After graduating from Adelphi University with a Masters in TESOL and obtaining my New York State Initial Certification in TESOL, I held two ESL leave replacement positions. I was an ESL teacher in the Garden City Park School where I had the opportunity to work with students in Kindergarten through third grade. I also held a two-month ESL leave replacement position at Islip High School during which time I provided push-in and pull-out instruction. In addition, last summer I was a summer school ESL teacher in East Meadow School District.
I offer the students a rich language based environment where they can make progress in their listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. I incorporate literacy, grammar and writing into my lessons. I also include speaking activities and conversational practice into the lessons. My lessons are very visual and picture based as well as hands on. I also enjoy including technology in my lessons but making use of the Internet and all of the great resources available.
I incorporate literacy, grammar and writing into my lessons. Recently during poetry month I found a poem on snails that lended itself to reinforcing rhyming skills. I selected the poem because it was also our school’s science fair and that class had been studying snails. I believe it is important to offer students reading that applies to what they are covering in the classroom. This helps them build vocabulary and language in the content areas. It also allows the students to feel comfortable and familiar with the materials. Through out my days I implement shared, guided and independent reading. I also use read a louds very often to teach skills. With younger students I do a lot of alphabet and phonics work. I use various approaches such as making baggies for each letter, making mini books on each letter, making posters, and going on scavenger hunts. I also work on literacy skills such as pointing to each word, using the pictures to help them with unknown/tricky words, and sounding out/stretching words. I believe my experiences, education and creative approach will enable me to engage your child in learning and motivate him/her to succeed and progress.