About Me
I didn't always know I wanted to be an English teacher, but I did always know I wanted to see the world outside of my little town of Londonderry, Vermont. I grew up in a tiny town nestled in the Green Mountains of New England enjoying the outdoors and my wonderful family. I always had a link to the world outside my doors because two of my grandparents were first generation Americans, from Scotland and Slovakia, and my other grandparents were missionaries, who lived in Iraq for a good portion of my mother's childhood, and who continued to travel during my youth. My grandfather sent me postcards from far off places like China and Africa, and I heard the stories of life in the Middle East from my mother. These stories and connections sparked my interest in other cultures.
During my junior year of high school, I got my first big opportunity to travel abroad. I went to Turkey as a nanny for a Turkish-German family near Istanbul for my summer vacation. It was an eye opening experience, one that I will never forget and that changed my life forever by showing me how much the world had to offer.
When I went to college, I fulfilled my young adult dream of living in New York City, a microcosm of the world, full of international flavor and abuzz with urban excitement. I attended Fordham University's Manhattan campus, right in the heart of the city. During my college career, I also spent a summer working on the small island of Skiathos, Greece, and a year abroad in Melbourne, Australia. Travel is in my blood, and I felt it more with every stint overseas. Of course, I was also happy to come home and remember the beauty of my home state and the warmth of my loving family!
After I graduated Fordham with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, I was at a bit of loss of what to do next. I had been a waitress for years, helping to pay for my college education, and so continued to work as a waitress, trying out other part-time opportunities that arose in business and eventually education. For a couple of years after I graduated I stayed in New York City, trying to find some direction, and finally, stumbled upon a part-time position with the YMCA's Flying Circus. At the time, this was a program that aimed to bring cultural awareness to the cities' public school system through art. A group of people were chosen, from all different walks of life, including myself, to create interactive, hands-on lessons that would help children appreciate the cultural diversity of the United States and their schools. My lesson centered around my Slovakian roots, and how symbols and egg dying traditions of Eastern Europe had been morphed into the modern tradition of Easter egg dying. I ventured far into New York City's boroughs to teach my lesson, and found that I really enjoyed working with young people.
In the winter of 2002, a good college friend asked me if I'd go to Japan to teach English with her. I had never thought about Japan much before, but suddenly started to find the idea very enticing. By February of 2003, I was settling into life in Osaka and working for a large language school chain as a conversational English teacher. I taught all ages of students, from pre-schoolers to retired elderly. I learned a lot about myself as a teacher, and also learned quickly that this particular school was more of a business than an educational establishment, with a lot of pressure to sell lessons and keep students buying.
Another teaching opportunity arose, working for an International kindergarten, actually what in America we would consider a pre-school, and I jumped at the chance to work in a more typical school setting. While the school was still a private school, it was much more focused on the students' well-being and high-quality education. I was assigned to one energetic group of 3 year old students, and stayed with them for over 13 months. To see the growth in these little ones over the time I spent with them was fascinating, and incredibly rewarding. The more I learned as a teacher, and reached creatively outside the box to find ways to connect with and inspire them, the more they blossomed.
I decided at the end of my two years in Japan, that I wanted to learn more about teaching, and to work towards academic credentials that would allow me to work both as a teacher in the U.S. and abroad. I also thought it would be nice to be closer to home for a while. In 2006, I enrolled in the Saint Michael's College MATESOL + K-12 Licensure program in Colchester, Vermont. I spent the next couple of years studying hard, learning all I could about teaching theory and practice. I also worked part-time as the Graduate Assistant in the School of International Studies. This was a great opportunity to see the inner-workings of an accredited English school. While studying, I continued to teach through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement program, where I taught women's English classes, mainly to Somali Bantu women resettled to Burlington, and through Saint Michael's Intensive English program, where I taught international students. As I neared the end of my studies, I did a semester of student teaching in the local Winooski public school district, where I worked with both elementary school and high school English language learners (ELL). That would not be the last time I found myself drawn to Winooski.
This was all fantastic experience, that lead me to spend a year as a Burlington After School Coordinator at Barnes After School, now the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes. This community school had a heavy focus on local connections, and a huge population of English language learners. I coordinated a program that ran everyday after school for three hours, reorganizing the program that had existed before. It was a lot of work that I had never done before, but it was great to see the effectiveness of restructuring the program to include new routines and systems that supported students in feeling safe and connected to an after school community. We had a wide array of classes and activities offered to different grade levels of students, including hands-on science, dance, music, arts & crafts, and after school family events. The after school teachers all joined me in establishing a safe, enriching, and loving environment for students to be part of outside of normal school hours. The high-lights were being able to work with such a diverse student population, and with so many different people involved in the education of a child, including family, classroom teachers, counselors, administrators, and community members.
During the year, I also decided I wasn't done traveling. I missed Japan, and felt strongly that it was time to get back to the land of the rising sun, and back into the classroom. Through my work at Saint Michael's college, I had taught for Kanazawa Technical College (KTC) of Ishikawa Japan during their intensive English summer program in Colchester. I enjoyed the students and the coordinators of the program. The school turned out to be a great fit. I worked there for five years, teaching high school and college age engineering students in several different courses. I taught oral skill classes for second year high-school students, and a presentation class, a comics class, and a project-based engineering and English class for college level students. I made a continuous effort to find ways to engage my students in their English studies, designing for student choice and voice where I could, and working towards project-based learning (PBL) models.
After five years, my husband and I were starting to think about our next steps. We were gearing up for our last year in Japan, we knew we would have to say goodbye to the good friends and life we'd made there, when I got an email from a colleague and friend in the United States. I was alerted to a rare opportunity for an English language learner (ELL) teacher position at the school where I had completed my student teaching, John F. Kennedy Elementary. My heart told me I needed to go for it. I found my passion for teaching with young children, and have always felt drawn towards early elementary. I love working with all age groups, but was excited by the possibility of working in a school district that I knew was strong, full of passionate teachers with collaborative spirit, with kindergarten and first grade learners. This age group is so full of excitement and wonder.
In 2014, we made our journey back to the U.S., welcomed by family, friends and my new learning community. While it is never easy to say good-bye, I feel I made the right choice. Everyday I go to work feeling eager to learn, excited to be with my students, and alive with creativity.
Over the past few years back in the U.S., I've been able to add to my repertoire of skills through fantastic professional development opportunities supported by my school on topics such as co-teaching, math best practices, supporting students suffering from trauma, Responsive Classroom, PBiS, Readers Workshop, etc. Last year, I was able to co-teach and co-plan for a year-long project-based parent English class with the theme of autobiographies which produced a compilation of students' autobiographies and a video of student stories. I've also joined the Northern New England regional TESOL board as the Vermont State Representative, now helping organize our annual conference and participating in board work, blog posts, and networking to support other educators around the state. In addition, I've been teaching Introduction to TESOL and Basic Grammar at Saint Michael's College summer intensive TESOL Certificate Program. I look forward to the years ahead of learning, teaching, and growing in my career.
During my junior year of high school, I got my first big opportunity to travel abroad. I went to Turkey as a nanny for a Turkish-German family near Istanbul for my summer vacation. It was an eye opening experience, one that I will never forget and that changed my life forever by showing me how much the world had to offer.
When I went to college, I fulfilled my young adult dream of living in New York City, a microcosm of the world, full of international flavor and abuzz with urban excitement. I attended Fordham University's Manhattan campus, right in the heart of the city. During my college career, I also spent a summer working on the small island of Skiathos, Greece, and a year abroad in Melbourne, Australia. Travel is in my blood, and I felt it more with every stint overseas. Of course, I was also happy to come home and remember the beauty of my home state and the warmth of my loving family!
After I graduated Fordham with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, I was at a bit of loss of what to do next. I had been a waitress for years, helping to pay for my college education, and so continued to work as a waitress, trying out other part-time opportunities that arose in business and eventually education. For a couple of years after I graduated I stayed in New York City, trying to find some direction, and finally, stumbled upon a part-time position with the YMCA's Flying Circus. At the time, this was a program that aimed to bring cultural awareness to the cities' public school system through art. A group of people were chosen, from all different walks of life, including myself, to create interactive, hands-on lessons that would help children appreciate the cultural diversity of the United States and their schools. My lesson centered around my Slovakian roots, and how symbols and egg dying traditions of Eastern Europe had been morphed into the modern tradition of Easter egg dying. I ventured far into New York City's boroughs to teach my lesson, and found that I really enjoyed working with young people.
In the winter of 2002, a good college friend asked me if I'd go to Japan to teach English with her. I had never thought about Japan much before, but suddenly started to find the idea very enticing. By February of 2003, I was settling into life in Osaka and working for a large language school chain as a conversational English teacher. I taught all ages of students, from pre-schoolers to retired elderly. I learned a lot about myself as a teacher, and also learned quickly that this particular school was more of a business than an educational establishment, with a lot of pressure to sell lessons and keep students buying.
Another teaching opportunity arose, working for an International kindergarten, actually what in America we would consider a pre-school, and I jumped at the chance to work in a more typical school setting. While the school was still a private school, it was much more focused on the students' well-being and high-quality education. I was assigned to one energetic group of 3 year old students, and stayed with them for over 13 months. To see the growth in these little ones over the time I spent with them was fascinating, and incredibly rewarding. The more I learned as a teacher, and reached creatively outside the box to find ways to connect with and inspire them, the more they blossomed.
I decided at the end of my two years in Japan, that I wanted to learn more about teaching, and to work towards academic credentials that would allow me to work both as a teacher in the U.S. and abroad. I also thought it would be nice to be closer to home for a while. In 2006, I enrolled in the Saint Michael's College MATESOL + K-12 Licensure program in Colchester, Vermont. I spent the next couple of years studying hard, learning all I could about teaching theory and practice. I also worked part-time as the Graduate Assistant in the School of International Studies. This was a great opportunity to see the inner-workings of an accredited English school. While studying, I continued to teach through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement program, where I taught women's English classes, mainly to Somali Bantu women resettled to Burlington, and through Saint Michael's Intensive English program, where I taught international students. As I neared the end of my studies, I did a semester of student teaching in the local Winooski public school district, where I worked with both elementary school and high school English language learners (ELL). That would not be the last time I found myself drawn to Winooski.
This was all fantastic experience, that lead me to spend a year as a Burlington After School Coordinator at Barnes After School, now the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes. This community school had a heavy focus on local connections, and a huge population of English language learners. I coordinated a program that ran everyday after school for three hours, reorganizing the program that had existed before. It was a lot of work that I had never done before, but it was great to see the effectiveness of restructuring the program to include new routines and systems that supported students in feeling safe and connected to an after school community. We had a wide array of classes and activities offered to different grade levels of students, including hands-on science, dance, music, arts & crafts, and after school family events. The after school teachers all joined me in establishing a safe, enriching, and loving environment for students to be part of outside of normal school hours. The high-lights were being able to work with such a diverse student population, and with so many different people involved in the education of a child, including family, classroom teachers, counselors, administrators, and community members.
During the year, I also decided I wasn't done traveling. I missed Japan, and felt strongly that it was time to get back to the land of the rising sun, and back into the classroom. Through my work at Saint Michael's college, I had taught for Kanazawa Technical College (KTC) of Ishikawa Japan during their intensive English summer program in Colchester. I enjoyed the students and the coordinators of the program. The school turned out to be a great fit. I worked there for five years, teaching high school and college age engineering students in several different courses. I taught oral skill classes for second year high-school students, and a presentation class, a comics class, and a project-based engineering and English class for college level students. I made a continuous effort to find ways to engage my students in their English studies, designing for student choice and voice where I could, and working towards project-based learning (PBL) models.
After five years, my husband and I were starting to think about our next steps. We were gearing up for our last year in Japan, we knew we would have to say goodbye to the good friends and life we'd made there, when I got an email from a colleague and friend in the United States. I was alerted to a rare opportunity for an English language learner (ELL) teacher position at the school where I had completed my student teaching, John F. Kennedy Elementary. My heart told me I needed to go for it. I found my passion for teaching with young children, and have always felt drawn towards early elementary. I love working with all age groups, but was excited by the possibility of working in a school district that I knew was strong, full of passionate teachers with collaborative spirit, with kindergarten and first grade learners. This age group is so full of excitement and wonder.
In 2014, we made our journey back to the U.S., welcomed by family, friends and my new learning community. While it is never easy to say good-bye, I feel I made the right choice. Everyday I go to work feeling eager to learn, excited to be with my students, and alive with creativity.
Over the past few years back in the U.S., I've been able to add to my repertoire of skills through fantastic professional development opportunities supported by my school on topics such as co-teaching, math best practices, supporting students suffering from trauma, Responsive Classroom, PBiS, Readers Workshop, etc. Last year, I was able to co-teach and co-plan for a year-long project-based parent English class with the theme of autobiographies which produced a compilation of students' autobiographies and a video of student stories. I've also joined the Northern New England regional TESOL board as the Vermont State Representative, now helping organize our annual conference and participating in board work, blog posts, and networking to support other educators around the state. In addition, I've been teaching Introduction to TESOL and Basic Grammar at Saint Michael's College summer intensive TESOL Certificate Program. I look forward to the years ahead of learning, teaching, and growing in my career.
Sarah's TESOL HUB by Sarah Forbes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.sarahtesolhub.com/.