Philosophy of Learning

 

Learning gives us the keys to acquire new skills, to sharpen our innate abilities, to gain a better understanding of the world and ourselves, to better our circumstances, and to render ourselves more resistant to oppression. 

I believe the best learning environment is a classroom in which students feel safe and valued and free to express themselves. If students don’t feel safe, they will have an impediment to learning. Students are motivated when they have an active role in their learning, which is fostered by a learner-centered classroom and engagement in activities such as role plays, projects, discussions, debates, and critical thinking exercises.  In my experience, learning happens when information is contextualized and students make connections  between the information and their own experiences – more so than when students are expected to listen to lectures and memorize information.   

I believe that mistakes are another place where learning happens. If students feel inclined to embrace mistakes rather than feel shamed by them, I feel that this can be a powerful tool in gaining confidence and moving from “not yet” toward “I’ve got it.”

Learning also happens outside the classroom. ESL students who engage in English-language interactions with members of their community have an opportunity to apply what they have practiced in the classroom in a real-world context.  

While every individual is unique and has different strengths and experiences, learning should be accessible to all. Students should be provided with content-rich, comprehensible information, and be provided an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. 

Leadership project for my teaching certificate

One of the requirements of completing of Front Range's TESOL certificate program is creating a leadership project. Examples include tutoring programs, ESL cooking classes, and literacy outreach in the community. The instructors at Front Range give you free rein to be creative. This is both liberating and terrifying. 

When the sky's the limit, I often find myself stuck in a loop of "analysis paralysis" until I get so tired that I make no choice at all. 

At first, I thought I might do a series of interpretive writing classes for ESL students. This was based on an activity I tried out in one of my classes at Intercambio where I had students watch an episode of Mr. Bean (very physical comedy and little speaking) and then describe the events of the sketch in writing. But when students in my Saturday morning ESL class at Front Range mentioned that they were interested in computer skills, my program director, Kathy, suggested a computer basics class for ESL students. 

It was a fantastic idea. Perfect. And... I found it incredibly intimidating. I worked daily on a computer for 18 years; I would say I am savvy with most everyday applications and functions, but I'm no tech support candidate. Would teaching computer skills be beyond my capabilities? Would it be an exciting challenge or a humbling indictment of my limitations?

I ran the idea past my regular co-teacher, Jaylene. Would she like to join me on this venture? She was game and took on the role of marketer, spreading the word through the Latino Chamber of Commerce, which is where our regular Saturday ESL students hear about our classes. 

We decided to teach a four-class session. That way, we could introduce some basic skills, gauge interest in these classes, but wouldn't be committed to a long session if it turned out to be a dud.

Planning the curriculum hung like a sword of Damocles over my head while I finished up my last semester of the TESOL program. I didn't even know where to begin. What kinds of skills would the students come in with? Would there be wildly different levels of proficiency? Would we have some students who could barely turn on a computer and others who wanted to create an Excel spreadsheet? 

Our aim was to serve the needs of the students, no matter where they were starting from. After contemplating creating lesson plans and materials for a huge range of computer skills, we remembered that we advertised our program as "basic" computer skills, after all. We would teach the basics instead of trying to teach, well, all the things. But in order to leave the door open to students who were a little more advanced, we would offer additional exercises that posed more of a challenge as needed. 

One of my instructors, Kat, gave us copies of her digital literacy curriculum. It covered a much larger scope of skills and was meant for an entire semester, but it was a great source of inspiration and knowledge. An outline for our course began to take shape. 

Jaylene put out a flyer with a QR code for interested students to register and answer a questionnaire. I was supposed to get an email whenever someone signed up, but as the days ticked by, I'd gotten no notifications. I worried no one was interested and we wouldn't have any students. We'd planned the first lesson a few weeks before class was to start, but I moved it to the back of my mind as it appeared our idea had flopped. Well, I thought, it was a good attempt.

Two days before class was to start, Jaylene messaged me. Did I know that we had 18 students signed up? I had a mild panic attack. I went from thinking tumbleweeds would blow through our classroom to now anticipating a very full class.  The night before class, she messaged again. The number was up to 25. [gulp] A pit began to form in my stomach. I've never had a class that big AND for something that was a bit of an experiment. We really, really wanted to deliver something useful for these folks, but I worried it could be a failure with students walking away disappointed. 

I showed up early on Day 1 and printed out enough copies for 25 students of each handout for class -- and there were a lot.  Balancing a pile of documents on the way to the computer lab, I felt nervous and inadequate. My co-teacher always shows up cool as a cucumber, but I don't have her laid-back confidence.  As students began to trickle in, the anxiety melted away. Seeing the friendly faces of new people who show up to learn puts me at ease, and I remember that they are probably just as nervous -- if not more so -- than me. 

All told, by the time class began, we had seven students.  My panic subsided. Seven, we could handle.

We started with some computer anatomy -- vocabulary for components like keyboard, monitor, mouse, left-click, right-click, etc. When it came to procedures, we started from the ground up: power up protocol, signing in, mousing, clicking, identifying and opening programs on a computer, then how to close programs, sign out, and safely power down. Students located and opened Word, brainstormed what use it could be in their lives, and practiced typing and formatting functions. Then they learned shortcuts for copy, cut, paste, select all, and find. 

This gave us an opportunity to see where the students were proficiency-wise. With the exception of two students, starting with these basic procedures was the right decision. And we had "extra challenge" worksheets for the two who were more advanced.  

The programs we used on the school computers were Microsoft-based, but we introduced the students to Google apps as a free alternative that was already accessible to them if they had Gmail, which most of them had. For the remainder of our session, we worked mainly in Microsoft but would remind students of the Google options.

On Day 2, we reviewed power-up and sign-in sequences, our vocabulary from Day 1, and more Word features. Students learned how to save their document to both the Documents folder and to OneDrive and what the difference is between the two. We also worked through saving as a PDF and the benefits for doing so.  Near the end of class, we had just enough time to begin working on email skills: creating folders/labels, deleting old emails to free up space. 

We moved into email attachments on Day 3. Students located their Word documents from last class and attached them to an email. We also led students through copying and saving an image from the internet and attaching it to an email. Finally, students copied a link and put it in the body of their email. Then they sent the email to themselves. We assessed knowledge of these procedures by asking the students to walk us through each sequence again -- how to find a document and what to click to attach it; how to copy and save an image and attach it; and how to copy a link. 

We worked more with organizing emails: how to create folders/labels, establishing rules for sending emails directly to a folder, going through old emails to categorize or delete them, and how to empty the trash folder.

At the end of Day 3, we had enough time to introduce junk email. We asked the students about their experiences receiving unwanted or scam emails, how they identified them, and how they handled them in the past. We gave them some additional pointers and tips about recognizing and dealing with unwanted emails. 

Day 4 was our final day of class. We showed students how to create calendar events and reminders and had them create entries of their own -- both a single entry and a recurring series. Then we moved into safe online searching and how to identify unsafe websites. A student had an excellent question about browsing while using public Wi-Fi, so we discussed what that means and what information would be safe or unsafe to search for in that case. 

We left the remainder of class open to introduce either Excel/Google Sheets or PowerPoint/Google Slides as a way of giving a "preview" of what we could teach in a Session 2 at some point in the future. I had a tutorial sheet ready to go for Slides, which was my area of knowledge, and Jaylene created one for Excel, which is her area (and a program I still need to learn how to use). All the students chose Excel/Sheets as a program that would better serve them in their professional lives, and Jaylene demonstrated a simple numbers column and how to use add, average, minimum, and maximum functions. 

We gave the students a quiz at the end of Day 4 to assess learning, and we also gave them an exit ticket and chatted with them on the way out of class. Response was positive. 

We'd lost a few students over the weeks; our final "core group" was four. It's been my experience in other ESL classes that some dropoff is normal. Our four students indicated interest in future computer classes, and all have since shown up for our regular ESL class. The feedback was that the skills we taught were important and valuable, and they liked learning the English terminology for things they had been doing on their own on computers all along, but that we needed to slow down a bit when demonstrating procedures on the projector. 

A project that started off as daunting and intimidating turned out to be a great challenge and a valuable community service. I also learned a lot along the way: Applications and functions I perform all the time in my working and personal life now had to be converted into easily digestible steps. Luckily, I love writing documentation and manuals, and this had the extra challenge of being targeted for English learners. 

Here is a link to our class materials. Students got copies of all vocab and tutorial sheets so they could refer to them when working at home or at work.

 

Saturday Morning ESL Class: Community

As I was attending fall semester in Front Range's TESOL program, I was also co-teaching the Saturday morning ESL class. This class originated about two years prior via the Latino Chamber of Commerce and was originally designed to be a business English class. By the time I got involved with this group of students, it had become a general English class -- not business oriented. Our fall term was eight classes long, and the topic of the term was "community." The students are high beginner/low intermediate level.

Over the course of the eight classes, we talked about community -- what it means, the different kinds of communities we are part of, the amenities that are found in our communities. We learned the names of "things around town," like the fire station, post office, coffee shop, etc. Through this, we also learned some prepositions of place (on, across, at, around, near, between) to describe where things are located in relation to one another. 

Throughout our term, we read The Great Kapok Tree. It is the story of a man who goes into the Amazon jungle to chop down a tree but is convinced by the animals of the forest not to do so because it is their home, their shelter, their source of food, and their shade. For a final project, my co-teacher and I planned to have the students work in the computer lab and type up their thoughts on how the book tied to the theme of community.  My co-teacher was unfortunately unable to attend our last class due to an emergency, and I made the decision to offer students a choice on their final project: Would they like to work in the computer lab to type their papers, or would they like to work together as a group and create a poster about the book and about community? The students opted for the latter and created a wonderful poster. 

At the end of every class, we gave an exit ticket so that students could tell us one thing they learned that day and how they felt about class. We also gave homework at the end of each class: (1) Read the next portion of The Great Kapok Tree and (2) tell us how you practiced English outside of class this week. 

Here is one lesson plan from our term:

Day 3 Lesson Plan

 

Goals:

 

Students will be able to use prepositions of place to describe locations.

Students will read part of a story aloud and define vocabulary together.

Students will be able to describe their neighborhood.

 

Materials:

 

Cups and small objects like dice

Printouts of the next 4 pages of The Great Kapok Tree

Homework handouts

Exit ticket printouts

Example of “my street” paragraph

Preposition worksheets

 

 

Scaffolded activity 1 (10 minutes):

 

1. TAs (TESOL students) will give directions to ESL students to practice prepositions (“the ball is on the cup”) and the student will model it with props.
2. The ESL students will direct the TAs to place objects in a certain configuration (“the ball is next to the cup”)

 

Scaffolded activity 2 (10 minutes):

 

Students will work on a preposition worksheet, filling in the correct words. Work in partners and then go over answers together.

 

Less scaffolded activity (20-30 minutes):

 

The teacher will provide a paragraph describing their street using prepositions of place. Students will each read one sentence aloud. Then students will write a similar paragraph describing their street or neighborhood using the example as a model. Students will share in partners and then with the whole class.

 

 

Homework and The Great Kapok Tree reading

 

Teachers will go over homework first and ask what students did to practice English during the week. Share in partners and then discuss as a class.

 

Then teachers will ask students for the vocabulary words that they weren’t sure about from the reading and write a list on the board. Let the students know that right now we are just making a list and will come back to the words.

 

Pair or group students with a TA. The students will read the text aloud. The TA should give guidance about pronunciation and answer any questions that the student has (including about vocab).

 

Then the class will come back together and look at the list of vocabulary words and define the words together. Have the students write down or draw what the words mean.

 

The teachers will ask open-ended questions about the story.

What do you think will happen next?

What do you think it feels like in the jungle?

Why do you think the animals got quiet?

 

Wrap-up:

 

Pass out homework and explain it: 4 pages of the book. Circle words you don’t know.

 

Pass out exit tickets.

 

Invite students to stay if they wish and do homework or ask questions.

 

 

Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher, I believe it is important to remember that I am also a student. I am there to learn what my students need and what their story is. 

My role as a teacher is to facilitate discovery rather than to lecture; to guide rather than act as an authority. My approach to teaching places the students in a central role. My duty is to focus on their progress, development, and journey through each lesson and through the course as a whole. I endeavor to keep the students' needs in sight and create activities around their goals. 

I believe strongly in creating a welcoming, safe, and fun class where all students feel free to participate without judgment or fear. I strive to offer support and encouragement by celebrating all progress and ensuring students are seen.

When planning lessons, I incorporate activities that bring about authentic communication through reading, writing, listening, and speaking, with a foundation in brain-based learning. Allowing students to talk about topics relevant their lives in a genuine way reinforces their central role in class and deepens cohesion with their peers, which in turn builds trust. Without trust in the classroom, it is difficult to feel safe and to feel free to make mistakes.

Mistakes are good. That's what I want students to hold onto. Mistakes are where the learning happens. We all make mistakes. Native speakers of English make mistakes all the time. It's not about perfection. It's about communication.

 

Volunteerism

Serving my community by helping both animals and people is very important to me! Here is my volunteering experience:

 

Intercambio

Teaching Assistant, Intro Level English

Spring term, 2023

Lead Teacher, Level 2 English

Fall term, 2023

Lead Teacher, Level 4 English

Spring term, 2024

Open Door ESL

Student Registration Assistant, 9/9/24

Longmont Humane Society 

Small Mammal Volunteer 

2014 to present

Luvin' Arms Animal Sanctuary

Animal Care Volunteer

2018 through 2023

Stichting Bedenk, Haarlem, Netherlands

Animal Care Volunteer

June-August 2017

About me

Welcome to my online portfolio! 

My name is Julia O'Sullivan, and I recently completed the TESOL certificate program at Front Range Community College. While entering my second semester, I was presented with the opportunity to become an instructor at Front Range and co-teach a Saturday morning adult ESL class for my practicum. Being a student and a teacher at the same time was rewarding, hard work, and the best way to put theory into practice in the most hands-on way possible.

I've had a lifelong interest in languages and cultures, and started studying French when I was 13. I graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in French Literature. I am currently studying German and Spanish (and continuously polishing my French) and enjoy any opportunity to learn words and phrases in other languages. I feel that my background as a language learner gives me some insight into what my students may be experiencing as they go through their English-learning journey.

After graduating from UW, I began a program to earn a certificate to teach ESL, but it wasn't the right time for me back then. The reason? I had a crippling fear of public speaking. I walked away from teaching ESL then, but it never left my mind. After spending nearly 20 years in the transcription field and gaining a lot more life experience, public speaking was no longer a debilitating phobia, and I trained to be a volunteer ESL teacher with Intercambio in Longmont, Colorado. It was the perfect combination of language teaching, intercultural communication, and serving my community.

My time as a volunteer teacher was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, and it turned out to be the most fantastic way to prepare for a career I could imagine! Teaching classes at Intercambio turned the ship of my life into a new direction, and I enrolled at Front Range. 

Please explore my page to learn more about my teaching experience, volunteerism, philosophy, and lesson plans!

Lesson Plan Example: Advice

Lesson Plan: “Advice”

 

This was a lesson plan I created as the final project for my first semester in the TESOL program at Front Range Community College. I have not yet used it with any of my classes but would like to at some point!

 

ESL class level: Intermediate

Unit theme: Relational Interactions

Learning objectives: Students will be able to read advice-related text, discuss possibilities and consequences, and ultimately write about a time they (or someone they know) faced a dilemma.

Language objectives: Students will be able to identify common words of advice such as should, could, would, can, might, will, must, do/don’t, and other imperative verbs, and observe their meanings and functions.

How will students build background knowledge for this lesson? Students will practice reading and discussing advice in the context of advice columns.

Essential questions:

●          Can you think of a time you gave or received advice for a problem in life?

●          Do you think seeking advice is helpful, or do you prefer to solve problems on your own?

●          Why would someone ask a stranger for advice versus a friend or family member?

 

Materials needed: white board, projector (optional), advice columns printed out and cut up for match activity.

 

Warm-up:

The instructor will introduce the word “advice” and check for understanding of its meaning. Then they will model a brief example of a time they looked for advice and ask the following questions of the class. (Questions will be posted on the board or projector for reference.)

Discuss with a partner:

Can you think of a time you needed advice for something important? Did you ask a stranger or someone you know? Do you think seeking advice is helpful, or do you prefer to solve problems on your own?

After partner discussion, students will be asked to share with the class.  

The instructor will then introduce the concept of the “advice column” and the class will read a couple of questions and answers together (go around and read portions aloud one at a time). Students should underline or circle words they are not familiar with (meaning and/or pronunciation).

Example 1 (from “Ask Erin” by Erin Khar; edited.)

Q.

I let my boyfriend of almost two years move in, due to him getting kicked out of his brother's place. I wasn't sure of the idea but the thought of paying half of everything seemed nice while trying to rebuild our relationship.

It's been about a month and I feel like his mom.

And I don't trust him.

He lies about dumb things like who is dropping him off at work or picking him up. I pay for all the groceries and pick up the house and do our laundry, etc. I feel more like his mother than his girlfriend.

I want things to work, but I'm tired of the lies and feeling like this. What should I do?

A.

Stop doing his laundry. Stop cleaning up after him.

I know how hard it can be to let go of that control. I struggle with this. But almost invariably, people will do these things for themselves when they are forced to do so. And if he does not, then you can have boundaries in place for that as well.

Tell him you cannot live with him if he does not contribute to the expenses and household chores. Make a list of what your shared expenses are, so it is clear what he is required to contribute. Likewise, make a list of daily and weekly chores and divide them up. Allow him to be a part of that decision making. Maybe he hates doing laundry, so let him be in charge of trash and dishes.

No matter how much you want this to work or how much you love him, you don’t deserve to be lied to or forced into the role of mommy.

Communicate, set those boundaries, and, if he doesn’t change, get him out of your home and move on.

Example 2 (from “Ask Amy,” by Amy Dickinson; edited.)

Dear Amy, I’m a 45-year-old woman, married to my wife for five years. My issue is my 21-year-old son, who lives with us. He’s a good kid but he’s now unemployed (for four months) and spends his days playing video games.

My son is very book smart, had a full ride to a prestigious university, but only stayed for a year and a half.

He recently applied for the police academy, but he never really follows through with anything. He also dropped out of the fire academy – because he was bored.

He was working as a forklift operator while in school. He’s always done very well in school, but he’s lazy.

I’m always trying to get my ex-husband to motivate him.

My wife and I have never lived alone our entire marriage, and she’s getting frustrated. I feel like I have to choose my wife or my son. Honestly I’m torn and now they are starting to argue more with each other.

Please help.

– Torn in Wisconsin

Dear Torn: Your unemployed adult son living at home is not “your” issue. Overall, this is everyone’s issue, but mainly it is his – and his main task right now should be to solve his own problem.

Don’t count on his father to motivate him – he is not living in his father’s house.

You and your wife should approach this as equal partners in your household, and you should present a united strategy for how to parent him into adulthood.

He needs to get a job. At a fast-food drive-thru, a landscaping crew, the Walmart warehouse, or wherever he can get hired.

Working a full day will give him a skill set, some money in his pocket, and self-esteem.

I would cut the wireless at your house during the day, stop paying for his cellphone, and offer him only a roof over his head and nourishment until he can afford other housing. I know this is tough, but your marriage is on the line, and so is his future.

 

After reading through the advice, check for vocab/pronunciation understanding!

Discussion question: Why do you think some people want to ask a stranger for advice?

 

Direct instruction:

The instructor will take printed-out advice columns that have been cut into advice-seeker and advice-giver portions.  The instructor will then divide the class into two “teams” (seekers and responders) and distribute the advice column portions to the appropriate sides. A student from the “seeker” team will read their portion of the text – the letter asking for advice.  The student on the “responder” team with the corresponding answer must recognize the appropriate response and read it aloud in answer to the seeker.  Once everyone has gone, distribute different answers/responses and have the teams switch roles.  

Example of an advice column that can be printed and cut up (from https://languagesnaps.com/english/material/advice-column-esl/):                                                                             

Dear Language Snaps,

I just moved to a country where I don’t speak the language or know a single person. You might ask, what could have brought me to this new country and the answer is my job. When the offer presented itself, I was skeptical because I’ve never left the city I was born in! I knew it might be a risk, but I took the job and moved. Now that I’m here I feel so blue! I have no friends, and, without the language, I can’t communicate with anyone! I’ve never been so lonely in my life. The job assignment is a whole year and I’ve been here for three long months already. What should I do?

Thanks,

Lonely

Dear Lonely,

You sure do seem lonely! You knew it was a risk when you took the job that you might be lonely. Without the language, you’re in a pickle. You should sign up for language courses and delve into the language. You should also take this time to become your own best friend- get to know yourself better. As soon as you come to terms with your new situation everything will feel better.

Sending a hug,

Lonely

                                                                                   

 

The instructor will ask the students what they notice about the common words used by the person giving advice.  How do they tell the advice-seeker what to do? As the students point out common words, the instructor will write them on the board and check for meaning and function. 

What kinds of words do advice-givers use? What about people looking for advice?

 

Guided practice:

The instructor will post a dilemma on the board or projector and provide structured sentence prompts:

 

You must feel ____________.

 

I think you should __________________.

 

If you __________, you would/will ____________________.

 

You could _______________.

 

You might _____________.

 

You can ____________.

 

Don’t ________________.

 

Students will write 2 to 3 sentences of advice using any combination of sentences above, or come up with their own.  They will share their responses with a partner, and then responses will be discussed together as a class. 

Student responses will be written on the board. They can copy these to have for reference later.

Evaluation:

Students will write about a time they gave or got advice and share with the group. They can use the sentence structures posted earlier or come up with their own.

Expansion/Homework (choose one):

Option 1: Students will draw a word from a hat.  Examples: cooking, home, family, work, pets, kids.  They will pretend to be someone with a problem about their prompt word and write a letter/e-mail to an advice columnist. 

Option 2: Write about different places people go for advice.