Graduate Work
I earned my MA TESOL at the School of International Training Graduate Institute in Vermont. At the conclusion of my program, I was honored to be chosen by my peers to deliver the keynote address at our annual Sandanona Conference.
Jump ahead to see my coursework and capstone project.
SIT has been a leader in the field of TESOL (also referred to as TEFL, TESL, ESL, or ELT) education for more than 40 years. Employers look for teachers who have been trained at SIT.
SIT’s Master of Arts in TESOL program stresses the practical applications of learning and effective teaching. Learning is balanced in the domains of knowledge, skills, attitude, and awareness in the context of language.
–from sit.edu
As a student in the program, I have:
- Acquired the theoretical knowledge and professional competencies essential for effective language teaching
- Gained practical tools through a meaningful, supervised teaching experience
- Developed a disciplined reflective practice
- Benefited from the experiences, perspectives, and feedback of faculty and fellow students
- Situated my work in a global context
- Teaching the Four Skills (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking)
- Language Analysis for Lesson Planning
- Second Language Acquisition
- Group Dynamics
- Intercultural Communication for Language Teachers
- Curriculum Design & Assessment
- English Applied Linguistics
- Becoming a Teacher Educator
- Danish – Independent Study
- Beginning Arabic
- Beginning Turkish
- Two-month internship in Poland
- Language
- Culture
- Learners and Learning
- Teachers and Teaching
- Self and Other
- Educational Institutions, Communities, and Professional Life
SIT students learn to teach language for communication, self-expression, social change, advocacy, employment, education, and empowerment. SIT graduates are working around the world for increased peace and social justice through their language teaching.
Through SIT’s TESOL program, students deepen their experience and build their résumés with internship placements in diverse communities.
The SIT TESOL network serves as an effective and dynamic professional tool with global reach. SIT TESOL graduates are teaching English abroad around the world in universities, language institutes, nonprofits, government agencies, and the private sector. More than 3,000 alumni have created a reputation you can count on.
–from sit.edu
Graduate Coursework at SIT
Completed coursework:
Capstone
Good and effective teaching requires competence in (at least) six areas. It is these six competencies that the Master of Arts in TESOL program at SIT Graduate Institute is designed to address:
I wrote a 120-page portfolio featuring reflective essays and documentation that demonstrate and highlight my increased knowledge skill, attitudes, and awareness in each of these six competencies.
In addition, I developed a performance-based assessment method I call Show What You Know. You can read my paper here. I gave an hour-long workshop on Show What You Know at SIT’s Sandanona conference in May 2015 and at TESOL Arabia in Dubai in March 2016.