ESL trainer, teacher

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

September, **** to present: Educall Learning Services, Houston, Texas.

Position: Language specialist and technical writer

Duties: Provide technical assistance and consulting services to individuals wanting to publish education materials, provide customized training in business English for non-native speakers, and develop new programs for adult workforce education programs.

February, 2004- August 2013: Region 4 Education Service Center, Adult Education Consortium, Gulf Coast Region, Houston, Texas

Position: Adult Education Program Specialist

Administrative duties: Managed fiscal agent duties and oversaw program supervisors, assured compliance and student performance goals for the Regional Education Service Center’s Adult Ed. Consortium serving 1,900 students annually. Facilitated activities of the three regional advisory boards in the three-county area served. Developed and oversaw transition to college or work in partnership with the Texas Workforce Commission (C-4 Pilot).

March, 2002 - April, 2004: Lone Star College System, Houston, Texas (formerly known as North Harris College Divisions)

Position Held: ESL Coordinator, Adult Education Program, Administrative Duties: Built schedule of courses, assigned, supervised and, trained instructors, monitored program operations, coordinated with testers and other program personnel, visited sites and collaborated with site supervisors and community organizations to set up classes and provided ESL and Basic Skills instruction. Frequent student interactions in both Spanish and English with strong community contacts were required in this position. Managed both the El Civics program PY 2002/2003, and the Cooperative ESL instruction program for the Adult Education Department.

Development Projects

Developed curriculum for three levels of ESL immigrant students in Adult Ed. program,

Developed curriculum for the El Civics project

Grant Writing: Wrote grant narratives and developed Action Plans and program activities to achieve grant goals for Adult Basic Education and workforce training.

May 2001 - May, 2002: Center Director, Adult Education Professional Development Center

Administrative duties: Provided workshops and technical assistance statewide to adult education cooperatives statewide, coordinated training calendar, presented demonstrations at adult education conferences.

Program Development: Developed and field tested new student orientation modules for ESL students, developed a six-hour orientation module with instructor guide that was translated to three major languages of non-native speakers of English in Texas (Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese), for distribution to other programs nationwide (i.e., Kansas, Arizona, North and South Carolina). Developed student retention strategies for managed enrollment in order to increase attendance and completion rates.

Grant Writing: wrote grant applications for state and federally funded programs.

January, 2001 - May, 2001: FS Languages, Houston, Texas

Position: Corporate Language Trainer

Program Development: Provided targeted Business English instruction to international business executives, Personal language trainer for foreign sales and service engineers sent to Houston for intensive language immersion program.

Workforce Training: provided on-site tours and trips to foreign business executives for oil and gas international company. Created oral proficiency tests, designed customized curriculum, instructed on grammar and pronunciation as well as coordinating class field trip activities

May, 1999- May, 2000: Kingwood College, Houston, Texas (Partner College of the Lone Star College System)

Director of Adult Education and Continuing Education Distance Learning

Administrative: hired and provided instructional support to instructors, monitored program quality, gathered required documents and data, developed new courses, supervised distance education classes, managed registration and technical compatibility, met with students, provided program information, built schedules for catalog.

Instructional: Taught ESL class

Development: Developed new courses for workforce education courses and the Texas Workforce Education Common Course Manual (WECMM), when old courses had to be reviewed and rewritten.

August, 1995 – May, 1999: North Harris College, Houston, Texas

Positions: 1. Bilingual Vocational Training Coordinator,

Administrative: hired and supervised instruction, coordinated projects with 5 other curriculum projects statewide, produced reports, developed accreditation application for credit and placed students in unsubsidized employment.

Program Development: developed a 400-hour award-winning vocational program in Spanish and English to transition bilingual English/Spanish students from adult education to vocational training,

Grant Writing: wrote grants for continuing education programs

Position 2 Staff Developer: Trained and monitored staff and taught literacy level class.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

TexTESOL IV (Texas Affiliate): President 2001-2002

LANGUAGES

Fluent in Spanish

EDUCATION

1970 – 1974 Parsons School of Design, New York, New York

BFA, Fine Arts, 1974

1984-1990 University of Houston, Houston, Texas

MA Applied Linguistics, 1990

Relevant coursework: theories of teaching ESL, phonology, second language acquisition

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Platinum level award for reaching all state and federal target goals in the adult education program

1995 award for Program Excellence from the Texas Association of Community and Continuing Education for the Bilingual Vocational Training Program.

1991 Award for Teaching Excellence from Hispanic University

Interstate Training at Summer Institute for Adult Education from the State Board of Education in Kansas. Topic: The ESL Orientation Training Module

ARTICLES PUBLISHED:

Using FEMA Materials to Help ESL and GED Students Deal with Disasters Literacy Links Volume 10, No. 1, February 2006, Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning, Texas A&M, College Station, TX.

http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/newsletr/feb06/feb06d.htm/

The Case for Case Management (Burke, L. and Shearer, T.), TEXAS Adult & Family Literacy QUARTERLY, Volume 16, No. 2, May 2012,

http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/newsletr/apr12/apr12i.htm/

DACA: Don’t Let Your Students Miss This Chance, TEXAS Adult & Family Literacy QUARTERLY,Volume 17, No. 3 September 2013,

http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/newsletr/summer13/summer13d.htm

Program development:

Video: Fast Forwarding English, a 20 lesson beginner program

Career: Bilingual Vocational Training Program for Office Specialists, high school equivalent completion and Transition to college level careers

Curriculum: ESL for Health Industry Workers, Reading and

Sheltered English content subjects materials for K-12: Transitional Program for Refugee Children, Houston ISD (1984-87)

Administration: Framework for adult education levels and transition to the workforce, effective partnerships with advisory boards

SKILLS

Business English

Effective student recruitment and retention services,

design and development, grant writing, accountability and compliance,

bilingual vocational training,

bilingual education,

second language acquisition,

professional and materials development,

curriculum design,

intercultural communication, workforce literacy and workplace education,

developing transitional programs for a wide range of target populations,

parent training,

family literacy,

community partnerships

coordination of stakeholders and consortium building through regional advisory boards

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