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Day 4

Something language teaching has taught me is how hard creating well thought-out and easy-to-understand material is. Specifically, directions and requirements on prompts and things of the like. I have a bad habit of assuming people know what I'm talking about without giving much context - which can cause issues when writing and giving directions. Myself and the other Ling 102 instructors have been editing prompts for the different unit assignments our students have to complete. We have spent quite some time now trying to make the language understandable and clear for ESL speakers, but also not "dumb-down" anything at the same time. We try to preemptively think about the questions students may have, while considering past and future lessons that contain the tools they will need for the assignment.You have to consider their background (educational, cultural), age, etc. It is something that I never really considered before becoming a teacher. The three of us working together ...
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Day 3

Days like today make me happy to be a teacher! I just had probably one of the best classes so far this semester. It has been a struggle to get my students to communicate, ask questions, and participate in class. Some of it was because the semester had just begun, some of it was cultural backgrounds, but it's not the first time it's happened to me. Today, my students had a peer review session for the Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography. I asked them to pair up with someone they hadn't worked with before, and they received a peer review checklist/comment sheet to guide them. In the past, students have been silent during peer review, and it felt like pulling teeth to get them to communicate with their partner. For some reason, everyone felt like talking today and it was great! My classroom was probably the loudest it's ever been, with every group talking to each other and asking questions. My students also asked me a lot of questions, which I very much prefer over...
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Day 2

Something that has been on my mind recently is technology in the medical field. This may seem a little personal, but I have permission to share - my fiance Josh has been in and out of Memorial Hospital of Carbondale quite a few times during 2018. It has amazed me that with how advanced both technology and the medical field are, that we still struggle when it comes to diagnosing and treating medical issues. Back during the spring months, my fiance had a CT scan, ultrasound, and biopsy - all of which were inconclusive. It was infuriating to think that an establishment such as a hospital could be filled with amazing technology that has helped so many others in the past, couldn't tell us what was wrong. We like to claim in the Western world that our medical technology is so advanced, and yet in my fiance's case, these multiple technologies couldn't figure out what was going on. Thinking about it now makes me reflect on a couple questions - does Memorial Carbondale of Hospital...
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Day 1

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Today was a great intersection of language teaching and technology. Here at SIU, Morris Library offers Library Instruction. Library Instruction helps with navigating databases, library resources, interlibrary loan, citation, and more. As some may know, I am teaching a section of Ling 102: Composition for ESL students. In Ling 102, students learn how to write a research paper using scholarly sources. I utilized the Library Instruction that Morris Library offers to ensure that my students were familiar with the library website, databases, and search options. Mary Taylor is the natural science librarian at Morris. She taught my students how to navigate the library website , and what peer reviewed sources are, searching with keywords, and included two exercises: identifying different types of articles, and finding two sources they would like to use in their paper. She even created a page for my class specifically that students can access through the library website! I would highly rec...
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About Me Hi! My name is Ellen. I'm from Greenville, New Hampshire and I'm 22 years old. My 23rd birthday is next Tuesday! I have 4 cats and 1 dog. I am a 2nd year Masters student studying TESOL at Southern Illinois University.
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