The ESOL Odyssey: teacher feature

Showing posts with label teacher feature. Show all posts

Friday, May 11, 2012

Teacher Feature

Welcome to The ESOL Odyssey's Teacher Feature! Once a month, I will be featuring one amazing teacher who works with English Language Learners in the classroom. If you are interested in becoming a featured teacher, please fill in this form!

Meet Valerie Young!

Location: Montreal, Canada

Tell us a little about your teaching career: I have a bachelors degree in Kindergarten and Elementary Education and a Masters degree in Inclusive Education at McGill University. I have been teaching for 6 years. I have taught all grade from K-6. I am currently a resource teacher for grades 1 and 2.

What's your favorite thing about being a teacher? I love when a student gets an "AH-HA moment" and you just know that he/she finally got it! It's a wonderful feeling!

What is your experience teaching English Language Learners? I am a special education teacher and I teach grades 1 and 2. I work with small groups (I take them out of class one hour per day) and concentrate on teaching them basic reading skills in order for them to cope in their regular classrooms.

Tell us about the English language learners you teach. Most of my students are French speaking (I teach in Quebec, Canada). English is a second language for them. Their reading skills range from preschool to grade 2 levels.

How do you differentiate learning in your classroom to meet the needs of your English language learners? I work with 4 classes of cycle one (grades 1 and 2). I test all my students' reading progress several times a year and group them according to their abilities. I have too many students who are at risk in each of my classes so I separate my time in half and give each of my small groups 30 minutes a day.

In the classroom I.... love using technology in the classroom. I feel that it is a great way to motivate students and grab their attention!

Outside the classroom I.... I have been married for a year and a half. I am a mother of a 3 year old boy and I am pregnant with my second son (due any time). I love spending time with my son and enjoy giving him as many real-life learning experiences as I can!

I bet you didn't know that I.... I was a cheerleader for 10 years!

Share your links with us:
My TpT Store

My Blog

My Facebook

Thanks, Valerie, for being part of the Teacher Feature! I hope to hear from and about many more of you!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Teacher Feature

Meet Jill Ball!

Location: Boise, Idaho

Tell us a little about your teaching career: I currently teach 7th, 8th, and 9th grade English plus a speech communications class. I have been teaching refugee children and ELL students for 25 years. I have taught adult ed at a community skills center for immigrants and refugees. I have also taught at the university level teaching English prep classes for ELL students: grammar, reading, and research writing.

What's your favorite thing about being a teacher? Watching students grow in their ability to communicate both orally and in writing. Having great conversations about themes from classic literature. Listening and learning from each other. Watching students from a variety of cultures working together. Making great literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet available to them. I am currently working on material for Charlotte's Web (7th graders) and The Diary of Anne Frank (8th grade). Students are understanding and learning great life skills from the themes.

What is your experience teaching English Language Learners? I have been teaching ELL students my whole teaching career. I feel very fortunate to be working with this groups of students. Their minds are eager to learn. So often other teachers feel like they cannot understand higher thinking levels. I find that if material is presented to them in a way that is comprehensible, they can take the next step to higher thinking levels. It's all on how it is presented.

Tell us about the English language learners you teach. All my classes are English Language Learners. Class sizes vary as well as proficiency levels. We are a program that teaches newcomers to the U.S. They will be in our program for two years and then will be exited to their homeschools. Most of my students are level one or two based on our state standard for English Language Learners (IELA:Idaho English Language Standards) Oral language is usually higher and reading and writing are usually the skills students need the most help on.

How do you differentiate learning in your classroom to meet the needs of your English language learners? I am constantly assessing what each students' needs are and group accordingly. For example, in my seventh grade class of 13, though most are level one according to state testings, there are four different levels of language ability. We start the class together and then break into groups focusing maybe on characters in Charlotte's Web but they would be doing different activities to show they understand characters. The lowest group may be just identifying characters and learning to write the names while the highest group may be looking at text to describe character traits of the characters. I write different activities for the different levels based on where they are at. I usually have them share at the end of class what they have been doing as a way to bring them all together as a community of learners. I do rely on the higher levels students to encourage and help others when they can.

In the classroom I....love visuals and acting and get the students involved. I talk a lot about imagery in reading and writing to create pictures in our minds, a running movie! I teach to the whole child and know each of my students extremely well.

Outside the classroom I....have two children who are both in college. My oldest will be going to France this spring to study. Both my children are interested in other cultures and share my view that learning about other cultures will bring about more awareness and understanding. My husband works with at-risk youth. Both of us care deeply about our service. I love gardening and hiking in the foothills in Boise. And of course I love reading!

I bet you didn't know that I....protested by refusing to go to school when I saw that my second grade teacher was unfair to a classmate. I was seven years old when I started my activism for justice :) I explained to my principal what had happened and they placed me in a different class.

Share your links with us:
My TpT Store

Thanks, Jill, for being part of the Teacher Feature! I hope to hear from and about many more of you!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Teacher Feature

Meet Michele Luck!

Location: Kentucky

Tell us a little about your teaching career: I have taught grades 6-12 in Social Studies and Language Arts for 13 years. I am currently teaching 10th grade World History and an elective Mock Trial class.

What's your favorite thing about being a teacher? I love it when I can get my students interested in the topics I enjoy. It is much more fun to teach when everyone is wanting to know more!

What is your experience teaching English Language Learners? I have taught students from around the world, but we currently have a large population of Burmese refugees in my school. This has been my greatest ESL challenge since there are few resources available to me to help these students understand and learn.

Tell us about the English language learners you teach. I have 2-3 ESL/ELL students in each of my 6 classes. They range in proficiency from very little English language usage to some who are almost fluent. The most significant influence is the time the students have been in the U.S. and have had access to the U.S. classroom.

How do you differentiate learning in your classroom to meet the needs of your English language learners? To help reach all of my students (ESL, Spec. Ed. and all of those with different learning styles and needs), I am very visual and interactive in my classroom. Many of the activities and lessons I create involve student interaction, visual analysis, and cooperative opportunities. My students are often learning through images, videos, music, and more.

In the classroom I....I love to dance. With that love, I have taught my students different dances appropriate for the classes I am teaching. My favorite has to be teaching the Charleston in my U.S. History classes. There is nothing more fun than watching 17 year old boys attempt the kicks!

Outside the classroom I....When I am not in my classroom, I am traveling. My husband and I love to camp, making our way across the United States and visiting the many state and national parks. We are also great fans of Disney World!

I bet you didn't know that....Outside of my classroom, I appear as extremely professional and calm. Inside my classroom, I dance and sing, and take on a variety of personae in my daily teaching. My students don't know what to expect, and my colleagues would never believe the students if they went out and told them!

Share your links with us:
My TpT Store
My Blog
My Facebook

Thanks, Michele, for being part of the Teacher Feature! I hope to hear from and about many more of you!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Teacher Feature

Since I started this blog, it seems that I have been doing all the talking! I love to talk, don't get me wrong, but I'd also like to know more about my readers! Therefore, I'm going to be starting a new "teacher feature". I know we have tons of fabulous teachers out there, and I want to hear from you!

Once a month, I will feature a teacher who works with ESOL students every day in the classroom. If you are currently a teacher, who works with ESOL students, I'd love to hear from you! You can be an ESOL teacher, or a mainstream teacher with a high percentage of ELLs. I want to know about you and how you work to serve your ELLs. If you're interested.....just click "Teacher Feature" below and fill in the form! You can also access the form by clicking the "Teacher Feature Signup" tab at the top of the page.

TEACHER FEATURE SIGNUP

I can't wait to hear from you!