Odessa D. Castro – Online Teacher

Welcome to my profile! My name is Odessa Castro. I also go by the name Sasa and this is my story.

Education

I started my education in public school from elementary to high school where I met my real friends whom I still treasure up until now. It is also where I learned to value time and effort at an early age because it was a challenging time back then.

I graduated from St. Matthew College, a private institution located in San Mateo, Rizal but I still consider myself a product of public schools and it is something I will never feel ashamed of. My parents always believed that learning depends upon the student and not his/her school.

I took up Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English because I love languages, particularly English simply because it is the universal language.

Career

I have a 3-year teaching experience in a formal school and another three years as an ESL teacher so I can say that I have experienced the best of both worlds.

When I was teaching in a classroom-based setting, I had to teach other subjects aside from English and I am still thankful for that experience because it taught me to not limit myself from learning. As you may not know it, half of what teachers do aside from teaching is paperwork, such as weekly lesson plans, preparing instructional materials, researching for innovative ideas, computing and encoding grades in Excel, and lastly, making a progress report per student which highlights not only the student’s academic performance but also behaviour characteristics.

The other half of my career was dedicated to teaching English to Asian and Latin American students that made me become more knowledgeable towards a country’s culture.

It was also in online teaching where I learned how to multi-task. I needed to pay attention to what every student was saying while jotting some notes about their pronunciation and grammar. I also included helpful vocabulary and corrections to some grammatical errors in their sentences. Most of my students were really surprised that I could do all those things in a short period of time without them noticing. They were also impressed because I could still remember little things about them as well as our previous topics.

Personal Life

I am the youngest among the three daughters in our family. My sisters were the ones who exposed me to the English language because we used to watch American TV shows and movies, as well as listen to English songs when we were younger.

I married my high school sweetheart because I believe in commitment. My husband is a Python Developer who not only teaches me about life in general but also influenced me a lot in computer-related matters. We like traveling, especially going to the beach and he is always proud on how I can easily make a keen and detailed itinerary of our trip. He is also amazed at how I was able to search for the underrated tourist spots. 🙂

Aside from traveling, I am also into language learning because I believe that you are always one step ahead when you are bilingual or multilingual. I know a little Japanese, Spanish, and now I am starting to learn Chinese so I can communicate with most people around the world.

My parents worked overseas for 15 years and I grew up with my grandparents. We were always told by my grandmother that even if our parents were not around, we should never love them less. That made me wonder what if Online Freelancing had already been a sufficient source of income back then? We could have spent more time together. But my parents still provided us with a good life to the best of their abilities and I will always look up to them.

I always believe that I can go above and beyond wherever I go. I hope my story will inspire you.

Now it’s time for me to know your story. Let’s work together and make a difference.

For a copy of Odessa’s resume please click here.