To Whom It May Concern,
Over the course of my ESL teaching career, I have had the good fortune to watch many of my students go from 5 to 500 km/h in a very short time. This is the kind of mileage that cannot be attained solely through drilling, cognition, or even willpower. I have experienced the difference between a classroom that is perfunctorily listening to me with their minds, and students who are uninhibitedly listening with their hearts. When students understand that there is more to language than just grammar and memorization, they are almost always driven to surmount the technicalities to unlock what is spoken and written between the lines. When students can see reflections of themselves and their own memories and experiences in every new word presented, in every story we study, in each novel we analyze, in all concepts we examine, doors get flung wide open. Every facet of their learning experience starts to flow with greater momentum.
It begins with Seeing things in my students that perhaps nobody has ever recognized in them before, and letting them know in no uncertain terms that these qualities are special and worthy. Where words fail, there are other vehicles. The highest form of communication is not language, but Presence. A keystone for effectively teaching any language is embracing its massive global importance with simultaneous appreciation for where it’s not important at all.
I recognize the beauty of my students’ mistakes, the sincerity of their efforts, the value of their inquiries, the potency of their opinions, the grace in their conclusions, the dexterity in their discoveries. I use humor and play to spotlight the common threads that connect us all, like for example there’s a small part of all of us that wants to stay in bed on a cold winter morning or completely lose our minds when subjected to excessive triggers: They know that I know that they know that I know. Deep empathy delivered with a lightness of touch is the timeless foundation for unrelenting growth, the universal pursuit of knowledge and consummate self-actualization.
Thank you for your consideration of my application and resume.