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ILI

The International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI) promotes intercultural understanding and diverse communities by providing high-quality language instruction and teacher training.

You are here: Home / News / Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Kim Wolfson

July 18, 2023

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Kim Wolfson

We recently interviewed volunteer Kim Wolfson, who is leading a conversation class for upper-level English learners at ILI. Here’s what we learned:

How long have you been working at ILI?

I designed an English conversation course in June, 2019 — for students at all proficiency levels.

Kim Wolfson with students in her free conversation class.
Kim (top left) with students in her conversation class.

Now I teach higher-level students in my “Advanced English Conversation Circle.”

Why did you decide to volunteer?

My TESOL certification course at ILI with Karine and Daniel was brilliant. It was creative, comprehensive, well-thought-out, engaging and fun. I especially appreciated the ILI philosophy that students should have fun while they learn. I wanted to offer something to ILI in return. After teaching ESOL at the college level for about eight years, I created my ILI course.

Tell us about your work at ILI.

To give my students practice in speaking and listening skills, I develop a fun lesson plan for each class, tailored to students’ needs and requests. I have a practical focus — on conversation skills that students will need in a variety of settings.

 Here are a few examples of learning activities in my class:

  • Intercultural Exchange (for example, “Describe a fun activity in your home culture that isn’t available here.”)
  • Role play (interview for a job, ask for information on government benefits, talk with your supervisor about problems at work)
  • Theater improvisation
  • NPR StoryCorps video and discussion
  • One-minute mystery
  • Teapot game (asking questions to guess the activity someone is thinking of)
  • Article on a current topic (such as MLK — the week of his birthday) and discussion
  • Interview with a Star (One student plays a star in any field. Others play journalists and interview the star.)
During our conversations, I correct students’ pronunciation and grammar on the spot — with their permission. (So far, every student has asked that I do this.) I incorporate into each of my lessons some challenging vocabulary words and expressions. I also created an “Optional Homework” Google Doc with resources and exercises for learning idioms, grammar, pronunciation, numbers, specialized vocabulary, and more.

What do you enjoy about teaching at ILI?

My students! They’re delightful people — warm, clever and funny. They all seem highly motivated to learn and happy to contribute to their classmates’ learning. My students seem to appreciate the help I offer, and I know that our class activities will be useful in their everyday lives.

Article by ILI Staff / News

ILI News

  • Erica Avery – October Volunteer Spotlight September 21, 2023
  • Is it really beneficial getting a TESOL certificate? August 15, 2023
  • Our Top 4 Destinations to Learn Spanish Abroad July 19, 2023
  • Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Kim Wolfson July 18, 2023
  • A Beginners Guide on French Culture and Learning French in France June 7, 2023
  • Marco Bittencourt brings a lifetime of multicultural experience to teaching! April 12, 2023

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Celebrating the last day of September’s program Celebrating the last day of September’s program with an amazing potluck. Congratulations to Frank for a very successful program. He will be starting a new job at the @uconn on Monday. And happy moon festival, everyone! 🌕
It's a new school year! Here are some highlights o It's a new school year! Here are some highlights of some of the exciting things happening at ILI! ⭐️

•We doubled the number of sections—from 5 to 10—in the free English program for immigrants and refugees. 

•144 students from 29 countries now study online and in-person in standard evening classes and in a new, intensive morning course—all to help them reach their education and career goals! 

•French, German, Italian and Spanish classes are underway with 120 students from across New England learning mostly in person and also online.

•27 International students from 18 countries are spending one to three months or more in our intensive English course. Many stay with host families in the area and are mutually sharing cultural traditions.

•21 employees at Baystate Health, one of ILI’s business partners, are improving their English through our workplace language training program. We tailor the curricula to suit each business, in this case the needs of healthcare workers.

•Students from New Hampshire, Northampton, Pennsylvania and Vermont are enrolled in our online teacher training program, gaining skills that will enable them to teach English to speakers of other languages right here at home or around the world!

•ILI is getting a makeover, thanks in part to a grant from the City of Northampton’s American Rescue Plan Act funds and in collaboration with our landlord, Emerald City Partners. Looking forward to larger classrooms, improved airflow and other renovations, all in compliance with post-COVID recommendations, to better serve students and western Massachusetts communities.

The support from our community helps to make these things possible through donations + investments in ILI’s IMPACT Fund. Visit ili.edu to learn more.
Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s te Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s teacher corps! Meet Greg Kerstetter, another new teacher on the Free English Program Team! 

Greg started teaching elementary school in 2001, switching to teaching from a 10-year stint writing for local newspapers. After nearly 20 years of teaching fourth and fifth grade, he left elementary school teaching to write full-time, both poetry and essays. Greg graduated from ILI’s intensive TESOL program in the fall of 2022.

Learn more about our Free English Program at ili.edu ⭐️

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #englishprogram #staffspotlight
Unlock your potential! 🔓 With a TESOL Certifica Unlock your potential! 🔓 With a TESOL Certificate, you are qualified to teach English language learners anywhere in the world. 🌏 The International Language Institute of Massachusetts's next Intensive TESOL Certificate Online Course is coming up October 16th-November 10th!

Whether you’re a new or experienced ESL/EFL/ESOL instructor, our World Learning SIT Graduate Institute TESOL intensive course provides practical skills to become a more successful teacher and make a greater impact on the lives of your students.

The SIT TESOL Certificate course is a 180-hour English teacher training program in which you will experiment with and reflect on key teaching frameworks, core TESOL concepts, and multiple language acquisition tools. 

SIT-certified TESOL trainers guide you through a comprehensive curriculum with the following modules: learning, teaching, speaking, pronunciation, structure, listening, reading, writing, and culture.

Learn more and sign up today ili.edu/programs/tesol-certificate ✨ For more information email macey@ili.edu
ILI is looking for local families, living within w ILI is looking for local families, living within walking distance of ILI in downtown Northampton or on a bus route, to host adult international students enrolled in the school's intensive English courses. Currently we have students from 17 different countries studying at the school. It’s a wonderful way to welcome very interested and interesting people as they work on their English skills. And it’s a terrific opportunity for you to broaden your cultural experiences, sharing your family’s traditions with the students as they share theirs with you. 

Hosts receive a weekly stipend to cover their costs ($150 a week for a private room without meals; $250 a week for a private room with meals). The length of stay can vary with the minimum stay of one month. Students attend intensive English classes at ILI Mondays-Thursdays 9-2:30 and Fridays 9-noon.  Visit ili.edu for more information.

And for a first-hand experience about hosting, read Greg Kerstetter's article, Hosting international students is rewarding. Greg teaches in our free English program- read his article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette here: https://www.gazettenet.com/Guest-Columnist-Kerstetter-51945600

Photo by @vagabundodeltiempo 
#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #internationalstudents #hostfamily #northampton
Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s te Free English classes expand and so does ILI’s teacher corps! 

And speaking of the 2023-2024 school year, we have expanded the number of “seats” in the free English program by 72% over the past few years, starting this month! How did this come about? Last December, we received news from our partner, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, that they accepted our proposal to expand the program, including the addition of a new intensive morning class.

 And that brought about a need to grow our teaching corps. Over the next few days we'll spotlight some of the new teachers in the free English program team.

Meet Calebb Louis
Calebb holds a B.A. in literature and political science from Rutgers University, an M.A. in applied linguistics and a TESOL graduate certificate from Texas A&M University. He is working on an MFA in creative writing at Drexel University.

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #staffspotlight #englishprogram #ialc
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