Teacher Profile - Russell Stevenson
Hi, I'm Russell, I've been working at EF Baotou since November 2012, during this time I started off as a Foreign Teacher and have had 2 promotions, first to Senior Teacher and then to Director of Studies, the latter position I have held since October 2014.
I'm from the UK and part of my reasoning for coming to Baotou was to try somewhere and soemthing completely different to what I was used to. I also didn't want to live in a big city which was too crowded, so Baotou was the ideal place to come for me. Even though the city has a population nearing 3 million, it still feels like a smaller city because the streets are so wide, so you never feel like the city is very crowded. There are plenty of parks around the city and with mountains, grasslands and desert all close to the city it was also appealing to me as I like the outdoors.
During my time at EF I feel I have grew a lot, both as a person and a teacher. I still have a lot of developing to do as a teacher and because of that I am always doing my best to try and be better, to give my students the best education in English that they can get. My aim is to never feel that I am the finished article, I think that if I was to say "I am the finished article" then my classes would not get better as I would then become a little lazy, to always better myself every day means I will give my best in every class I do which will result in my students having the best environment for them to be successful with their use of English.
EF Baotou is a great place to work, we are a small school with big ambitions, we are like a family. We currently have 5 Foreign Teachers and about 20 local staff in our school. We want to grow and get better with every day, week and month which passes by. The mentality of the school suits me so much, the school wants to grow as do I in terms of my ability, I have been here for 3 years and hope I can be here for many more.
