My TESL Journey

TESL 0100 Unit 2 Reflection Some of the key ideas that stood out for me in Unit 2 were Andragogy and Needs Assessments. Andragogy describes the principles of adult learning or adult education. Malcolm Knowles (1997) identified several characteristics about adult learners that focus on the process of learning. Knowles stated that adults need to know why they are learning something, they need to learn by doing, and their learning needs to be relevant to their daily lives. Being involved in the planning and evaluation of their learning is also key. Adults take ownership of their learning and thrive on task-based, problem-solving activities. I recently took a course which focused on differentiated professional development and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for teachers. Malcolm Knowles’ idea of andragogy was one of the learning theories that we discussed. The idea of differentiated job-embedded professional development is becoming more common in education and leads to

TESL 0120 I had a big “aha” moment during this unit on pronunciation. I have a very strong background in literacy and have been a teacher since 1996. I have taken a lot of courses, attended a lot of trainings and professional development sessions and read a lot of texts on literacy. I have taught in the public as well as the private school system, tutored students one-on-one, and taught ESL in a foreign country. However, never in all of my years of professional experience have I learned how to read or use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Of course, I have seen the pronunciation symbols in dictionaries and various other texts, but I have never personally been taught or tried to learn the meanings of the symbols. After reviewing the readings and completing the activities for Unit 2, I believe that having a strong understanding of the phonetic symbols will be of use to me in an ESL classroom. As a Reading Recovery Teacher, I do spend some time reviewing and pra

TESL 0100 Lea rner Personas Group Assignment (Sheila and Hayley) Our document includes the personas we have created. This assignment helped us understand the importance of incorporating the strengths and interests of students into learning activities. We learned that there are ways to incorporate students with different skill sets. In addition, using students' goals as classroom objectives helps to target the activities for specific purposes rather than just having a general curriculum that won't necessarily help students to achieve their goals. We also learned that there are a lot of cultural and language characteristics to consider when planning for a multicultural class or an ESL class. Our document includes the personas we have created. This assignment helped us understand the importance of incorporating the strengths and interests of students into learning activities. We learned that there are ways to incorporate students with different skill sets. In addition,

TESL 0100 Needs Assessments After quite a bit of searching I came across a great resource that describes a variety of needs assessments. It is from the Center for Applied Linguistics and is actually a trainer's guide titled,  Assessing Learner Needs in the Adult ESL Classroom.  On pages 40-42 of the document there is a Classroom Needs Assessment Tools Chart that outlines 7 different types of needs assessments that can be used in an adult ESL classroom, however many could be modified for different age levels. For each needs assessment there is a description, the purpose and an explanation of how it can be analyzed.  One that I liked is Topic Selection. It could be done in a couple of different ways. One way is similar to the activity Kathryn described in which pictures of skills/topics are placed around the room and students stand by the picture of what they most want/need to develop English skills for. This is sometimes called "Four Corners," but could defini

TESL 0100 Unit 1 Reflection The first week of my TESL courses was extremely eye-opening! First of all, I learned about and tried out a lot of new types of educational technologies and social media tools that I had not been very familiar with previously. I created a Twitter account and an About.me page, started this Blog, and began to expand my Professional Learning Network (PLN), among other things. I have also been refreshing my memory about lesson planning for English Language Learners (ELLs), while learning about innovative and new ways to teach ESL. I taught ESL for about six years at the beginning of my teaching career, but at that time I did not have any formal TESL training. Plus, times have changed, and technology has greatly advanced in the last twenty years, so I think it is time for an update! It took a while to figure out the ins and outs of some of the technological aspects that are a part of this course, but I think I have worked out most of the kinks. This firs

TESL 0120 This past week has been a great learning experience, and I know this is just the beginning! Even though I taught English as a Second Language in the past, times have changed and pedagogy has greatly evolved since then. Shortly after graduating from the University of Manitoba with my Bachelor of Education in 1996, I went to South Korea and taught ESL for about two and a half years. I continued in the field for a few more years, teaching in private language schools in Winnipeg and  Florida.The majority of the classes I taught in South Korea focused on English conversation at various levels. For some of the classes there was a textbook or curriculum to follow, whereas others were more open and teacher-created. As I read through the Canadian Language Benchmarks this week, I was amazed at the amount of detail in the descriptions of competencies and the examples of specific tasks for each. I wish that this type of document had existed when I first taught ESL! I was also overw

TESL 0100 This is my Professional Learning Network. It is still a work in progress; I would like to possibly add some graphics in the future, and I left one circle blank for future ideas. I think it will evolve as I continue through the TESL Certificate Program.

TESL 0100 Hello, my name is Sheila Bostick. I am an educator and a lifelong learner. I have been employed in the field of education for 20 years. I have a very strong background in literacy and have worked with students from preschool to adult. I have been working as a Reading Recovery Teacher in the Lord Selkirk School Division in Selkirk, MB for the past five years.  I taught English as a Second Language at the very beginning of my teaching career and am interested in returning to English language instruction. I am enrolled in the TESL Certificate program at The University of Manitoba. This is the beginning of my TESL journey.