My TESL Journey

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom Something that I have often done in elementary and middle school classrooms is work together with the students to create a class contract or list of classroom expectations. I think that this would also work well in an ESL classroom with children or adults. Basically what we do is come up with a list of norms to be put in place regarding the way we should act/behave in the classroom. The teacher does not create a list of rules and tell the students what they are. Instead, the students and the teacher have a discussion about what is okay and what is not okay and will ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. The basic questions I would discuss include: How do you want to be treated by your peers? How do you think your peers should be treated by you? How do you want to be treated by your teacher? How do you think your teacher wants to be treated by you? After discussing these questions and creating a list on the whiteboard, s

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom In the final unit of this course we focused on classroom management, which included reading a chapter from our text, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy by Brown and Lee.  Two sections of the chapter on Classroom Management really stood out for me because I think that they are the basis for all classrooms, not only English language classes. In addition, they are inclusive to students of all cultures and learning styles. At the beginning of the chapter the authors shared a list of  General Guidelines for Classroom Management,  which were adapted from those described by Marzano and Marzano. I had been somewhat familiar with these guidelines as I had read about them in the study of inclusive education for public schools. I believe that these eight guidelines are key to creating a positive classroom environment. The guidelines are: Establish clear teacher and student roles Articulate unambiguous objectives

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom One of the assignment that we had to complete in this course was a Job Analysis. In the first part of the assignment, we were to explore various aspects of a specific, cultural environment and its implications for the ESL or EFL teaching profession. In the second part,we were to apply our findings by choosing a short activity from our existing ePortfolio and adapting it for the use in the chosen context. Below is my job analysis for a part-time Adult ESL Instructor position at the Red River College Language Training Centre in Selkirk, MB.  For Part 1 of the Job Analysis I created an Infographic on www.canva.com .  Part 2:   Adapted Activities for Chosen Context I created the original activities described below in a previous TESL course for use in a High Beginner conversation class. I have adapted a couple of activities from the original lesson plan to make them suitable for a Stage II, CLB 6 Intensive English as a Second Lang

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom In Unit 1 of the course we selected a teaching context for an ESL/EFL teacher and conducted research online to find out more about it. Then we shared our thoughts and findings. What follows is the result of my research on a particular ESL career path. I selected Teaching Context 5: A Canadian ESL teacher moves to Japan to teach EFL. I was interested in learning more about the process of going to teach overseas nowadays as compared to the 1990's when I went to South Korea to teach English. I found that the requirements and the procedure for teaching in Japan now are quite similar to what I experienced when I taught in South Korea. There is an abundance of information online about how to get a job, different places to work, what daily life is like for a teacher in Japan, as well as blogs where current and former teachers share their experiences, good and bad. I read through several websites and blogs and watched a few different vid

TESL 0150 Resources Development and Integration In the final unit of this course, we explored the use of technology in education. We were asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using technology. What follow is my post regarding this topic. Technology is increasingly becoming a regular part of language education. There are both advantages and disadvantages to its use in an ESL classroom.  Some of the advantages include: it can be very engaging/interesting for students it can be interactive it can increase student participation  it can provide variety to a lesson it can meet the needs of different learning styles there are a wide variety of resources/technologies available it can help to develop technological literacy it can save paper :) it is usually up to date, whereas texts may be outdated Some of the disadvantages include: it requires instruction/learning in how to use it, for teachers and students teachers need to stay up to date on the la

TESL 0150 Resources Development and Integration In Unit 3 one of our tasks was to choose a scenario with a set of activities, develop or adapt effective principles for materials development specific to the context, and use these principles to discuss one of the activities. We were also asked to consider whether we would involve the learners in materials adaptation. What follows is my post regarding effective principles for adapting resources. Scenario 2 Your LINC Level 3 class is comprised of a mixture of stay-at-home moms, seniors, and youth. Many of the students have previously asked you about volunteer opportunities. You are preparing a unit on community and government services. You have the  LINC 3 Classroom Activities  resource available. You may choose any activity from Community and Government Services module (pp. 273-310) for this scenario. After reading the assigned readings I selected three principles for materials development to focus on that are important to me.