Meet Laura: TESOL (M.A.'21)

People should consider going into ESL because the amount of students that are becoming or who are entering our schools who speak another language is only increasing. And what you learn in this program will benefit all of your students, so not just your multilingual learners. But these are good practices for all of your students. So even if you don't have any multilingual learners in your classroom in the future, you will still learn amazing practices from ESL to benefit all your students.

Two things that really stuck out for me in this program is, one, you are able to record a lesson and submit it to a coach and that coach will provide feedback for you. It is really helpful to see an outsider perspective and also to watch yourself as a teacher.

Another assignment that I really enjoyed were all the different application activities where you try different things and strategies in your classroom and then reflect on them. You then share them with your cohort, and then they can ask questions or provide additional ideas to consider for the future. And I really enjoyed having the time and space to practice those strategies and get feedback from peers and other teachers to.

One of the strategies that I learned was the rancher, which is reading and analyzing nonfiction text. I really like this strategy because I use it with my small reading group. So before we read any nonfiction text, we always fill out the graphic organizer. And this is similar to a KW owl, but it also allows my students to provide text evidence, which is what is needed in the fourth and fifth grade.

The scholarship really helped me financially by making me feel like I could financially afford it being a single mom and a teacher.

I would 100% recommend Western Michigan University's TESOL program for so many reasons. First, it's a great cohort group, so you will gain connections throughout the state of Michigan with other ESL teachers. All of the assignments and readings are very applicable and can help you start implementing strategies the very next day.