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Cactus Teacher Awards winner & runners-up: Jan-March 2014

Thank you to everyone who submitted a comment about their teacher for the Cactus Teacher Awards last term (January-March 2014). As usual we received many wonderful comments about our teachers, and would like to thank both our students for taking the time to send in feedback and also our teachers for continually delivering such excellent courses.

We’re delighted to announce that our winning teacher was Lucie Prior, who taught our French Beginners 2 course in Victoria, London. Lucie wins a £100 voucher plus a certificate from Cactus and her student, Sophie Johnson, wins a free 10-week evening course.

Below are Sophie’s comments, along with three more of our best entries.

* Teacher Awards Winner: Lucie Prior (French Beginners 2, London Victoria) / Student: Sophie Johnson *

“My teacher, Lucie Prior, deserves to win this award as she is an exceptional teacher.

Her classes are lots of fun – after a long day at work and a trek across London, who would have thought that 2 hours of French would be something I would look forward to so much and leave on a high. Lucie is always energetic, dynamic and light-hearted and her classes reflect this. Her approach gets the best out of her students as she puts us at ease and has everyone participating right from the start.

Lucie’s classes are particularly enjoyable as they are so diverse. As well as covering the required grammar and vocab, we learn a lot about French culture. Lucie’s range of ideas and exercises always keeps the lessons fresh, including film clips, questionnaires, games, mime and song excerpts.

All in all I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 10 weeks and have certainly learnt a LOT. I can’t wait to start the next course and any other teacher wouldn’t cut it for me now! Thank you Lucie for your support and expertise!”

Teacher Awards Runners-Up:

1) Teacher: Aisha El-Turki (Arabic Beginner 3, Brighton) / Student: Evgeniia Makeeva

“My teacher, Aisha El-Turki, deserves to be nominated because she has a very confident, professional and kind personality. Those qualities are certainly important to be a great teacher. She makes everyone in the class very excited and we all always look forward to our next class with her.”

2) Teacher: Gaelle Monfort (French Beginner 1, London Bond Street) / Student: Katalin Zupcsán

“I would like to nominate our teacher Gaelle Monfort. Gaelle makes learning French really fun! I work full time so I often go to the course tired, but I always leave excited and feel like I’m improving well! For a 10 week course we found a really good place to learn – I didn’t think I would improve so much! I will sign up for the next course with Gaelle of course.”

3) Teacher: Romie Lamah (French Elementary 1, London Wimbledon) / Student: Rebecca Flower Cooke

“My teacher Romie deserves the best teacher award because she is always cheerful and friendly and after having tried so many different courses and ways of learning French (none of which have been successful – including one-to-one tutoring), I finally feel like I am learning and understanding a lot with Romie’s teaching. The mix of exercises and talks and discussions we have, have taught me so much new vocabulary and finally enabled me to understand French tenses. Thank you Romie!”

Congratulations to everyone and look out for our Teacher Awards next term – next time it could be you!

Cactus runs evening courses in London and in locations across the UK. The spring term starts in April and the Teacher Awards will run again (deadline Friday 27th June).

 

Cactus Teacher Awards Winners – Autumn 2013

Drum roll, drum roll…announcing the winner of the Cactus Teacher Awards!

As usual we ran our Cactus Teachers Awards last term and were delighted to receive wonderful comments about our teachers from many students. Thank you to our students for taking the time to tell us about your teachers, and congratulations and thanks to our teachers for consistently delivering such high quality and inspiring courses.

Our winning comment for the Autumn 2013 term was for Lina-Flore Beaujoie, who taught our French Beginner 1 course in London Holborn-Russell Square. Lina wins a £100 voucher and her student, Victoria Krivolap, wins a free 10-week evening course.

Here is Victoria’s winning comment:

“My teacher deserves to be nominated because she is the most creative person with her own approach to the learning process. Our lessons are very diverse: we read, listen, play different educational games, do quizzes and discuss different topics…so we cover not only the simple vocabulary.

Lina-Flore Beaujoie is passionate about her work and I, as her student, feel this passion and enjoy it. She puts her heart into the way she teaches the language.

I was really surprised by her methods and strategies because of my personal results in the French language in such a short period of time.

The best trait of character she has is that she keeps an eye on every student and treats him or her as if it was a private lesson! Each of us can feel like it is a one-to-one tutorial lesson and that is so great!

Every task that she gives shows how much she wants us to learn French really well. She encourages our efforts to go further than a textbook; we listen to CDs, view DVDs, etc. And she invites us to take part in funny language games which make the lessons so entertaining and interesting. Studying should be fun and Lina-Flore knows it!

Two hours of French lesson pass as one moment…I always feel sorry at the end of the class that now it is one more week to wait for the next one.

All in all, she is the best teacher I have ever had and if anyone asks me whom I can recommend for French tutoring, I would definitely name my teacher – Lina-Flore Beaujoie.”

On receipt of her award, Lina commented: “I feel very lucky to work for Cactus. The support and care you show for your team is truly commendable”. Alongside her voucher Lina has also received a certificate confirming her award.

Special mentions also go to the following teachers who received excellent comments from their students:

  • Lorea Acebes
  • Monique Baudet-Smyth
  • Anna Boratyn
  • Arek Arkadiusz
  • Emma Punchard

Congratulations to everyone and we look forward to another successful year of language learning and teaching!