Teaching Background
and
Current Courses
I have taught from grades 7 and upward. I taught science in a bilingual junior high school and languages--Spanish and French--in secondary school. I discovered that I prefer teaching adults and have taught English as an additional language (EAL), Spanish for healthcare professionals (SHP), introduction to librarianship, basic composition, and intercultural communication.
In addition to teaching in junior high and secondary schools, I have in community programs, community colleges, four-year college programs, and graduate courses. Currently, I am teaching in El Programa Camino/the Camino Program in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) at Manhattan College, Riverdale (the Bronx), New York. I teach two courses: PSEG 106: Introduction to Composition and PSCM 326: Intercultural Communication to culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse Spanish speakers enrolled in El Programa Camino/the Camino Program.
I am a tenured library faculty member at the Manhattan College Library. I teach information literacy classes for composition and basic business writing classes. I provide library instruction to my liaison departments: psychology, Spanish, undergraduate and graduate education as well as graduate programs in counseling and therapy.
As an academic librarian, I specialized in multicultural librarianship. I collaborate with teaching faculty on developing multicultural collections. I give presentations on library and information resources to the Manhattan College community at faculty development events and other professional fora.
El programa Camino en Manhattan College le ofrece la oportunidad de iniciar sus estudios universitarios. Camino es un programa del grado de Asociado en Estudios Generales, de cinco semestres, designado para ofrecer apoyo y recursos académicos tomando en cuenta los retos de los estudiantes hispanoparlantes.
"Parte de nuestro compromiso con el estudiante de Camino, asignamos un asesor al ingresar al programa. El programa adapta el modelo de "asesoramiento intrusivo". El modelo sigue un cronograma durante todo el año que incluye apoyo académico, asesoramiento emocional y motivacional, asesoramiento laboral y orientación de transferencia" (Manhattan College, El Programa Camino, 2020, para. 1).
Reference
Manhattan College. (2020). Plan de Estudios. In Programa Camino. Retrieved July 26, 2020,
from https://manhattan.edu/admissions/camino/camino-espanol/curriculum.php
Manhattan College's Camino Program provides native Spanish speakers an associate's degree in general studies. The program can be completed in five semesters and offers bilingual faculty and intensive language support to reinforce English skills. Small group classes with individual attention, plus academic coaching services, help to ensure student success.
"As part of our commitment to the Camino student, we assign an advisor upon entering the program. The program adapts the “intrusive advising” model. This model follows a robust action-oriented, year-round schedule that includes academic support, emotional and motivational counseling, employment counseling, and transfer guidance "(Manhattan College Camino Program, 2020, para. 1).
Reference
Manhattan College. (2020). Advising and Academic Support. In Camino Program. Retrieved
July 26, 2020, from https://manhattan.edu/admissions/camino/camino-
english/advising.php
The course, PSEG 106: Introduction to Composition, includes a basic review of grammar and practice exercises to improve and develop your writing skills. It is geared to upgrade your writing through use of academic language, accuracy, and creativity. The course focused on a response to literature, research writing, and practice with the descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive essays.
(Cr. 3)
I use teaching English across disciplinary content areas as much as possible. This strategy does create space for interpreting, translating, code meshing, and translanguaging as well as practicing English. Together with the students, we compare and contrast grammatical structures in Spanish and English. I also show Camino students how to play with words so that they can vary the word order in written and oral forms. Sometimes one word form is easier to pronounce than others, depending on the placement of vowels, consonants, and diphthongs.
In my teaching PSEG 106: Introduction to Composition and PSCM 326: Intercultural Communication, I try to embrace the transnational/mobility paradigm by allowing students space to recount their experiences, metacognitive linguistic awareness, cultures, etc., during discussions. If possible, I bring them to a presentation given at the College related to immigration, migration, undocumented immigrants, and so forth. Some students appreciate hearing a guest speaker discuss a topic while others do not consider this relevant to the course or life.
The course, PSCM 326: Intercultural Communication, introduces students to the cultural factors that affect workplace and professional communication in a variety of settings. Students learn to identify differences in cultural communication patterns. The course also covers strategies for dealing with cultural differences at the organizational, team and interpersonal levels. (Cr. 3)
When I think of my future teaching, I would like to create a space that transcends the “nation-state” concept so that all societal, relationship, identification practices (Canagarajah, 2017, p. 5). These liminal spaces will afford students to relate to one another recognizing that transformation is inevitable in the “contact zones” (Canagarajach, 2017, p. 5). This would include using more educational technology strategically and intermittently throughout in-class lessons. I would like to include more examples from students’ homelands so that they use their prior experience and knowledge to make connections to their current situation. I would also like them to develop self-confidence as bi-/multilinguals who have an empowering sense of their own well-being and identity.
Reference
Canagarajah, S. (2017). Transnational Literacy Autobiographies as Translingual Writing.
New York and Oxon, UK: Routledge
For a complete list of previous courses taught, please contact me at: blf7980(at)gmail.com