Entry 1: Introduction
ENTRY 1: INTRODUCTION
Please watch my video so that you have a clear idea of what is expected for your entry 1.
Click here: My life
Entry 3: Interview with an ESL Specialist.
For this entry I decided to interview a friend of mine who works in Petal, Mississippi. Camila and I have been friends for over twenty years. We did the same Master in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She has been working in a school district for over 15 years. This is the interview. I hope you enjoy it. Please click here to watch it. REFLECTION This interview made me realize that many of the things that researchers have found in the field of ESL, particularly about ESL programs, correspond to the reality many teachers live every day. One of the most striking points made by my interviewee was that in her district the Pull-out program is the most common. This coincides with what Wright (2015) assertion about this program being frequent in the United States despite having been highly criticized. About this Wright (2015, p. 107) states: The problem are many. First and perhaps most important, studen...
I really enjoyed watching your video. Because there were many facts I learned about different countries. Your pictures were really interesting to look at well. Certain places I never knew about or didn't know how beautiful they are until I saw them in your pictures. For example, the town you were born in was a new interesting fact I learned about. I would say I agree with you, and think education is the best way you can strive for excellence and have further knowledge as well. Without education you can't possibly understand certain aspects of things better. Many people strive for what they want to become or want. But I think the more we can travel to different countries the more we are able to understand about the certain culture and religion as well.
ReplyDeleteYour video was very interesting. I love that you make it a point to try to visit a new country every summer. I have never left the United States so it was inspiring to see that a person can move so easily about the world if they put the effort forth. Celisha Drake
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ReplyDeleteHello Professor Avellaneda! I would have to say that watching your video was truly inspiring to me. I have always longed to travel the world as intensely as you have. I have traveled some but not as far as you. Your life experiences have reminded me that everyone crosses paths with little regard to who that person is. I love speaking to different people on campus and learning about their lives or cultures. Desiree Capuchino.
ReplyDeleteHello Dr. Avellaneda! Thank you for sharing your personal experiences in growing up and becoming the educator you are today. You can tell that all of your experiences are especially meaningful to who you are as an individual and make up your passion for education. Just like yourself, I have a great love for education and I truly believe it is the key to success in any setting. My interest personally is for serving individuals with disabilities and creating an early childhood education setting that creates the proper interventions that will impact them immensely throughout their life. Using language is a big part of their early childhood education setting, I personally advocate for the use of ASL in the classroom to communicate with children who have disabilities at a young age, considering all the developmental delays that exists in these individuals.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to a great semester!
Hello Dr. Avellaneda! I must say that this is pretty amazing to get to know your professor in this way. Most often with online classes, I have no idea what my professor even looks like. This is an interesting and fun way to bridge that gap. I love that you travel to a new country yearly. That is definitely something that I want to do when I graduate from college. I truly believe that the world has so much to offer us, you just have to take the opportunities and run with them. I am excited for this semester and look forward to new knowledge! Briana Clausell
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ReplyDeleteDr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your video. Your photos were beautiful (my favorite is the one on the hill with the snowy mountain background). I am a huge fan of traveling, and the experiences gained through ones travels. I come from a diverse background, and am always excited to learn more. You seem to be a very open-minded professor with many stories, life-lessons, and experiences. I am looking forward to hopefully hearing more details of the amazing places you have traveled throughout the semester. I am a big fan of languages, nature, and different countries and cultures. How many languages do you speak? I look forward to all this class has to offer! Perhaps I will learn new places to add to my "must-visit" list. Norah Basyouni
Hello Dr. Avallaneda, very nice to meet you! Your video introducing yourself was so interesting, I think it is amazing how much you have educated yourself and continue to learn by traveling the world. That is definitely a dream of mine I wish to pursue after I receive my bachelors I also think it is very inspiring how you have managed to learn another language and help others learn them as well! I think many teachers have the desire to spread knowledge like this while enjoying teaching and learning through such meaningful experiences. I believe I will learn a lot of valuable things in your class this semester. In the future I wish educate myself as well to improve my Spanish (and hopefully even master other languages too such as American sign language) - so that maybe one day I can have more students to teach and learn from as well!
ReplyDeleteIt is very nice to meet you Dr. Avallaneda! I really enjoyed your video about your life and all the hard work you have done to learn what you know today. I find it fascinating how much you have traveled and studied to know how to speak the languages you do. After watching your video about your life, it has inspired me more to travel and not only to enjoy it as a vacation, but to actually learn the language so I can interact and learn about the many beautiful cultures in the world. It is also inspiring to me how you seem to enjoy all of what you have done. I believe this is important in life to love what you do and actually enjoy it. It reminds me of the saying, "Once you find something you enjoy doing, you won't have to work a day in your life". I hope that we can continue to learn more about your journey! I am very excited on what you have in stored for us in this class and I know it will be a great semester together!
ReplyDeleteJulie Ho
Dr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your life story and linguistic journey. It is neat to see how language has greatly impacted someone. I love how you have seen first hand the various foreign language teaching methods. Based on your video, it sounds like your early English teachers taught using the “Grammar Translation Method: Attention is given to lists of isolated vocabulary and grammar rules. Little or no attention is given to oral production” (Brown, pg. 18). I am thankful to have experienced Spanish classes in which grammar, oral, and vocabulary skills were emphasized. If I do end up teaching EAL students, which is likely considering the city I live in, I hope to teach “Communicatively.” This approach teaches the foreign language holistically. Some aspects of Communicative Language Teaching include teaching “grammar, oral, and vocabulary skills,” “techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes,” focus on “fluency and accuracy,” “focus on real world context,” “autonomy and strategic involvement,” the teacher as the “guide,” and the student as the “active learner” (Brown, pg. 32). I believe all teaching should be approached this way. I am excited to learn the various techniques in second language methodology.
Brown, D. and Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by Principles. White Plains:Pearson
-Kaela Bailey (Martin)
DeleteDr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your introductory video and getting to know more about you! I find it interesting that you learned French and English as a foreign language during your middle and high school years. I had to take an ESL class when I was in elementary because my parents only spoke Vietnamese at home. I took French as a foreign language in high school, and I agree that we learned more about vocabulary and grammar rather than speaking the language itself. Although we did have oral exams, they weren't as abundant as spelling and grammar tests. I think you are inspirational and amazing for all of the travels that you did in order to learn the languages that you know today. It is motivating to hear about all of the studies and hard work you put into your career and future. I think it is awesome that you were able to experience these languages and cultures first-hand and that with your job teaching English, your whole life changed and you were able to travel to the U.S. for the first time! It is truly amazing to hear that even after you were able to travel to the U.S. with your job teaching English, you wanted to continue your education because you realized that the language that you spoke in needed a lot of work. I feel like many people try to take the easy way out, but you didn't! You decided that what you had already learned wasn't good enough and that you could do better. I look forward to learning more about you, as well as second language methodology in this class. Go coogs!
Jenny Tran
Hello Dr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing some of your life story with us. Like many others, you have inspired me to travel somewhere new once a year. When you travel to different places, it allows you to learn from the culture and background of the people from that country. As future teachers, we are to be lifelong learners and learning another language should be part of that. It was interesting to learn how you continued your education and learning English until you met the high goals you set for yourself. I am interested in how we are going to learn about second language methodology and feel very positive since you have extensive knowledge in the material. I look forward to learning more about how we can learn how to teach a second language even if we are not bilingual.
Hello Dr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting background of how you have earned your achievements and have found yourself here at the University of Houston. You have definitely made me reflect back on my own education based on learning Chinese and English simultaneously while growing up. It was difficult for me as Chinese was my native language, and yet as I grew up, it became my second language to learn as my English well exceeded my Chinese. Looking back on it now, I wish I was more fluent in Chinese, but I know more frequent practice can definitely help me. It was inspiring to see how much you have accomplished and how you were so driven to teach in so many places what you are so passionate about. I also love how much you travel around the world and have visited so many places. I would love to travel around the world and also immerse myself in different cultures and lifestyles. Seeing how people communicate and live in a way completely different from here in the U.S. is so interesting to me that I would love to learn more about. Thanks for sharing your story with us, and I am looking forward to a semester full of new information and ideas!
Hello Dr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your video. It was very interesting to hear about the journey you have made to get to this point in your life. I also enjoyed hearing the progress you had to make to learn English fluently in college after barely ever speaking the language before taking college courses.
I also loved the way you were able to travel so much around the world. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do, and I can only hope to travel as much as you as you have. Like you I enjoy traveling to explore landscapes and meet people. I also like to travel to see parts of the world I have never seen before and learn about their culture and the way they live life in their country.
Lastly, I would also like to hear about your experiences from the other universities you taught at, I think it’s very interesting that you have taught at so many schools.
Hello, Dr. Avellaneda.
ReplyDeleteYour video was wonderful. It was great to get to know you through this video. I enjoy traveling, but unfortunately I don't have many opportunities to travel. It has alwasy seemed like so much fun to me, to have the opportunity to visit someone else's home and have a chance to immerse oneself in that culture, and watching your video seems to reinforce that belief. Hopefully one day I am fortunate enough to travel to some of the wonderful places you were able to explore. It would definitely be an experience of a lifetime.
I look forward to learn and grow in your class not only as a future educator, but as a person as well.
Hi Dr. Avellaneda,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed and appreciated watching your video. This blog a great way to get to know your teacher when taking an online course. I admire you dedication to learning the english language fluently. I love to travel as well, I have not yet had to opportunity to travel to as many places as you have been but I do look forward to it! I like that you have set a goal to travel to a new place every summer. I like your perspective of the world and passion about this topic. I am looking forward to learning more about english as a second language for students!