Student B

Ms. Tseng

Final Essay

05/01/2017
My Senior Project Experience

It has been a dream of mine to become a teacher for years now. I have been lucky to be put into

a good school with wonderful teachers who are passionate about what they do. Additionally, thanks to

being a home schooled student, I have been able to look at public brick-and-mortar schools with a more

objective eye. I’ve been able to see how students give up in school, drop out, and feel failed by the

education system or by their teachers. Unfortunately, not all schools are as good as mine and not all

have educators who truly feel a passion for their job, what they’re teaching, or the education of their

students. I’ve been brought up to care a lot about education and seeing this happen constantly to people

my age and the next generation of students can be hard. That’s why I decided that I would become a

teacher, so that I could share my passion for learning with future generations and show them that

education is important and should be taken seriously. I want to be a good teacher that truly cares about

my kids and shows it, so that hopefully they can keep fighting through any difficulties they might be

having in school and remember that what is really important is to have a dream and the proper

education to achieve whatever that dream is. I can’t fix every little problem a student has – I’m still a

student myself and I realize it’s definitely not that easy – but I know that having just one good role-

model who cares can do wonders for a child who is in need of help.

My passion for teaching is why I have decided to create a lesson plan and PowerPoint

presentation for an “English as a Second Language” (ESL) class for my Senior Project. While I’m still

not positive if I want to be a history teacher here in America or an ESL teacher abroad, I felt that this

would be very good practice for my career goals no matter what I end up deciding to do. It also fits

well with personal interests outside of education. I’ve always enjoyed traveling and studying languages
and over the years I’ve come to really love Korean culture. If I ever become an ESL teacher, I know

that I will want to go to Korea to do so, since it is a place I respect very much and the Korean language

is one I’m fascinated by. Whether I go there to become an ESL teacher permanently in the future, or I

just go for a year somewhere down the line, creating this lesson plan for an ESL class is helping me

prepare for and pursue that dream, as well as help me practice becoming a teacher in general.

There was a lot to do for my senior project. I didn’t want to create just a lesson plan – I wanted

to act like a real teacher and prepare every little thing for an actual class. That included the lesson plan

for me to follow, a PowerPoint to go along with the actual lesson, as well as a worksheet for students to

fill out, and a game to play. Before doing so, I had to do a lot of research into everything. I had to learn

how to create a good, well-timed lesson plan, I had to study other ESL teacher’s PowerPoints and

lesson ideas to model my own ideas after, as well as pre-made worksheets and homework papers. Plus I

did a lot of personal research on the matter, too, by watching videos, documentaries, and reading about

experiences online from ESL teachers. This was important to me because it gave me a feeling of what

being an ESL teacher is really like and helped me figure out if this is what I wanted to do. By doing so

much research, I learned about the good experiences that people had while being a teacher, as well as

the struggles.

In one single day, the average teacher will often have up to five classes of students. This

happens again the next day and the next and the next, for five days. That means that the teacher has to

come up with approximately twenty five lesson plans for the week. These lesson plans have to be

situated in a way that can fit into 45 minute class periods, without going too slowly so that the students

aren’t able to complete everything before the bell rings and without going too quickly that you’re left

with nothing to do by the end. While it’s not the end of the world if lesson plans run a bit too long or

too short (after all, you can continue what you were teaching the next day if there was too much or you

can use the extra time at the end of a class to keep practicing or play a fun game with the class), it’s still

best to keep everything well planned. Not to mention that you need to make sure that the lessons keep
the classes attention for forty-five minutes and don’t grow too boring that students don’t listen. This

means that a teacher needs to keep everything going at a good pace and have games and activities

prepared ahead of time, as well as worksheets and homework. That’s a lot to plan for five or six classes

a day!

These difficulties can seem tiring, but a job isn’t fun if there isn’t a challenge! Teaching English,

much like learning a language yourself, is very rewarding. Watching as your students slowly improve

with each day and seeing how you are able to communicate with them easier and easier with the

passing time is truly wonderful. By teaching students English, you’re opening many doors to them, as it

is the world’s “lingua franca,” a language that makes communication possible between people with

different native languages. While it doesn’t always seem fair, a German, Italian, Japanese, or French

native speaker – for example – will typically not be able to get far communicating in their native

tongue to people abroad. However, with just a very basic understanding of English, a person from any

one of these countries will have many more opportunities available to them if they wish to travel or

pursue goals in other parts of the world. English can be an incredibly important language to learn and

being a teacher that helps children to learn such a helpful skill is rewarding, as you feel the importance

of what you’re doing and can see before your eyes as young students become better at the language and

the world opens up to them.

While I’m not sure exactly what grade(s) I’ll be teaching in the future, nor at what level of

English my students will be at, I decided to create my lesson based on more of an elementary school

level, since I would love to work with younger kids. I went back and forth between what kind of topics

I wanted to teach for this lesson, but I finally settled on teaching about animals and the English sounds

they make. Every language has not only its own words, but also its own sounds. For instance, when we

ask an English-speaking child, “what sound does a cat make?” they’ll typically respond with, “meow!”

But cats don’t sound the same in Korean! A Korean-speaking child, when faced with the same question,

will reply, “yaong!” Knowing this, I decided to base the lesson around sounds rather than a basic
vocabulary-list kind of setup, that way students could learn onomatopoeia while also memorizing the

names of animals in English. This can make a lesson far more entertaining for children. I’m very

pleased with how everything turned out as far as the lesson goes. It was important for me to focus on

keeping my lesson fun since, when dealing with the short attention spans of elementary school

students, captivation is key.

For the lesson plan, I had to plan out every detail of what I would expect to happen in the class

room, from greetings to passing out worksheets to playing the game I prepared, I wrote down

everything of note that would take some time up in class. By doing this, I was able to make sure

everything fit into a 45 minute timeframe in a flowing manner. I could cut out anything that I felt would

make the plan go over the 45 minute limit and I could add more to fill up the time allotted. This was

more difficult than expected, because you also need to prepare for anything unexpected that might

happen within those 45 minutes: such as sudden questions, something going wrong with the

presentation, or a task taking a bit longer than originally planned. So I needed to make sure that I didn’t

stuff up the 45 minutes and rely too entirely on the lesson plan to be perfect. I had to leave some room

in there for whatever could possibly happen, while also not leaving too much room that I finish early

and am not sure what to do with the extra time. I’m sure with extra practice and actual teaching

experience lesson plans can be more properly estimated, but I still feel like mine was good practice.

The last bits I did for my project were to create a worksheet that students could fill out in time

with the presentation, as well as plan a game that the kids could play to practice their new vocabulary

as well as their speaking and listening skills. I describe the game better in my presentation. For the

worksheet, I settled on a pretty simple concept. On the presentation, I would play a sound of an animal

(such as “moo!” or “squeak!”) and then the students would fill out the name of the animal that

corresponds with that sound on their worksheet. I also included clip-art of the respective animals to

give hints and help the kids associate that name and sound with the animal. It’s very important when

learning a language to associate a word with an actual object, rather than just the translation into your
native tongue. This helps us stop from translating in our head so much, meaning we can speak and

listen to native speakers much easier. It’s not easy to keep up with others if you’re constantly

translating every word they say into your native tongue to figure out what they’re talking about!

Overall, though the work for this project was challenging and took a lot of time, I truly feel like

this was great practice for when I am older and become an ESL teacher. By getting so much of my

research done through this project and by writing down so many notes and having a basic idea and

template for lesson plans now, I feel as though I have saved myself from a lot of prep time and work in

the future. I’m happy I had this experience because it helped me to realize just how much fun I have

doing things like this and how excited I am to one day become a teacher. I’ve been able to see the

opinions and personal experiences of ESL teachers and I’m now sure that this is what I want to do in

the future. Through completing this project, I have learned many planning skills, PowerPoint skills, and

teaching tips and tricks that I know will help me a lot down the road. I will continue to use these skills

in the following years as I further prepare for my career as a teacher and I know that I will only get

better and better and learn more and more as time goes on. I hope that I will be a great teacher for the

future generations of kids that enter my classroom. I hope that I can share with them my passion and

help them with their difficulties and be someone they can always feel like they can turn to. And, more

than anything, I hope to help many children succeed in their education and watch as they grow and put

their skills to use to follow their dreams, just as I am now.

 Reflective Essay Rubric
60% or under 70% 80% 90% 100%

-Not double- -Not double- -Not double- -Double-spaced -Double-spaced and

spaced or in MLA spaced or in spaced or in and in MLA in MLA format.
format. MLA format. MLA format. format.
-Clear, logical and
-Essay is unclear -Essay is -Clear, logical -Clear, logical and sequential essay.
and not unclear and and sequential sequential essay.
sequential. not sequential. essay. -Fully describes the
-Fully describes nature of the project
-The description -Briefly -Fully describes the nature of the in detail and depth.
of the project is describes the the nature of the project in detail
unclear and lacks nature of the project, but and depth. -Comprehensively
detail. project and clarifying details explains how the
additional could have been -Explains how the project is relevant to
-Does not fully details could provided. project is relevant and relates to future
describe the have been to and relates to career goals.
nature of the provided. -Explains how future career
project or provide the project is goals. -Identifies skills and
clarifying details. -Describes relevant to and knowledge
some of the relates to future -Identifies skills developed during
-Does not fully process of career goals, but and knowledge the project.
describe how the planning, could have developed during
project is relevant executing and provided more the project. -Describes and
to and relates to completing the reflection. justifies the process
future career project. -Describes but of planning,
goals. -Identifies some does not justify executing and
-Briefly skills and how the process completing the
-Does not reflect describes how knowledge of planning, project.
on insights gained the project is developed executing and
from the project, relevant to and during the completing the -Goes above and
questions or relates to project. project led to beyond reflecting on
further topics for future career skills insights gained from
research. goals, but -Does not reflect development. the project, as well
could have on insights as any questions or
-Less than 3 provided more gained from the -Reflects on further topics for
pages in length. reflection. project, as well insights gained research.
as any questions from the project,
-Does not or further topics as well as any -5-7 pages in length.
reflect on for research. questions or
insights gained further topics for
from the -5-7 pages in research.
project, as well length.
as any -5-7 pages in
questions or length.
further topics
for research.

-Less than 5
pages in
length.
Student B, I appreciate that you clearly read through and applied the feedback that I left on your rough
draft. Reading over the details that you provided gave me a thorough picture of the skills, knowledge
and mindsets that you have developed throughout the course of your project. In particular, the revisions
that you made in describign the process of lesson planning and creating your lesson artifacts, and how
this would help you in your goal of becoming an ESL teacher is a compelling part of your essay. Keep
up the good work! 92/100