ELT Blog Challenge: An Interview with Ania Musielak

If you haven’t heard of it yet, the premise of the ELT Blog Challenge is simple.  Ask one of your favourite PLN people 5 standard questions, which you’ll see below, and from there, get to know them in ways that you might not otherwise have the chance to on twitter or other social media.

I was lucky enough to meet Ania Musielak as IATEFL Brighton in April. Somehow we'd managed to miss each other on Twitter beforehand, but since meeting up she's become an essential part of my PLN.

She lives and works in her hometown of Tarnowskie Góry, after graduating from Silesian University as a Philosophy Doctor. She has worked as an English teacher, trainer and writer for 11 years, specialising in using drama and literature in teaching English.

As with anyone who meets Ania, I was not only impressed by her obvious intelligence and commitment to teaching, but her beaming, ever present smile. When it came to choosing an interview subject, she was an obvious choice. In fact, I've given my blog over to her for a couple of posts. Soon you'll be able to read her thoughts about drama for the shy student and teacher, and here, you can read her interview. Take it away, Ania!

Me, Ania, and the smile.

1) If your students were to label you with 3 or 4 adjectives, what might they be?

Very talkative, understanding and forgiving (too forgiving sometimes) and lively. :)

Ania's fridge.

2) What would we find in your refrigerator right now?

My refridgerator hmmm....always eggs, milk and butter cause I like baking, then some basic things - ham, jam, juice, cottage cheese and champagne or white wine:) And in the freezer ice cream and frozen homemade dishes.

3) If you weren't a teacher, what might your profession be?

If I weren't a teacher I would definitely be a fitness instructor. I even had a plan about 5 years ago to finish some instructor courses. I always wanted to study English Philology - as far as I can remember:) My parents were always telling me stories about Britain and Ireland (my mum studied in Dublin and my dad in Cardiff) and were showing me pics and slides and souvenirs. And they were my first teachers. The question for me was - English but interpretations and translation, teaching, or literature and culture? And I chose the last two options!

As to sport - I love it and it's a huge part of my life, so at some point I thought about becoming a fitness instructor - but as something additional. Unfortunately I didn't have time for it, but I still practise a lot of sports. I go jogging, I swim, I dance and I have my lifts and my skipping rope. Before Aga (her daughter) was born I trained six times a week - kickboxing, dancing, swimming, I went to aerobics and I jogged. Now I don't do sports so often - with Aga around it's difficult - but definitely as often as I can. And me not having a driving licence helps - I walk everywhere.

Ania's sport gear.

4) What do you find most difficult about the teaching profession, or what has been your most difficult class as a teacher?

My most difficult class...I would have to say that a group of teenagers I taught about 6 years ago - I was too indulgent and couldn't keep discipline. They were very difficult, forced by parents to come to lessons, had no motivation whatsoever and nothing worked.

It was a lost cause, I was very stressed, I worried a lot about failing as a teacher but nothing worked (and I was like 5/6 years younger at that time so I didn't really look like a strict teacher). The director and I decided to split them and they went to different groups and had lessons with different teachers. But there was one boy - he was really good at English and he was very quiet - he came back to my class next year and I taught him for some time. Now he's 19 and he always stops when he sees me in the street for a chat.

Ania's multimedia centre.

5) What was the last book/movie you read/saw, and what have you seen/read way too many times?

The last film I saw was The King's Speech and the last book I read would be I Heart Paris by Lindsey Kelk (a bit ashamed to admit this but it was before coming to TESOL France). The film I've seen way too many times would definitely be Dirty Dancing (I'm not being very original I know) and Notting Hill.

Ania lost in her book.

A big thanks to Ania for the interview!

Other entries in the ELT Blog Challenge:

Brad Patterson interviews Cecilia Lemos
Cecilia Lemos interviews Shelly Terrell