Daisy Glass

I have always wanted to be a teacher and I have never regretted choosing this career. It is challenging, no doubt, but I cannot think of any other more rewarding occupation in the world.

I started Glass School unofficially in 1995. There was only one classroom (the living room of my Mom’s house) and, at the time, Rosana Siqueira also started working as my secretary, and Anderson Mota started training with me to be a teacher. I already had a lot of experience teaching English, and I had used many different types of methodologies: the direct method, audio-lingual, notional-functional, humanistic approach, the communicative approach, etc, at ACBEU-Salvador where I worked as a teacher and coordinator. ACBEU was fundamental to my career and I owe much of my training to that institution.

I never wanted to have a franchise company because I wanted to be free to experiment with different ideas, techniques, approaches, and methods.

In those first days, I used the communicative approach, but I had been reading about Total Physical Response and Suggestopedia, and I fell in love with the principles and ideas behind them. Since then, I have incorporated many of these principles into our teaching as well as other ideas from other researchers and linguists.

This is one of the main features of Glass School: continuing education. From the start, we have had a continuous training program for our teachers. We meet once a week to learn, read, and discuss articles, exchange information and improve our understanding of the learning process.

In 1996, we started the school officially in a rented building. My sister Marcia took over as administrative manager and I focused on the academic processes. Ivana Cairo, Cristiane Lemos and Giedra joined the family. The next year, my parents gave us the house where they lived as well as their extensive library. A precious gift!

Many other teachers have come and gone: Ligia Guimarães, Leandro Rocha, Tenney Naumer, Rute Brito, Maurício Veiga, Claudia Oliveira Neto, David, Robert, Hiasmini Prates, Fabio Sandes, André Guimarães, Geysa Novais, and Priscila França just to mention a few. They will forever be part of the Glass School family.

Today, we still have an impressive staff: Ivana Cairo, Thiago Bonfim, Karla Braga, maressa Venancio, jamylle Steps, Tales Figueiredo, Caroline Botelho, Katharina Passion, Samuel Mota, Lucas Maciel, and Marina.

It is important to remember the administrative staff – the two “Micheline” (Ferraz and Lacerda), sumaya Sá, Vilmar Sources, Vilma Sources, Emily Mota, Ana Carolina Oliveira , Jaqueline Ferreira, Deraldo Reis (Madeira), Antonio Emiliano, Elias, Roberta – without whom the school wouldn’t have functioned well (or at all!).

Over the years, our school has accumulated experience, but we continue to innovate and test new ideas. I am very proud of our teaching community – so cohesive and solidary. Furthermore, the school has lived up to what I consider the two fundamental principles: (a) continuous learning and (b) respect for students’ pace of learning, rhythm, and learning styles.

Daisy Glass