Craig Lockley: Online ESL Teacher

When Craig Lockley left college in the 1990s, he wanted to be a chef.

He had studied Hotel and Catering Management and trained at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. For 20 years, he ran restaurants in Central London in high-pressure environments. It was during this time that Craig discovered his hidden passion for teaching.

“I worked with lots of students from around the world who had come to London to learn English, so I would teach and correct them as we worked. This gave me an interest in teaching, a dream I followed when I finally left the industry.”

In 2016, Craig earned his Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), and his second career as an ESL teacher has grown in leaps and bounds. Today, Craig is a full-time ESL educator, drawing upon his extensive experience in the service industry and genuine interest in helping others to deliver an individualized, conversational approach to adult learners across the world. He has taught over 100 students and over 3000 one-to-one lessons ever since.

Learning how to teach with Off2Class

From the get-go, Craig knew that to teach effectively, he would first have to teach himself how to teach – from how to explain grammar to how to incorporate sensory, graphic and interactive scaffolds. “There’s a huge difference between speaking a language and learning how to teach it,” he explained.

That’s why, in 2016, Craig made it a priority to incorporate a platform that would do exactly that.

“I basically learned how to teach again through Off2Class. I learned the grammar from reading those lessons myself. When I first started, I only did conversation lessons because I didn’t have the confidence to teach grammar. But Off2Class gave me that confidence. And that’s really why I’m so passionate about the company. It’s changed everything for me in terms of my business and teaching.”

Learning as a partnership between teacher and student

While grammar and verb tenses are pivotal to English learning, Craig employs a conversational approach to center his teaching on subjects that interest his students. And this works particularly well with adult education, which he specializes in. “I focus on a student’s English life, what the student does each day, in order to coach them in using the language more and to hold them accountable for practicing in different contexts.”

At the heart of Craig’s teaching philosophy is the belief that building this unique connection – like friends – is exactly what students need to gradually strengthen their English capabilities.

“When you’re not learning like you would sitting in a classroom, you’re learning naturally, in the same way as you would if you were surrounded by native English speakers who would be speaking to you all the time. You’re learning it in that natural kind of way.”

Currently, most of Craig’s students are, or will be, newcomers to the UK. He cites these individual partnerships he’s built with each student as the reason behind their ESL successes – whether that is in the IELTs exam or in integrating their lives into their new homes.

Giving back to the teacher community

And, for Craig, giving back to his very own teacher community makes his career all the more fulfilling.

“I’ve got my own community of tutors – where I’m helping them and I share with them a newsletter about my journey and how I started in teaching.”

Whether it’s class material and practice games that have been useful in class, or the camera and microphone he uses, Craig makes sure that other educators know about it.

Craig is one of the fantastic English Tutors at Off2Class. Click here to book a session with him!

Interested in learning more about how we support school districts and teachers of English Learners? Book a demo with our product specialists today.