Having been an EFL instructor for over four years in Vietnam, I have extensive experience in teaching and working with children to ensure the achievement of their academic and personal goals. As an ed... ucator, I strongly believe that developing rapport with students is necessary for their success. To be a good teacher, one must be empathetic to the struggles and problems students face. Therefore, in the classroom, I have strived to create learning environments predicated on students' needs while teaching face to face and via Zoom. In doing so, I have implemented student-centered learning activities, taken on facilitative roles, and created opportunities for meaningful collaboration and language use. The application of such pedagogical practices has led to the success of my students being able to use English for both academic and practical purposes. Moreover, as a current TESOL candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, I have gained a greater understanding of second language acquisition, in addition to various teaching methodologies applicable within ESL classroom contexts. As a result, I am better equipped to teach students and handle the specific issues they face, given that I have a more developed and refined pedagogical toolset from which to draw. read more

Hi! My name is Kalonji. Currently, I am a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. I just completed my first year as a TESOL candidate at Penn's Graduate School of Education. I have appro... ximately five years of teaching experience. For four of those years, I taught English to children of all ages in Vietnam. While abroad, I also tutored a Korean national with the goal of helping her use Business English to conduct deals more effectively. Recently, I have taught English in Philadelphia through programs designed by UPenn to help individuals acclimate to living in the United States. I am very passionate about teaching students to meaningfully communicate in English. I know that I have the ability to change individuals' lives for the better, which is why I take teaching quite seriously. It is a challenging endeavor, however, I strongly believe that the rewards vastly outweigh the difficulties one is likely to encounter. I enjoy seeing students develop greater agency in their learning as they become more proficient and reach their goals. In general, that is my overall objective toward teaching English; to ensure that students are capable of independently understanding and using language as a means to achieve their academic and personal goals, while effectively being able to communicate with individuals outside of the classroom.read more