Friday, February 4, 2011

Who am I?

Hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Hi! My name is Jeanne and I teach English as a second language at Central Connecticut State University and also at Naugatuck Valley Community College. In the morning, I teach a high intermediate listening/speaking class and in the evening I teach a high intermediate reading/writing class. It's hard to know which one I like best. My morning students keep me on my toes by their knowledge of technology and their lively natures. Most of them are here for a short time to learn English or to improve their English enough to attend an American university. It's fun teaching them because they come from all corners of the world to meet in my little classroom. I would like to add podcasting and other web tools to my teaching in order to make it more interesting, challenging and motivating for them to improve their listening and speaking ability. My evening students also keep me on my toes. They are mostly immigrants to the United States and they work hard all day and expect me to transform their lives and help them get a better job. I'm not sure that I always live up to their expectations but by the end of the semester, they do learn how to write a basic five paragraph essay that would be acceptable in an American university and I think that they make outstanding progress.

When I was a teenager, I was hoping to do something in the United Nations for my future career. Teaching ESL has been better than that. It's wonderful to meet people from all over the world and learn about their cultures and share their stories. It has been the adventure of a lifetime!