Hello! Welcome to my blog! I will use this space to reflect on my teaching journey- past and present! I would like to dedicate this first post to a little self introduction!
I am from Chicago and I graduated from undergrad in 2010. My major was Elementary Education, and my dad was super pleased to have me graduated and ready to settle down in "a nice suburban school district." But I had different plans!! I had my heart on adventures abroad ever since I volunteered in the deep Amazonian jungles of Ecuador for a month during my Junior year. Nothing makes you fall in love with hopping borders more than accidentally eating bullets that are still stuck in your tapir meat. But seriously! I fell in love with the new sights and smells and experiences of foreign lands. Not to mention, I loved teaching children from other cultures! At this point, I had loads to learn. For example, I learned the hard way that it is not the best idea to let 30 children in an open-air classroom play hide and seek when their school is situated in the middle of dense jungle. There will be a lot more hiding than seeking and it will not... I repeat... will NOT turn out in your favor. But at the end of the day, I finally found more than just children deviously hiding behind bushels of bananas. I found myself. I realized that I have a passion for ESL education and traveling the world. I am so beyond lucky that my two passions are more meant to be together than Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. (Sigh secret Twilight love... revealed)
After graduating from undergrad, I spent a year teaching in Korea. I am not sure if I fell more in love with Kimchi or my teaching experience. They were both pretty incredible but I have to admit changing lives is slightly more rewarding than nomming on fermented cabbage. Because of this, I will definitely devote later blogs to teaching tales from Korea! (And will most likely further divulge my love for kimchi as well)
Following Korea, I taught for a summer in a Vietnamese international school! This was a really rewarding opportunity to work with some extremely devoted and passionate teachers from all over the world. You have an excessive amount of time to ponder things when sitting on a plane for 14 million (or so) hours back to Chicago. Somewhere over the Pacific, I came to the realization that I want to pursue ESL education specifically in International Schools around the world! I immediately began applying, and realized that most schools required higher degrees. In fact, the only letter back that seemed somewhat promising read "Dear Erica, our country is in a state of civil war, please try back later. Love, some international school in Libya." OK, maybe not so promising. Sigh.. I realized, it was time to pursue education again in order to best qualify myself for my dream job... International School ESL teacher in X faraway awesome land.
So here I am! I am currently completing my final semester at Penn and I could not be happier for my decision to attend this school. I am learning so much and I am so excited to implement the strategies and philosophies I have gained here to benefit my future students. Putting myself out here in this digital space is pretty intimidating, so thank you for being patient with me as I take up this cyber challenge! And if my blog gets really lame, please read while indulging in kimchi.. it makes everything way more delicious!
I am from Chicago and I graduated from undergrad in 2010. My major was Elementary Education, and my dad was super pleased to have me graduated and ready to settle down in "a nice suburban school district." But I had different plans!! I had my heart on adventures abroad ever since I volunteered in the deep Amazonian jungles of Ecuador for a month during my Junior year. Nothing makes you fall in love with hopping borders more than accidentally eating bullets that are still stuck in your tapir meat. But seriously! I fell in love with the new sights and smells and experiences of foreign lands. Not to mention, I loved teaching children from other cultures! At this point, I had loads to learn. For example, I learned the hard way that it is not the best idea to let 30 children in an open-air classroom play hide and seek when their school is situated in the middle of dense jungle. There will be a lot more hiding than seeking and it will not... I repeat... will NOT turn out in your favor. But at the end of the day, I finally found more than just children deviously hiding behind bushels of bananas. I found myself. I realized that I have a passion for ESL education and traveling the world. I am so beyond lucky that my two passions are more meant to be together than Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. (Sigh secret Twilight love... revealed)
After graduating from undergrad, I spent a year teaching in Korea. I am not sure if I fell more in love with Kimchi or my teaching experience. They were both pretty incredible but I have to admit changing lives is slightly more rewarding than nomming on fermented cabbage. Because of this, I will definitely devote later blogs to teaching tales from Korea! (And will most likely further divulge my love for kimchi as well)
Following Korea, I taught for a summer in a Vietnamese international school! This was a really rewarding opportunity to work with some extremely devoted and passionate teachers from all over the world. You have an excessive amount of time to ponder things when sitting on a plane for 14 million (or so) hours back to Chicago. Somewhere over the Pacific, I came to the realization that I want to pursue ESL education specifically in International Schools around the world! I immediately began applying, and realized that most schools required higher degrees. In fact, the only letter back that seemed somewhat promising read "Dear Erica, our country is in a state of civil war, please try back later. Love, some international school in Libya." OK, maybe not so promising. Sigh.. I realized, it was time to pursue education again in order to best qualify myself for my dream job... International School ESL teacher in X faraway awesome land.
So here I am! I am currently completing my final semester at Penn and I could not be happier for my decision to attend this school. I am learning so much and I am so excited to implement the strategies and philosophies I have gained here to benefit my future students. Putting myself out here in this digital space is pretty intimidating, so thank you for being patient with me as I take up this cyber challenge! And if my blog gets really lame, please read while indulging in kimchi.. it makes everything way more delicious!
No comments:
Post a Comment