David Parker
a faculty specialist
Career English Language Center for International Students

David Parker, a faculty specialist in Western Michigan University’s Career English Language Center for International Students, was visiting Michigan during the 2007 holiday break that followed completion of his graduate degree in Vermont when his dream job landed in his lap.

In December 2007, after Parker graduated with an MA in TESOL from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt. and had earned a Vermont public school teaching license, he returned to his hometown, Hastings, Mich. to visit family and look for a teaching position.

 

“I went home over Christmas break looking for a job with my K-12 training and was hoping to find a high school job close to home, when one day my aunt called to tell me WMU’s CELCIS office was hiring teachers,” Parker said. “She learned about the opening from her friend and former CELCIS employee, Laura Bowen.” Parker was successfully interviewed, and began teaching at CELCIS in January 2008.

The quick decision meant he had just five days to pack all of his things and move from Vermont to Kalamazoo, as well as finish his Vermont public school licensure portfolio, and start training for his teaching job. “Seeing the language development of my students is my favorite thing to witness and it is the reason I got involved with CELCIS,” he said. “It is not only rewarding for me to see the improvements made, but it’s rewarding for my students to see it, as well.”

Interim CELCIS Director Joel Boyd said Parker’s youth and vitality are assets to the program."He has a good background in technology and understands much about using the Web and technology for instructional purposes,” Boyd said. “David often volunteers to go with the students on field trips and to participate in the many fun activities we offer our students.  The students seem to really enjoy him in and out of the classroom.”

While attending college at the University of Michigan, Parker spent the 2003 spring semester studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, which he greatly enjoyed and made him hope someday he would get a chance to return.  After Parker studied abroad in France, he returned to Hastings and took a job as a substitute teacher with a plan to work in a public school system the following September. “I taught anything I could, from third grade to high school,” Parker said. “From that subbing experience I realized I wanted to become a teacher.”

Combining his desire to gain teaching experience, and eagerness to return to France to improve his French language skills, Parker applied to the English Language Assistant Program through the French Ministry of Culture. 

“I went through the application process while I was subbing in Hastings and, was accepted into the program in May 2004,” he said. “I was assigned to teach English as a Second Language at Lycée Technique Louis Pasteur in Hénin-Beaumont, Pas-de-Calais, France. I taught there from October 2004 till April 2005. Hénin-Beaumont was a small town, so I ended up moving to Lille and commuting with my co-teachers to campus every day.”

After Parker returned to the U.S. from France for the second time, he subbed again in Hastings over the 2005 and 2006 school years while applying to graduate schools. His experiences teaching in the U.S. and abroad helped Parker decide that the next course of action would be to earn a master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language so he could combine his interests in teaching and foreign languages. He considers it very fortunate that the CELCIS teaching position was available immediately after he finished that degree in December 2007. “There were four other teachers hired along with me at CELCIS because 60 students from the Dominican Republic had just enrolled for the upcoming semester,” Parker said.
Parker was given a thick curriculum book following his late-year hiring, and was told to review it as soon as possible to ready himself to began teaching classes the first week of January.

“CELCIS faculty helped us pick out our books for our classes, and also helped us develop our first syllabus,” Parker said. “CELCIS offers four levels of instruction—elementary, intermediate, pre-advanced, and advanced. Within those four levels of study there are three core classes. The three core classes that are taught every semester are: speaking and listening, grammar and communication, and reading and writing. What I teach depends on student enrollment, so we never really know what classes we are going to be assigned until we have the final number of students enrolled.”

One of the things about his job that Parker finds particularly enjoyable is the diversity of his classrooms. “In my summer I class of only seven students I had a Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese student,” he said. “It was a small class, but every student had a unique perspective—that is the best part of this job. Even though I work close to home, there are people from all over the world coming to my classroom every day.” 

Parker is also pleased when former students drop by the CELCIS office to say hi—students, in some cases, he was able to help in three months time attain the language skills needed to enter University-level classes. Out of the office, Parker enjoys going to Indie rock concerts, running for fitness, and traveling around the world.

“Teaching in an international context has given me the opportunity me to visit fellow English teachers around the world, including a trip in August to Crete and Athens, Greece to visit friends from graduate school,” he said.

 

Visit CELCIS online: www.wmich.edu/celcis

 

Story by Katherine Lynn