Graduation from TEFL!

My experience over this past summer has been amazing. I’ve learned so much about teaching English while simultaneously building a network of international students who have all become close friends of mine. The TEFL classes were lengthy, but this was completely necessary as we needed to cover a lot of content. The staff and students at CIES helped me get through this course with their upbeat personalities and interest in my pursuits. This experience showed me that you don’t necessarily need to go international to get an international experience and it’s easy to create a diverse community if you open yourself up to various ways of life. Something that resonated with me greatly was how Dr. Kennel explained the concept of CIES. He explained to me that CIES is more than an instructional center, it is a place where people come to learn about each other’s cultures and ways of life, and language just happens to be the way they do that. I think I will try to incorporate this mentality as much as possible going forward in my pursuits at FSU.
The picture is of my good friend Ricardo from the Altamira, Mexico study cohort. Ricardo and I became great friends this summer and I watched his English go from an A2 level to a C1 level in the conversational sector. I’d like to think this level of improvement would not have been possible without facilitating an environment Ricard felt comfortable learning in. I think I succeeded at that this summer.
As for my CapStone, I finished the draft and believe it is a good showcase of my experience. I’d like to add some visual representations of my research, but other than that I am happy with how it shows my work over this past summer.