Cutting the Ribbon

I should probably start this blog by a quick introduction. I'm a teacher. Originally I trained a chemist and spent some time teaching Chemistry and Physics with the US Peace Corps in Guinea and Liberia, West Africa. While in Guinea I was asked to teach English as well (it's a French speaking country) and I ended up finding this field much more fascinating; much more personal and immediately relevant for both my students and myself. I was hooked. First thing I did upon finishing my work with the Peace Corps was get my CELTA certificate at Teaching House New York, then set off to work as a language assistant in France.

During my first year in France, I got wind of TESOL France as a potential resource for further development and networking opportunities. I attended the 2011 Spring Day in Strasbourg as well as a handful of workshops in Paris and Toulouse and I was immediately sucked in. By the time I attended my first TESOL France Colloquium (2011), I had already moved to a new job in Bordeaux, and was looking to get involved. I founded and coordinated the TESOL France Bordeaux branch for two years until my contract as an English lecturer at the University of Bordeaux Segalen ended and I left the country for a new job with AKCENT International House Prague. During this time I also branched out and attended TESOL Greece's Annual Conference (2013) where I was a speaker for the first time on the topic of Blended and Online Learning.

At the time of writing, I am working as a full time ELT teacher at AKCENT IH Prague and about halfway through an MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham in the UK. I have had notions about starting a blog for about as long as I have been attending conferences. I hope this blog will grow and develop into a space where I can post my thoughts about teaching and learning languages and share ideas with the many talented bloggers and teachers I have been following all this time, as well as anyone else who has something to add.

Here goes....