Goals for the Future
In 1950, my grandfather graduated from Wayne State University, got a job with the state of Michigan and got married all within three weeks. He never went back to school or switched employers again. This is no longer the case. Such jobs don't exist and workers need to constantly improve themselves and gain new skills to remain competitive. Going forward I have a five year plan to improve by:
- Completing my CELTA or TESOL certification
- Redesigning curriculum within my practice contexts
- Getting a PHD
Goal #1
Though I will soon complete my Masters in Education, I plan to continue my education. I will complete a Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) or Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) course this summer. I strongly feel that I need to apply the principles that I have learned in this program to other contexts to solidify and retain my learning. An education is not something that hangs on the wall, but something that must constantly be used- like a muscle. Just as muscle much be stretched, learning must be applied to be retained. Both programs would give my opportunities to use the theories that I have learned in practical ways such as materials creation and program planning but in ways that better fit my experiences. The TESOL program would add me by giving a more far ranging set of skills and pedagogy related specifically to English Language Learners. The CELTA program, though similar would be more specialized towards adult learners, which I teach more frequently. Regardless, either program would help with my second goal. |
A day in the life of a CELTA Trainee via Teaching House.
|
Goal #2 In the short term, I will use my literacy training earned in the Teacher Education program and the skills learned in the educational administration department (EAD) program together to engage in professional development in my education contexts. YC College has grown since I began there but there is still much to do. Programs that may have worked for some students may not work on a larger scale. Instructors who work well in some programs may struggle to stay effective in a more cohesive program. For this reason, I have begun to use the principles learned in Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design to redesign the current programs. The design for the program shall be based on outcomes, which is a concept that reflects that found in Wiggins and McTighe. This will take some time as the authors recommend creating an outcomes-based curriculum on a class by class basis. However, creating a good curriculum is only part of the puzzle. Creating buy-in for any trainings will require knowledge from EAD 861 as well as additional research on my part. The programs will need interactive training methods and continued sessions in line with best practices for adult education. The goal of this more cohesive program is to create better vocabulary and fluency outcomes. These days my students are struggling to retain mid-level vocabulary while they learn academic vocabulary. Questions like these are hard to find answers for, especially within the EFL community. Articles such as this, on forgetting vocabulary and best practices for vocabulary retention, are few and far between. Finding answers is important to me and I will continue to look for them. |
Grant Wiggins discusses desired outcomes via AVENUESdotORG
|
Goal #3
One of the ways I plan to leverage my training to find answers is to join a PHD program in Korea. There are a number of programs available to me within Busan. As the controversies about English education in Korea, it is important to learn more about them and research. Currently, there is little research about English as a foreign Language education, which has led to a number of disagreements about how and when to teach Korean EFL students. Additionally, books like McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College & University Teachers paint Asian students as monolithic but there many students that need specialized training that current ESL training does not support. These students have linguistic fluency but lack cultural fluency. As such, they often fail to do well in regular education classes after bypassing ESL programs when they come to the United States. |
My Prezi on high level Korean students' struggles in America
|
All of the above ideas are important but they can be wrapped up into a single concise idea. My future goal is improve my craft so I can be a better teacher to my students. This can be done in the immediate future by completing CELTA or TESOL as well as facilitating better programs. In the intermediate future, I can use the knowledge to continue my learning elsewhere.
All images on this page are owned by the author, except cited YouTube pages and the header image which appears courtesy of Ms. Kate Lee.