Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tphillips]

Hi everyone,

I�ve been looking at a few jobs that request a personal statement, including a teaching philosophy and a teaching experience. I have several years as a composition teacher at an American university under my belt, and I�ve written a teaching statement for comp, but I don�t have a lot of direct experience as an ESL teacher, and I�m wondering if people have any tips about what sort of things are usually covered in these kinds of statements. Are there particular things they�d like to know about my practices and habits as a teacher? Are there any generally-acknowledged dos and don�ts for writing them?

Thanks!

[crisdean]

[YTMND]

Whatever will convince them to hire you. It all looks trite and replayed "get to know the student" mumbo jumbo.

I would spend more time writing up a decent lesson plan.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[ddeubel]

This is my own area of teaching and specialization.

With my students I suggest 3 main things for their assignment.

1. relate your theory to practice (what you've done or others have done) and include your theory of learning, how you believe students learn best (and in your case specific to TESOL)

2. be explicit about what your philosophy of education is. See this post http://bit.ly/sjqLF5 which has some examples of the main philosophies of education but for Tesol you also might want to discuss your own approach (communicative / post method etc... ).

3. be formal but still let it have voice and give the reader a sense of YOU. Bring the YOU out.

A few subjects which might be considered highly important to include depending on how full your paper is - technology, classroom management, assessment.

Hope this helps.

DD
http://community.eflclassroom.com