Every lesson is a story worth telling…
My name is Monika Bigaj-Kisała. I train teachers, teach English as a Foreign Language, write courses, tell stories, play Role-Playing Games and generally have fun.
Teaching/ training experience
I started teaching English as a Foreign Language in 2004 and since then I have worked with students of all ages in Poland, Ireland and England. Since 2016, I have also been working as a director of studies.
Read more about my professional experience on my LinkedIn profile.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-bigaj-kisala/
Role-Playing Games
I love playing tabletop Role-Playing Games, and I find them a great source of fun, but also a means to develop soft skills – communication, teamwork, negotiation, research etc. There are more and more teachers applying RPGs into teaching, however my approach is somewhat different, as I don’t treat RPGs as tools and adjust games to educational purposes. For me playing games is one of the goals of learning!
Read more about Role-Playing Games in EFL on my blog.
https://thatisevil.education/category/role-playing-teaching/
Author
Part of my work as a director of studies is creating lesson scenarios, workshops and syllabuses. In 2020 I created my first course for kindergartens. Surprisingly, it’s not a language course, but a 60-hours long workshop based on STEAM methodology. Pre-schoolers go on many adventures in the magical Mysterious Forest, learning maths, logical thinking and magic tricks, make interesting projects and do fascinating experiments. The course is exclusive to ProfiLingua schools in Poland.
Read more about Przedszkolaki Bystrzaki on the course website [PL].
https://www.profi-lingua.pl/kursy-przedmiotowe/dla-dzieci/przedszkolaki-bystrzaki
Design Thinking
The values I appreciate most in life are creativity and joy, and if there is a process full of creative joy, it’s definitely Design Thinking. I have been using Design Thinking methodology and tools in my everyday work – especially during course creation.
In 2021 I started moderating DT sessions, helping the participants discover their potential within the mentoring academy by the local organisation Projektanci Biznesu.
Read more about Projektanci Biznesu on the website [PL]
https://projektancibiznesu.pl/
Why “That Is Evil”?
Many years ago I told my students I was going to bring them some grammar games and one girl snapped “Grammar games sound like playing with the devil!”. I decided to embrace this narrative and make English the Ultimate Evil, take the role of the Evil Empress of the World (in the Making) and give my students the choice of either taking the roles of heroes fighting against malevolent agents of EFL (beware them mixed conditionals, adventurers!) or accepting the position of my minions allowing me to share the secrets of EFL (now, young padawans, let’s focus on the magic of syntax). Either way we all have fun – and learn!
Read more about my “evil” ideas on my Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/thatisevil
I believe we become good users of a foreign language when we can crack a joke or tell a good story. Now, I’m terrible with jokes, but you just ask me for a story!
…because every story is a lesson worth learning.