Welcome to Zealous English
- Julia Lippold
- Feb 1, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 3, 2019
Blog Post 1.0
01.02.2019
Hello enthusiastic EAL teachers,
First of all I’d like to say ‘thank you’ for connecting with me and following this humble education blog. I wanted to also take this opportunity to introduce myself formally to you and give you an indication as to what you can expect from this blog.
Who am I?
I have been teaching EAL for longer than I can almost remember. My first exposure to EAL teaching was volunteering as an English tutor for male Afghani asylum seekers on Temporary Protection Visas when I was an impressionable university student during my undergraduate studies at Monash University. Once a week, a group of enthusiastic MSU members car pooled from Clayton out to AMES in Dandenong and we spent a few hours working on functional English skills with these men. This was a very memorable experience and sparked an innate passion in me that I should pursue a career in teaching.
Following my bachelor’s degree I was accepted into the honours program and chose to write my thesis on a topic I am very passionate about – bilingual education. I gained a thirst for academic research during this period and spent a semester studying at Hamburg University as part of the program. Writing a thesis in another language taught me that nothing is impossible (especially since academic German is quite different compared to standard every-day conversational German) and gave me a deep insight into the process one goes through as a second language learner to achieve academic proficiency.
After completing the honours program I undertook a Diploma of Education during which I completed a teaching placement in small province in South Korea. I was the first native English speaker the school had ever met or employed. During the placement, I grew as an EAL teacher and it was almost all little overwhelming to be seen as the ‘expert’ when I was yet to graduate as a teacher.
Once I completed my degree, I was fortunate to be offered a teaching position at one of Melbourne’s prominent English Language Schools teaching in the New Arrivals program. Working at Blackburn English Language School (BELS) was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I certainly would not be the teacher I am today were it not for the opportunities I had there. Being mentored by some of the best EAL teachers in the world and working with students from such diverse backgrounds gave me a significant grounding in EAL pedagogy. During my time at BELS I took on a number of leadership roles and worked closely with the international division at the Department of Education and Training.
During 2010-2015 I also completed my Master of Public and International Law at the University of Melbourne giving me deep insight into the areas of humanitarian and refugee law, international law and ethics and further sparking my passion for academic research. I have always been a strong advocate for the rights of asylum seekers and undertaking my masters enabled me to research aspects of refugee law which are connected to Education. Most memorably, I researched the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015 and what this meant for refugees and asylum seekers.
Since 2015, I have been employed at Lauriston Girls’ School, a K-12 independent girls school also located in Melbourne. My role as EAL Coordinator has taken me into many teachers’ classrooms in a support capacity but has also enabled me to design my own EAL program/curriculum for students in the middle years. Designing EAL curriculum is my passion and I have been honing and refining my courses over the past four years to best suit the needs of my students. Actually, it was my students who suggested I enter the digital age and start my own blog/vlog and were instrumental in helping me choose the name for this venture.
My passion for EAL teaching extends beyond the classroom and school environment and I am a very involved member of the Victorian EAL teaching community. As a member of both VicTESOL and VATE, not only do I engage in my own professional learning, I also assist in fostering the professional learning of my peers. From 2016-2017 I was a committee member of VicTESOL and engaged in the delivery of state-wide professional learning workshops and EAL initiatives. I was also a member of the VCE EAL sub-branch of the VicTESOL committee and worked alongside other experienced VCE EAL teachers to plan and deliver VCE EAL professional learning workshops for teachers across the state. In August 2018, I was honoured to be a presenter at the annual VicTESOL Symposium.
Outside of teaching, I am a mum to a very energetic (but completely adorable) toddler (whom I am attempting to raise bilingually) and enjoy the simple things in life such as reading a good book, sleep ins and going to the beach. I’m also a travel and snow sports enthusiast, a self-proclaimed foodie and ‘coffee-snob’ and I am looking forward to introducing my daughter to the notion of skiing this year. As a zealous person myself, I thrive on being busy and am always ‘on-the-go’. I give 200% to my work and you can expect no less from me with this blog.
What is My Teaching Philosophy?
As mentioned above, I am passionate about designing EAL curriculum but I am also passionate about developing students’ confidence in English. My teaching philosophy is grounded in the notion of the limitations of one’s language being the limit of one’s world – a well-known philosophy coined by the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. By broadening a student’s language competency, you can therefore broaden their opportunities. Everything I do is centred around this theory and I always encourage my students to work towards their own personal goals regarding English proficiency. This gives students a sense of satisfaction when they achieve their goals and helps them to actually see their personal growth.
What Can You Expect From This Blog?
My main aim for this blog is to inform you about what I am teaching throughout the year across my middle-years classes and provide you with resources than can be used in your own classrooms.
Some of the teaching topics I’ll be covering throughout the year include:
· Functional grammar in context
· Punctuation
· Oral language confidence
· Spelling rules
· Unpacking literature and close reading skills
· Listening comprehension
· Assessment
· Producing various texts
I’m not going to promise you a weekly or even fortnightly post since we all know how life can sometimes just get in the way of that. I’m also one to never break a promise so I couldn’t hold myself to that kind of pressure. But I will use social media as a way to signpost ideas and highlight when you can expect new blog posts. So keep your eyes on my Instagram and Facebook pages (see links below).
I have always prided myself being a collegiate teacher who shares her resources with her colleagues. Therefore, this blog is really just a more formal way of sharing resources which are specific to middle years EAL teaching and learning.
I am planning to integrate my vlog (which is a more student-centred resource) with this blog and I will explain more about this in further posts.
Next up, I’ll be talking about how to encourage your students to plan their own self-study time and some resources they might choose to use.
I can’t wait to hear from you too. So, if you have any requests for resources and/or just want to say ‘hi’ please feel free to connect with me on any of the following:
Email: info@zealousenglish.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zealousenglish/
Instagram: @zealousenglish and #zealousenglish
YouTube: www.youtube/zealousenglish
Happy teaching!
Julia
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