Laura has a bachelor’s in English and history from the University of North Carolina and a ME.d TESOL from Grand Canyon University. She spent much of her teaching career in the public school sector, where her responsibilities included teaching, writing curriculum, district-wide testing and acting as English department coordinator.
Laura got certified to teach English at BridgeTEFL and spent 2005 teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in Santiago, Chile. She joined Bridge in 2007 and is currently an IDELT Trainer. In addition to training hundreds of EFL teachers every year, she also trains new IDELT trainers at other BridgeTEFL authorized training centers. In her spare time, Laura mentors at-risk youth, works with a local philanthropic organization and conducts seminars for ESL volunteer teachers in her community.
Laura's posts
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Tips for the BridgeTEFL CELTA
The CELTA training course is an intensive, month-long program. While you are in contact with trainers and ESL learners over the course of twenty days,
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Do You CCQ? Using Concept Checking Questions in the ESL Classroom
“Right?” “Does that make sense?” “Do you have it?” “OK?”It does not matter how a teacher phrases: “Do you understand?” All of these questions are
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Why Build a Multicultural Perspective in the TEFL Classroom?
While many TEFL graduates will be teaching monolingual and mono-national EFL classes, it is still important to build cultural competency among your learners. In addition
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Why to Activate your ESL Students’ Background Schema
Why should you activate your ESL students’ background schema when teaching English as a foreign language?When doing receptive skills work (listenings and readings) with your
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Teaching English Abroad: How to Write a Killer Resume.
Teaching English Abroad: How to Write a Killer Resume.
Be smart, be psyched, and be prepared when crafting your résumé to teach English abroad.
Just like “you
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Oh $#@%! I’m Teaching English to Young Learners
Oh no! I have to teach English to young learners!
The cognitive, social, and emotional developments of a child have an effect on his/her language acquisition.
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The Downside to Teaching EFL Using the Translation Method
Guest post by: Marisa Brooks
There are two schools of thought about teaching EFL using translation. The direct translation/grammar translation method was used extensively for reading and interpreting
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Teaching ESL – Tips for preparing lesson plans
Well, if you read my blog about teaching large English classes you might have surmised I have strong views on how to be a successful
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The Japanese Classroom – What I Learned Teaching English in Japan
Guest post by: Marisa Brooks
As I prepared for my very first trip to Japan right after college, I tried to do as much research as
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Teaching Large English Classes
First day scenario: Walk in and 50 students are staring at me! OMG!
As many of you have experienced, the meaning of large varies around the globe
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