Kristyne Houbraken, Teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language (TESL), Class of 2011
Posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Kristyne Houbraken, a graduate of the One-Year Teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language Program, did a teaching assignment in Thailand.
My name is Kristyne Houbraken and I am a TES/FL student at Algonquin College. I was fortunate enough this year to get a scholarship that allowed me to do a short overseas internship. As I had already spent three years in Thailand teaching English as a foreign language to Burmese migrants and refugees, I figured this would be a great opportunity to get back to community that I know and care about so much. I contacted a non-governmental organization that I had previously worked for called ‘World Education’. I knew a woman, Brooke, was furiously working on a curriculum for three higher education programs; one of these programs being English Immersion Program (EIP), which is a little school for young adults located in a refugee camp. I was one of two English teachers at EIP in the 2009-2010 academic years. Hence, I thought this would be the perfect project to work on in an overseas internship. I was welcomed onboard to help Brooke develop curriculum for the higher education programs, and was assigned the task of putting together the grammar section. Surely I was able to complete this task because of the pedagogical grammar courses that I have taken at Algonquin College. Using skills developed in this Algonquin course, I was able to contribute to a curriculum for programs that are very special to me and that I know are having a great effect on young adults on the Thai-Burma border. I could not have asked for more out of the month I spent in Thailand. The Thai-Burma border is a place where I learned so much through experience. It was wonderful to have to opportunity to return with refined knowledge and skills, and to contribute in a way that I would not have been able to without having taken this year to study TESL/FL at Algonquin.
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