Virginia Nicolai / Courtesy photos
Over the summer, the U.S. State Department selected Virginia Nicolai to spend two weeks in Panama, working with English teachers in the country.
Nikolai has been teaching English as a Second Language as an associate professor at Colorado Mountain College for the past 11 years, the last seven of which have been at Edwards’ Vail Valley campus.
Originally, Nikolai got certified to teach English as a way to travel the world, but when she started teaching, she quickly fell in love with the profession.
“I loved working with the students. I loved the process. So I decided this was my career,” she said.
While her career has kept her roots on Colorado’s Western Slope since 2012, teaching and learning opportunities abroad have remained an essential part of her career.
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He goes abroad. He goes abroad
Each year, the U.S. Department of State selects approximately 240 American teachers to work on projects in 80 countries as part of its English Specialist Program. The goal of the program is to support teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (or TESOL) and help support the way English is taught in countries around the world.
This is the second time that Nikolai has participated in one of the department’s programmes. In 2021, while on sabbatical leave from Colorado Mountain College, Nikolai was selected by the U.S. Embassy to serve as an English Language Fellow in the Central African country of Cameroon.
“This has been a huge and challenging experience – the biggest challenge of life – but it has also been extremely rewarding and an amazing opportunity to learn about the people and culture in a way I would never have been able to do on my own,” Nicolai said.
In Cameroon, Nicolai was primarily assigned to teach English at a private university in Yaounde and conduct workshops for English teachers in the province. This work and contacts she made at the US Embassy eventually helped her land a two-week job in Panama in August.
While in Panama, Nicolai worked with the U.S. Embassy and the Panamanian Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages to achieve two goals. Firstly, it was to provide support and suggestions on how the association could grow and improve. The second is to train teachers throughout Panama.
During the trip, Nicolai traveled to eight provinces in Panama, where he conducted a series of workshops for English teachers.
“At each stop, we held a workshop for 30 to 40 English teachers from public schools in that area. I was part of the training and delivering a workshop to the teachers on different strategies they can use to help motivate their students as well as support classroom management.
Much of these workshops focused on sharing “student-centered activities that make learning fun and engage students in language use,” Nicolai said.
A total of 263 K-12 teachers working for Panama’s Department of Education attended the eight workshops, Nicolai said.
“We were able to share our different experiences with each other and compare how things work in our different countries,” she added. “Although the resources or facilities and environment may be really different in different countries, teachers all face the same issues with their classrooms and students.”
These include finding ways to get students interested, engage them, and get them started using the language.
One of the big things she learned is that “teachers are teachers all over the world,” Nicolai said.
“There is a certain type of person who is considered a teacher, and it doesn’t matter what country you live in,” she said. “Teachers communicate, and deep down, we are the same type of person and we get to know each other.”
Teaching English
The essence of Nicolai’s philosophy on teaching can be summed up by the fortune cookie she once received: “Teachers open the door, but you must enter yourself.”
“I see my classroom as a conversation. So it’s not that I tell the students what they need to know or give them all this knowledge. It’s an exchange of ideas back and forth,” said Nikolai. “Not all of this comes from me; My students are actively engaged in their learning.”
When it comes to teaching English, there are also specific things you should keep in mind.
“What I love about teaching English is that it’s challenging – what you do depends on the specific group of students you’re working with. It’s really individual and changes depending on where you are and the student’s goals,” said Nikolai.
When teaching abroad, Nicolai said it’s not just about helping students learn the language but also the culture.
“Because often, when I teach abroad, students have a goal of coming to the United States to study or work,” she said.
However, in the United States, many students have lived in the country for a while and may have a different reason for wanting to learn English.
“They’re already here and they want to be involved in the community and they want to be able to do things for their families and maybe move up in their careers,” Nikolai said. “So it’s more focused on the skills of living as part of American society. It’s that deeper cultural experience of how to assimilate into the culture and how to reach their personal goals whatever they are here.”
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While Nikolai has been able to transfer her knowledge from teaching at CMC to other countries, she has also learned a lot from experiences outside the United States that she brings back to college. While in Cameroon, she taught a course in business communications, which provided her with useful materials, activities and curriculum to return to CMC.
“At CMC, we not only focus on English, but why do students need English? What do they want to do in English? Many of them want to start a business, expand their business or advance in the work they do,” said Nikolai. “This opportunity helped me figure out how to teach this better and think about it.”
Traveling to Panama was Nicolai’s first time traveling to Latin America, providing her with a wonderful cultural experience to share with her students.
“Most of my students here at Vail Valley come from Spanish-speaking countries, so this was a real opportunity for me to get first-hand experience in the part of the world that many of them are from,” Nicolai said. “It helped me get a better understanding of their background and appreciation for the culture and who they are.” Where they come from.” “I learned a lot.”
Dwayna Holden, director of the English as a Second Language program at Colorado Mountain College, said Nikolai’s participation in State Department programs benefits the college program in several ways. This includes providing “innovative programming and partnership opportunities for both students and faculty as we look to enrich and expand our English as a Second Language services as well as our bilingual educational opportunities in our credit programs” that respond to community needs, Holden said.
“Virginia’s contribution to curriculum creation and professional development means we can provide ESL instruction that sets us apart from other community-based entities that provide English language acquisition services,” she added.
“English as a Second Language and bilingual students have pathways available to them that can benefit their careers and academic goals, whether they are interested in earning a certificate or degree, which they cannot access in other community programs.”
English as a Second Language at CMC
Colorado Mountain College’s English as a Second Language program serves approximately 2,000 students across its campus each year. These students represent a wide age range, from 17 to 70 years old, and while they predominantly identify as Hispanic or Latino, they also include refugees and immigrants from around the world.
In addition to helping students learn the language, the program’s goal is also “to create an inclusive environment by connecting our communities, families and cultures together at CMC,” Holden said.
There are different reasons for students to join the program. This includes personal use, community involvement, school support for their children, employment and advancement opportunities, or preparation to take college-level classes to obtain certificates and degrees, Holden said.
“There are a lot of people here who are taking advantage of the opportunity to get an education and improve their lives,” Nikolai said.
The students are the reason Nikolai has stayed in CMC’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program for so long.
“It’s a hard thing to deal with, especially as an adult. I’m not sure if everyone appreciates the depth of how embarrassed or humble you can be when you’re an adult and you have all the experience and education that comes with that but you can’t fully express what you want to say,” Nicolai said, adding that Her experiences traveling to other countries where she did not speak the primary language provide her with empathy for this experience.
“I love working with my students because they bring me so much and teach me so much,” she said. “I am honored to help them try to reach the goals they have.”
We are thrilled to announce that one of our esteemed professors at CMC has been selected by the US State Department to participate in a special program to assist English teachers in Panama. This is a tremendous honor for our professor and a testament to their expertise and dedication to the field of education. We are confident that they will make a significant impact in Panama, sharing their knowledge and passion for teaching English with educators and students alike. We are immensely proud of our professor and the important work they will accomplish in this unique opportunity.