E E S A L A T I F

***** *** **. ** *** ***, Hood, CA 95639

+1-310-***-****

adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com/adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

skype: eeslatif

E D U C A T I O N

September 2018 Teaching Credential/License – ESL

University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida

May 2015 M.S., Education

State University of New York, Buffalo, New York

December 2012 B.A., Linguistics

California State University, Long Beach, California August 2012 CELTA

University of Cambridge, Los Angeles, California

June 2011 A. A., Social and Behavioral Sciences Emphasis Irvine Valley College, Irvine, California

T E A C H I N G E X P E R I E N C E

2017 - Present UPP English Instructor, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, KSA Teaching and preparing the UPP classroom for academic English lessons, and working on the potentials of medical, business, and engineering students in addition to enhancing their writing, reading, listening, and critical thinking skills are a few highlights of my current position. I have twice been appointed as level coordinator to oversee the general operations of two particular levels within the program. I oversaw other English instructors and was responsible for the following: developing syllabi, making tests, sending out quizzes, setting up meetings to discuss issues pertaining to the levels, and putting together a course portfolio at the end of the term which follows the NCAAA accreditation guidelines. 2013 - 2017 ELP English Instructor, Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait Teaching English Composition class for undergraduate students, ESL 18-22 hours a week, preparing the classroom for lessons and planning the lessons, and working on the potentials of the students in addition to enhancing their writing, reading and listening skills are highlights of this job. I was also assigned the role of curriculum development. 2012 - 2016 ESL Tutor, Kuwait; Long Beach, CA

P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E

• Professional Educator with 7+ years of teaching experience in adult, college, and informal settings.

• Familiarity with and willingness to use innovative approaches, including project-based, content-based, communicative, and experiential learning curricula;

• Sensitivity to and ability to accept cultural differences;

• Ability to adapt to a way of life requiring understanding, conformity, and flexibility;

• Abilities at all proficiency levels, from basic to advanced;

• Knowledge of principles of second language assessment, especially holistic writing assessment;

• Work collaboratively as a member of a program team, to design, revise, and implement new and existing curricula, and/or to initiate new projects;

• Ability to interact well with an extremely diverse and multicultural student and teacher population;

• Ability to teach all English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) to a wide range of students;

L A N G U A G E S

English – Native

Arabic – Intermediate

Spanish – Lower intermediate

O T H E R E X P E R I E N C E

January 2015 KIEC Conference, Kuwait

Spent months organizing the Kuwait International Educators Conference, contacted speakers across the world to give workshops, introduced keynote speakers, registered diplomats, and coordinated the catering services.

2014-2015 Program Committee TESOL Kuwait, Kuwait

• Worked on the TESOL Kuwait committee to make executive conference decisions.

• Designed and made the entire program booklet for 3rd annual international GUST TESOL conference.

C O M P U T E R S K I L L S

Knowledge of and skill in use of computer technology and its applications in a college setting: SMART® Boards, Google apps for education, GradePro, Moodle, blogs, chats, website development, Word, PowerPoint, EXCEL, and social networking sites in English language teaching.

P R O F E S S I O N A L R E F E R E N C E S

Henry J. Nicols: +1-607-***-****

Email: adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

Dean of Graduate Programs

Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education Carl Christopher: +44-778*-******

adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

Email: adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

Senior EAP Instructor at University of Lincoln

Justin Abel: +966-**-***-****

Email: adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

UPP Senior Head at Alfaisal University

Yvonne Hodnett: +965-****-****

Email: adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

ACK Project Leader for Curriculum and Testing and Proceedings/Senior Instructor Susan Baum, PhD: 860-***-****

Email: adbpqp@r.postjobfree.com

Professor Emeritus -- Graduate School, College of New Rochelle SUNY—Buffalo State College

My Philosophy of ESL Education

Eesa Latif

Teaching, like many aspects of life, is best approached with balance in mind. I try to keep this notion at the center point of all I do with regard to lesson planning, classroom instruction, and feedback. More specifically, I find that while there are several different ways to successfully teach any given material, most of the best teachers all share this innate ability to strike the right balance between interaction, assessment, and building useful lessons. Much of what I have learned in my relatively short, yet incredibly enriching years as an educator has come from the countless number of talented people I have come in contact with – to many of whom I am eternally grateful. While borrowing from others is great and is needed in education, I have ultimately been able to find my own style over the years and approach things with my students in a fresh way that both pays homage to the classics yet is distinctly my own.

Balanced Lesson Planning

When given the freedom to teach an array of subjects within the context of one class, I try to find the equilibrium between the needs of the students with what they are required to learn for any given level. For instance, with a class who can listen and speak well but may struggle with writing (not uncommon for Kuwaitis and Saudis), I will incorporate more writing tasks into the class in general, often times overlapping readings or listening exercises with some skills-focused writing tasks to supplement the time spent on areas where they already excel. This is where I feel that balancing the expectations of the institution with the skillsets of the students can have wondrous results. Typically, the students will continue to improve their listening and speaking without really paying much notice (though we as teachers notice, don’t we!) but the biggest, most quantifiable improvement will be on their TOEFL writing scores, IELTS, or other standardized test at the end of the semester or year. It requires some foresight and patience to prolong the gratification of seeing instant spikes in a certain category (and subsequent GPA), but I believe it is worth it in the end to see real, lasting improvement in the students over the long haul. A Balanced Classroom

Teacher to student interaction is an important and arguably irremovable aspect of what we do. There are some things that simply cannot be inferred by the students – simple explanation of concepts and even vocabulary (depending on the level) is not only necessary but can also bridge gaps in understanding something that would otherwise be a complete mystery to the student. Nevertheless, I have found, and much of the literature on this subject agrees, that reducing the amount of teacher talking time in class whilst encouraging the students to interact more with one another can be the single most effective strategy to facilitate faster, more comprehensive learning. This is because when the teacher is playing the role of moderator, mediator, or spectator, the students are empowered to discover the language and unpack meaning where it might have otherwise been spoon fed for them in the past. Modern Asian culture in particular is notorious for handing information to students, only to have them spit it back or search for the “right” answer, meanwhile failing to challenge them cognitively in any meaningful way. It would be a real mistake to perpetuate such a failed approach in class. By balancing the amount of time looking up at the teacher with time looking at each other, the classroom is transformed into a more dynamic place – one full of teachers. This is because each student can benefit from his or her peers, and likewise they all have things of benefit to share with one another, if only they are given the chance. Balance in Assessment

Because I focus a great deal of energy on task-based learning in class, I am often bombarded with things to grade. This is great for the students, but not always so great for me when I have a really large teaching load. I do manage to get feedback to the students in a timely manner to show them where they can improve in whichever area, but I also find it useful to vary the style and scope of assessment given. I tend to have an assessment style more typical of North American teachers, where homework and smaller tasks often receive full to near-full marks, simply for having completed the assignment. This may be contrasted by some of our respected friends from the UK or elsewhere, where strict marking is even applied to otherwise trivial homework or in-class activities. I have never adopted that approach; instead, I feel that that can needlessly demoralize the students and leave them feeling like everything they do is of poor quality. On the contrary, if they are putting in consistent effort and are being rewarded for it commensurately, their self esteem and motivation soars, leading them to take more risks with the language and ultimately grow much quicker within the target language than when their creativity is being stifled by the fear of failure. If we are tracking the improvements of students over a longer period of time, say a year or so, rather than attempting to predict their trajectory based off of a few short weeks or even a month or two, then the notion of applying rigor to tests or other assessment and not all work, irrespective of its weight in the course, is likely to have favorable results. The best example of this I can think of currently, is the literature circle I have incorporated into several classes in the past, where, much like a book club, the students will read portions of material and then creatively present their findings to their classmates on a weekly or bi-weekly bases. What I have most markedly noticed is that when the pressure for grades is reduced and the emphasis is placed on creativity and friendly competition, attention spans, quality of work, and overall interest in the subject are all vastly increased. I believe this directly linked to the atmosphere created – which, admittedly takes a bit of time to implement – where students can be themselves, play with the language, and produce much richer content in the end.

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