An Intimate Conversation w/ Public School ESOL Teachers
Free Virtual Session Sponsored by the TESOL Club
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 · 7 - 8 PM
Online
Are you planning to teach in a public school?
If so, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to hear what it’s really like teaching in the field from three ESOL teachers at different stages of their careers.
Join us for an intimate conversation with public school ESOL teachers who are at different stages of their careers.
To register, please email TESOL@UMBC.edu
This is a free event and open to all!
Joanne Amaro is a first-year English Language Acquisition teacher for Old Mill High School (AACPS) and current graduate student in the MA TESOL program. Prior to teaching ESOL, she taught World & Classical Languages (Spanish) for six and a half years at Phoenix Academy, the alternative school serving grades K-12 for AACPS. She is passionate about providing equitable, accessible learning opportunities for all students in her classroom via culturally relevant, learner-centered instruction. Her experience in special education, alternative education, foreign language teaching, and second language acquisition theory has evolved her teaching philosophy to believe that all students are capable of success, no exceptions.
Tema Encarnacion is an educator of multilingual students at Annapolis High School. She previously supported the ESOL program in Baltimore County Public Schools as the ESOL specialist and has worked with immigrant students and families in various capacities in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. After graduating from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, where she studied International Affairs and Spanish, Tema served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Upon returning from overseas, Tema completed her master’s degree in TESOL at the Notre Dame of Maryland University and has been working with immigrant students and families for the last 20 years. She is passionate about mitigating inequities for immigrant students and families and has co-founded the non-profit, The Chesapeake Language Project which aims to increase educational access for immigrant students.
Bridget Simmons is an alumna of the M.A. TESOL program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication. In the years leading up to teaching, she has volunteered locally at the Education Based Latino Outreach and the Esperanza Center as well as overseas teaching English classes at the Centro Boliviano Americano in Cochabamba, Bolivia and You Can Camp in Bergamo, Italy. In addition to these volunteer positions, she served on the Maryland TESOL board as the graduate student chair and interned at the English Language Institute at UMBC. She is currently an elementary ESOL teacher at Baltimore Highlands Elementary, developing and implementing lessons for 1st, 2nd, and 5th grade with a majority Spanish speaking population of students.