Hi everyone! I want to give you an idea of who I am and what I am trying to accomplish in teaching English for free in Tallahassee, Florida.
My name is Scott Keller, and I began giving free English classes in 2010. I have been tutoring with Literacy Volunteers of Leon County since 2006. I’m working toward a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at FSU. I actually got into teaching English by learning Chinese. In trying to find a way to learn Chinese, my friend suggested that I teach English at the library and ask for a Chinese student who would be willing to teach me their language. That has worked out very well, so far, though I am still not so good at Chinese!
I am doing this because I really enjoy meeting people from all over the world and exchanging cultures and ideas. I really treasure what I learn from my English students.
I work full-time as a computer programmer at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. I really enjoy working with technology. I am currently working on this and several related web sites using WordPress, as well as setting up a Moodle site for my English classes. If you are familiar with Blackboard at FSU, Moodle is a similar type of environment, called a Learning Management System, or LMS. It is not quite as robust as Blackboard, but it is open source (free!). I will also be introducing technology into our classes quite a bit, as there are more and more great places on the web to learn English, as well as raw material with which to learn. We will explore everything from YouTube videos to TV shows on DVD as we develop our listening skills. For reading, we will examine articles from current events.
I plan to be able to accommodate both fairly new English speakers and more accomplished students at the same time. As an example, I may challenge my advanced students to produce a short film (I’ll provide the simple to use video cameras) as an in-class assignment, while I am teaching lower level students the sounds of the English language.
This will be my website to communicate with my two English classes in Tallahassee, Florida. I plan to add original material, as well as links to other material available on the internet. There is a lot of good material available to learn English as a Second or Other Language; however, there are more sites that are merely a group of links to web sites that no longer exist. I will give short reviews of any site I link to, letting you know what type of materials you’ll find there and if there is anything I think they do particularly well. I have already added links to several places in Tallahassee that offer either free or low cost English lessons.
In addition, as you can see in the menus, there is a link to my Moodle site. We’ll be using this as a Learning Management System (LMS), similar to Blackboard (which is used by Florida State University). On Moodle, I will be previewing upcoming classes with links, as well as giving the occasional assignment. I realize we are all busy, so I won’t expect students to do too much homework outside of class. At the same time, you only get out of something what you put into it, so those who consistently strive for excellence in language learning are much more likely to achieve it.
Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you this Fall,
Scott Keller