psychotherapy, both from the University of Bucharest, and among her teaching qualifications are the IH Certificate in Teaching Young Learners and Teenagers and the IH Certificate in Teaching Very Young Learners.

She has developed and coordinated a number of VYL programs, delivered various in-house training sessions and is also one of the tutors on the IH VYL course.What guides her in her work is her curiosity about children, their behaviours, and how they can develop into responsible and fulfilled adults. Her motto is: “A safe environment leaves space for curiosity. Curiosity sets the grounds for learning.”

The session

“Once upon a time...” - magic words which open the door into new worlds where anything is possible because the normal rules of logic do not apply; worlds where children of all ages can let their imagination loose in a framework of safe familiarity. As a grown-up, you either like telling stories, or you don’t. Story telling is a skill for which you need some courage, excitement and a lot of practice. It can be a complex set of activities where your voice, facial expressions, magical words or objects are used together in order to create a highly immersive environment for kids.

This session is aimed at helping kindergarten and primary teachers discover their inner storyteller. Thus, in the first part you will be able to step into the shoes of a VYL by participating in a live story. Together, we will explore ways of including students, their senses and their cognitive abilities in the actual story telling. The second half of the session will reveal various possibilities of exploiting a story beyond the target language. You will directly experience and find out how social-emotional learning can be part of your teaching process.

Are you up for the challenge?

Location:        Carturesti Verona