Certified IELTS Examiner
IDP IELTS Abu Dhabi
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :20 years, 8 أشهر
Since September 2014 I have been working part time as a Certified IELTS examiner, assessing both the writing and the speaking tests of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam. Additionally, I work as a writing coach for IDP's Writing Assist program, which provides coaching to registered IELTS candidates in preparation for the IELTS writing test. I recently recertified as an examiner for the next two years. This qualification is valid anywhere in the world.
I am currently teaching EFL and ESP (Oil and Gas Industry) to adult Emiratis either newly recruited as part of the larger Emiratization campaign in the UAE or already working in the company and requiring further development. This position requires a reasonable working knowledge of the terminology, processes, and equipment found in a gas production plant. I provide instruction in the four strands of language development with an emphasis on authentic and relevant texts and contexts. Classes are small, which fosters a broader range of instructional strategies, including one-on-one remediation. Lastly, as in my two previous positions in the UAE, I actively incorporate an array of technological enhancements to make my lessons more engaging as well as more effective.
I taught twelfth-grade vocational students at the Secondary Technical School (STS) for Boys in Al Ain, one of the schools falling under ADVETI. In this position I implemented an EFL curriculum with an emphasis on student-centered learning and the communicative approach to students displaying high-beginner to high-intermediate English proficiency. Additionally, I was responsible for training my students for the IELTS and CEPA exams, towards which end I provided targeted skills training, differentiated to ability level, in the different aspects of those exams.
In this interim position I assisted the Curriculum Developer for the Applied Technology High Schools (ATHS) in reworking the curricula for the Secondary Technical Schools (STS) in order to facilitate greater alignment between our respective programs and better serve the education and training needs of our students. I was also responsible for developing significant term assessments for the entire STS system, including scripting and recording listening exams, which necessitated a deep working knowledge of the existing curricular objectives and resources as well as a keen orientation in the different curriculum and assessment needs of our target language learning profiles, including IELTS bands 5/6.
In this position, I implemented ADEC’s theme-based curriculum and foundational language instruction with low-beginner to high-intermediate secondary students in grades 10, 11 and 12. To this end, I consistently demonstrated a strong understanding of the curricular objectives and constructed effective and creative learning opportunities to achieve those objectives. I scaffolded and modeled linguistic and cognitive concepts necessary to ensure student progress and employed a strong array of differentiation techniques to ensure broader student access, including the strategic use of spoken and written Arabic. Further, I worked collaboratively and cooperatively with my colleagues, Arab and Western, in order to advance school-wide goals.
Vermont Commons School is a small private school in northern Vermont. When employed there as a long-term substitute, I taught language arts to college-preparatory students in grades 8, 9, and 11. The ethos of the school emphasized authentic engagement in the world around, no matter the subject, which included an emphasis on authentic texts over textbooks. In addition to creating and implementing a curriculum centered on the core theme of study for each grade, I selected and prepared all the literary and critical texts to be read and constructed all of the learning opportunities, focusing predominantly on the development of academic reading and writing skills. Further, I promoted general literacy and academic development among my students through a strong emphasis on critical thinking skills, scholarly argumentation, and rhetorical strategies.
Northlands Job Corps is a vocational training center in northern Vermont serving disadvantaged and at-risk adolescents and young adults between the ages of 16 and 23 from around New York, New Jersey, and New England as well as Puerto Rico. While a teacher at Northlands, I taught reading and writing as well as science, social studies, and mathematics to those students who had not completed their secondary education, some of whom were ESL students, in preparation for their general equivalency diploma (GED).
To foster greater interest and enhance the relevance of academic work among generally disaffected students, I created learning opportunities that centered on my students' core vocational interests (e.g. information technology, auto mechanics, welding) and collaborated closely with their vocational instructors. I provided whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one instruction to best support the range of learning needs in my classroom and employed a range of classroom management strategies to ensure my students had a safe, respectful, and productive learning environment. As an IT instructor, I taught basic researching, data-entry, and word-processing skills but all through the context of job training and employment readiness.
While completing my master's degree in English literature and language at the University of Vermont, I taught two sections per semester of Rhetoric and Composition (Eng 001), a required writing course for all first-year college students. I was responsible for developing the course syllabus and the various units of study and for selecting all of the course readings and materials. At the heart of the course were several learning projects built around the writing process--prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing. Finally, I was responsible for assessing, recording, and reporting my students’ performance as well as providing routine narrative feedback.