Bea - Thompson Multicultural Centre

Bea Shantz, a retired elementary school teacher, spoke about her experiences teaching EAL at the Thompson Multicultural Centre in her retirement as a strongly motivating factor for continuing with her education in this field. “I sometimes felt inadequate for the task but my students encouraged me and said how much they appreciated having instruction from a native speaker of English.” When she saw The University of Winnipeg informational brochure that was included in the Free Press last June, she decided to enroll in the 8 week ESL Teacher Certificate Program for the fall of 2009.

After completing the course, Bea returned to Thompson and immediately found work with the local school district teaching EAL to immigrant children, for which they had received a special grant for about 90 hours of instruction working with 8 students ranging from Grade 1 to 8. Bea describes that the other employment that she has found is private EAL tutoring for adults.

In her experiences in both of these teaching situations Bea shares, “I have been very grateful for the ESLTCP materials - especially for the thorough review of grammar rules and guidelines (which had become a little foggy over the years). The vast number of resources I learned about has also been very useful.”

Bea states that teaching EAL has been a perfect fit. “With a little promotion”, she describes that “in my community I think I could be very busy. The program was very beneficial for me and I feel better qualified to teach EAL programs.”

Since then, Bea has held a variety of positions: "I have worked for the local school district with new immigrant students at the elementary level. I have had contracts to: teach adults at the Adult Learning department of UCN, assist with a new immigrant taking a Millwright course, teach a course to foreign medical personnel and have done private tutoring."

Of her current positions, Bea shared the following: "I am enjoying my present work at two elementary schools helping new immigrants learn English. It is especially gratifying to see the progress some of them made over the summer when I resumed instruction in September. After working with one student individually for several sessions I added another classmate to the group who then commented, "I didn't know my classmate could talk" With encouragement and patience they learn quickly. My other part-time work is with adults and their enthusiasm and good humour makes each class fun and a good learning experience. I have been using the study book called "Step Forward Canada" with this group and they really like the Canadian content of this resource."

Advice for anyone thinking about entering this field? Don't expect full time work or great pay but the personal satisfaction of helping others acquire English in their new country is well worth it.

For more information about the Thompson Multicultural Centre, please visit the following website: http://www.thompsonunlimited.ca/wp/development-resources/newcomers-immigration/