Something new and uniquely beneficial With 25,000 Syrian refugees meant to arrive in Canada in the next months, there has been a surge of interest in supporting newcomers. In terms of language support, I believe we can develop something new and uniquely beneficial, for both newcomers
2015 in Review As I reflect on the past year for Esperanza Education, I recognize that it has been a year of both stability and change. Esperanza Education is now in its 8th year of operation, and our Language, Learning, and Culture Blog has been running for 2.5 years. Our readership
Check out this podcast interview of Esperanza Education teacher Kathryn Stewart on the Map Your Learning website. She discusses the ups and downs of being a teacher, the joys and challenges of working in a Canadian school with a majority immigrant population, blogging as a reflective
5 Reasons Teachers Make the Best Employees, and 2 Reasons We Might Not 1. We show up on time. Whether we are teaching a class of 20 or a tutoring a person one-on-one, the show doesn’t start without us. We have to show up. On time. Being late or canceling last minute simply doesn’t fl
Check out this podcast interview of Esperanza Education founder Nicole Benson on the Map Your Learning website. She discusses her path as an educator, her experience living and working in Peru, what bringing social justice and language education together is all about, blogging, and mu
A thought experiment: would you rather have great training or great curriculum? From a teacher standpoint, that means walking into a classroom with excellent training, or with lesson plans and materials perfectly crafted for that course. From an administration standpoint, that means h
Reviewing writing with my student Norma. Photo by Nataly Smakhtina. This blog post was prompted by a coffee date I had last weekend, with someone who wanted to know about my journey as a language teacher. It made me reflect: Wow, I have been doing this for ten years! What’s more
Language Learning through Current Event Analysis: A lot has happened in the world over the past few weeks that affects all of us, regardless of where we live or the language we speak. Often, when a learner is in a new language environment they are focusing on textbooks, grammar and me
Another Great Year of Language, Learning, and Culture The last time I sat down to write an end-of-year post for Esperanza Education, the team had only been blogging for six months. Now it has been a year and a half and I couldn’t be more impressed with the passion of our team an
What Do You Wish You’d Known When You Started Teaching ? Another year has come and gone! As I wrap up another year in the classroom, I’ve been reflecting on what I know now, and what I wish I had known when I started teaching nearly 8 years ago. After working with students
