Author Biography: Shannon has an extensive background in Language Arts and Literacy Development and has taught in various

public education settings in Calgary, Alberta for 17 years. She has served as a Classroom Teacher, Learning Support Teacher (Early Literacy) and Resource Support Coordinating Teacher. Additionally, she has worked with ESL learners, and students with Learning Disabilities and Special Needs. She has held various leadership roles, both in training new teachers and in facilitating educational workshops and extensive teacher in-service programs. She has provided expertise to classroom teachers in curriculum, differentiated instruction and Individual Program Plan development. Shannon has been actively involved in district initiatives; writing quality teaching resources and curriculum units. Additionally, she has worked for Alberta Education in the development of classroom assessment materials. Activity Summary
The article describes my personal journey in becoming an online ESL teacher. The structure of the Global Education online ESL course (www.gloabed.ca) is explained. In addition to specific examples of activities, an overview of a sample online ESL lesson is included. The collaborative process of teaching online ESL is discussed. Class or subject area: Online English as a Second Language (ESL) Grade level(s): High School Specific learning objectives: To offer international students a blended online learning environment in which to learn English. To offer interactive activities that focus on English vocabulary development, expressive and receptive language skills, reading and writing. To support instruction and language development skills through specifically designed videos. To communicate, support and build relationships with students through the use of various collaborative technologies. To offer students the opportunity to combine English language learning with technology skills and 2.0 tools. To encourage students to collaborate and support one another in all aspects of the course.

Anniversary Book Project

5th

Teach ESL Online? Who Me?

By: Shannon Poulsen Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND Author contact: spoulsen34@gmail.com

My journey teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) online began as a result of someone else believing in me and my own interest in trying something new. As the mother of three active young children, I had been searching for several years to find a way to pursue my intense passion for teaching literacy and escape from the structure of the school setting to a more flexible environment and feel challenged professionally! That seemed impossible until I met the right person who encouraged me to take a chance and be open to a new way of teaching and learning. I am an experienced teacher with a particular interest in literacy development. Having served as a classroom teacher, a learning support/resource teacher and an ESL teacher for many years, I am knowledgeable about how students learn to become literate. I am in my early forties and, clearly, I am not part of the digital generation. In fact, I got my first computer my final year of my undergraduate degree and, previous to that, I typed all of my assignments on a typewriter. In my seventeen years as a teacher, I only used technology occasionally with my students as I did not take the time to learn how to implement it effectively. My online teaching career began only five months ago. I was fortunate to be invited to take an online teaching course through Global Education (www.globaled.ca) in order to explore and learn more about the process. During this time I recognized that my technology skills were inadequate. While a humbling experience, I realized the need to expand my technological knowledge and skills. I challenged myself to learn and explore one new digital tool each week. I watched YouTube videos demonstrating various tools, researched terms unfamiliar to me and began hands-on discovery of the 2.0 world. I read blogs and articles, and participated in online conferences. I communicated as much as possible with the various people in my world who were more proficient with technology in order to avail myself of their expertise and knowledge. I was resourceful! I have been able to combine my passion and interest in teaching literacy, specifically English, with my new-found fascination in technology. With the collaboration and support of the Global Education team, I am currently successfully teaching ESL online to high school students in China. The ESL Model: 3 Key Components Active Learning and Quality Instruction Edgar Dales Cone of Learning has long inspired my teaching career. As I have worked through developing my online ESL Lesson Plans, I have found myself reflecting on his model many times. I have had to remind myself that, even in an online environment, the students need to acquire English literacy skills by being active, motivated and engaged learners. I have also learned that quality online teaching doesnt need to be flashy; it needs to be based on sound pedagogy, realistic content and effective instructional strategies. The technology tools complement and enhance the process. Group Size I currently teach my ESL classes through Elluminate and Moodle. Both of these learning management systems allow me to interact with the students in various ways. I give timely feedback to my students regarding their assignments. I have had to experiment with the size of the student groups that participate in my interactive online sessions. Facilitating English language learning is not an easy task, especially when your students are on the opposite side of the globe. I have found that the size of the instructional group in relation to the specific lesson has been an important consideration.

Communication and Building Relationships Our ESL team also wanted to be able to communicate with our international students through a social networking tool. I created a blog for my students and encouraged them to visit it regularly and share their thoughts and questions with me. Additionally, I wanted to utilize it as a means for posting assignments and information. I soon learned about firewalls in China and discovered that the students were unable to access it! My search began to find an alternate networking tool and fortunately I discovered www.edmodo.com which has been an effective way to connect with students and other educators. My teaching partners have also joined Edmodo; we collaborate by sharing our posts with each other. I am further able to enhance the quality of my online lessons by creating videos both before and after my lessons for students to study at their convenience. These instructional videos are embedded and linked in Edmodo. The purpose of my videos changes often, depending on the lesson and needs that are evident to me each week. Additionally, through the use of Skype, I am able to meet, in a more personal way, with teaching assistants, onsite teachers and my students in China. Examples of Activities: Online ESL Lesson Lesson Topic: Family and Heritage Meet small groups of students in the virtual classroom (Elluminate). PowerPoint presentation is shared via the whiteboard. Greeting: Students and teacher greet each other using the text box and microphone. Text on the whiteboard gives ESL students visual examples of greetings. Connection to English Moodle Course: Lesson in formal online English course is shown to ensure students are aware of what lesson they are to be exploring. This course is composed of literacy development activities in speaking, listening (podcasts), reading and writing. Vocabulary Development: New vocabulary for the lesson is shared and explained. This is done in a variety of ways (direct explanation, game, poem, etc). It is an interactive process; students actively participate and I facilitate online interaction. -Example #1: Family Tree is shown of my own family; created using bubbl.us/ (free 2.0 tool for brainstorming and creating colorful mind maps). Link is shared with the students for future use. Vocabulary development activity based on visual. -Example #2: The term relative is explained and discussed. A list of relatives is displayed. Students use the interactive whiteboard tools to indicate which relatives they have in their own families. Students verbalize vocabulary throughout the activity. Expressive Language Development: Students verbalize information about their own families. Text on whiteboard gives ESL students visual examples/support and vocabulary. Extension Activity: Students are given several websites they may wish to explore to create their own family trees. They are also encouraged to explore other websites and use 2.0 tools they discover on their own to share information about their families. Technology Support: Fellow students and on-site teaching assistant offer technology support as needed throughout the lesson/course. Ongoing Communication: Students are reminded to visit www.edmodo.com to review the assignment and instructional videos (Tech Smith Jing), ask questions and view posts. Formal Assignment: Assignment is confirmed. Closure

Concluding Remarks Teaching ESL online has proved to be a greater challenge professionally than any other teaching position I have held in my career. In order to become a 21st Century teacher, I have had to open my mind and heart to learning many new skills to discover the digital world. The reward for doing so is incredible. This journey to the online world is one of immense collaboration. I am in awe of my own three children, who are part of the digital generation. I observe them experiencing the world very differently than I growing up. They have the technical skills and confidence that I am just learning to acquire and they inspire me to continue learning. The administrative team and my colleagues at Global Education have been integral to my growth. We continually reflect and discuss what is working in our practice and make changes to improve it. We set goals together and revise them often. We are mindful of the way students of the digital generation acquire and process information. My participation in online workshops, technology conferences and social networks has provided excellent professional development opportunities, allowing me to connect with progressive thinkers all over the world. The sense of accomplishment I am experiencing as an online teacher is overwhelming and I am excited that I have a great deal more to discoverTeach ESL Online? Who Me? Why Not! I would like to give special recognition to my colleague and the CEO of Global Education, Verena Roberts, for the opportunity to teach and learn with Global Education.