ESL DAY
Teachers' Event
In every semester, our program holds several ESL Days, on which sometimes guest speakers are invited to introduce various new teaching strategies or sometimes we work in groups to reflect on our teaching and tutoring experience. What's more, we usually do many interesting and meaningful activities that can facilitate our teaching and tutoring strategies.
PRACTICUM TEACHING
APLNG 500
The class in which I worked collaboratively with my mentor teaching is a graduate-level oral English class for academic purposes. This practicum teaching experience was the most crucial one for my professional development. I made lesson plans one week before the classes were taught and then I fixed the details based on the comments by my mentor. I started with leading some activities and later I taught the whole classes by myself. After one semester's practice, I have learned how to motivate students when they were quiet, how to mange the time efficiently, and how to give clear and effective instructions etc. I feel very grateful for my mentor's help and trust.
TUTORING
APLNG 595
Tutoring: Taking Care of a Garden
In APLNG 595, I worked three tutees from Saudi Arabia, China and India. At the beginning of our tutoring sessions, I was like a new gardener while my tutees were like a land left untilled. We all were not sure what would grow in this garden through the whole semester’s efforts. Then I started to plant many new flowers and trees while my tutees based on their background knowledge as the fertile soil to grow those plants. During the process, we met many difficulties like repetitive problems that could not be fixed at one time which were like tenacious weeds. With the process going on, we have grown many beautiful flowers and the trees are going to bear fruits, without tenacious weeds. A good tutor should always be patient and have infinite faith in students that they will succeed finally.
TEAM TEACHING
APLNG 493
The team teaching project in APLNG 493 provided me the first chance to teach a real class with three teammates. The class we taught in was a TOEFL class for international students at the Penn State and luckily one of our teammates, Seyma, was the host teacher in that class. Thus, we were prepared well for the class with Dr. Karen and Seyma's help through out the whole planning and teaching process. From this project, I have experienced the steps that a teacher should complete before giving a lesson, for example, thinking about the objectives, designing activities and preparing materials etc. Besides, I have learned about the different teaching approaches that teachers apply to prepare students for TOEFL Tests in the United States. The most important thing I have learned from this experience is cooperation which has allowed me to learn a lot from my teammates.