Bronwyn did the Teacher course in 2008 and later went on to do the Tutor Training course. She is an EAL/D visiting teacher.
“I found the Tutor Training TESMC to be a valuable training course in my professional development. Many of the underpinnings of the teaching/learning experiences were debated and discussed giving a deeper understanding of how and why we can differentiate for our EAL students beyond the course we were training to deliver. The teachers attending the TESMC course where I jointly presented were all fully engaged each day. They asked insightful questions of the presenters during the module and we often had interesting discussions raised from the professional readings allocated as between module activities.
My own teaching has become more focused on identifying areas that individual students have needed to develop, and the course gave me strategies to target these areas specifically. The course also gave me the language to discuss the specific language learning needs of my EAL students with their mainstream teachers, and to share successful strategies with them. I have used the some of the strategies with my small group of students, and shared what I have done with the classroom teacher who then used the idea with the whole class. This leads to further opportunities where, as the EAL teacher, I can become involved in both the planning and the teaching within the mainstream classroom.
The TESMC Tutor Training course helped to consolidate my understandings of teaching EAL students and provided me with new, fresh strategies to use and share. I gained further confidence to take the teaching and planning for EAL students into the mainstream classroom. I would highly recommend the TESMC course for all teachers who work with EAL students within a classroom setting as the understandings and strategies apply equally well to all students. I would also recommend the Tutor Training Course for EAL teachers as it consolidates the understandings of EAL learning and teaching practices.”
Bronwyn Jenkins
Advisory Visiting Teacher EAL
(Illustrative photo)
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