Agnieszka Wolczuk

After obtaining my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, I worked as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher/instructor for 11 years, mostly on the high school or university level, with students at the ages between 15 and 19 or older. During this period, I realized that adolescents and adults are two groups to whom I can relate well. After moving to Ontario, I had my credentials recognized by World Education Services (WES), and then I took a couple of courses to receive the Ontario Teacher certificate. I also earned the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) Canada and TESL Ontario certificates.

My teaching career in Ontario started with community appointments in Kitchener and Cambridge, as a result of which I had a chance to work with diverse ethnic and age groups of immigrants. The subsequent appointments on the academic level provided me with some opportunities to work with University of Waterloo students in Conestoga College and Renison University College. These contracts enabled me to experience a more challenging but at the same time a more satisfying work environment. After a few years, Renison University College became my sole place of employment, where since 2010, I have taught both credit and non-credit English as a Second Language / English for Multilingual Speakers (ESL / EMLS) courses.

Since 2014, I have been a Continuing Lecturer at Renison University College, teaching written and oral communication courses to both undergraduate and graduate students. In this capacity, I have also coordinated quite a few instructors teaching the EMLS 101 course, mentored a number of teacher candidates preparing to teach English as an additional language, and hosted many observers working on the Applied Language Studies minor.

Past and Ongoing Projects and Engagements

From January 2015 to September 2019, I was involved in developing data collection tools to examine learning outcomes of 1A students taking EMLS undergraduate courses. The aim of the project is to determine the effectiveness of the EMLS courses in the development of students’ communicative competence. The first stage of the project focused on students’ perception of their learning as a result of the EMLS instruction at Renison. In cooperation with the English Language Studies Director, EMLS instructors, representatives of English Language Institute (ELI) at Renison and the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at the University of Waterloo, I have created two tools to collect the data for our project: student interview questions and survey questions. The second stage of the project aimed at examining learning outcomes from the instructor’s perspective. The results were summarized, and the report was shared with the Faculty of Mathematics representatives, RUC Administration, the two University of Waterloo  units involved in the communication initiative, and faculty members at English Language Studies (ELS).

As a result of my involvement on the FAUW Lecturers Committee for four years and on the Contract Faculty Committee (CFC) of Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) for over a year, I gained a deep insight into the working conditions of lecturers on the main campus and at different tertiary institutions in Ontario and in other Canadian provinces. Consequently, I started my advocacy for faculty at the rank of Lecturer, especially on definite-term contracts, and participated in the creation of the RAAS Lecturers’ Committee as well as initiated many of this committee’s engagements. This type of activity can be very challenging at times, but overall, it is rewarding as well. My efforts in this area have been appreciated by my colleagues, who nominated me for the CAUT Dedicated Service Award, which I received in 2022.

Pedagogical Interests

Since I started teaching in 1995, I have been striving to increase students’ engagement in class.  To achieve this purpose, I used personalization and themes related to current events and potentially to students’ interests. My subsequent pedagogical development activities led to me experimenting with the flipped classroom model to enhance the amount of classroom practice as well as encouraging students to use of publicly available and student-made collections of texts (linguistic corpora) to allow for targeted vocabulary building, both discipline specific and general English, and self-directed learning. Other instruction tools that I enjoy using include incorporating humour and idioms to build a good teacher-student rapport as well as balancing interactive teamwork activities and individual forms of work to address preferences of different types of students.

Conferences Co-Organized

Teaching English as a Second Language – Waterloo-Wellington (TESL WW) Conferences:

• Conflict in the Classroom – May 2018
• Thinking Critically – May 2017
• Transitioning to Community, Culture, Work, Citizenship – May 2016
• Listening Volumes – May 2015
• Exploring Great Ideas – May 2014
• Culturally Connected Classrooms – May 2013
• TESL Talks: Towards ESL Teaching Excellence – May 2012

Committee Involvement

Since becoming a Continuing Lecturer at this institution, I have been on a range of committees at this college, including but not limited to Academic Council at different periods of time, Anti-harassment and Anti-discrimination Committee, CLS Chair Executive Committee, RUC-RAAS Joint Committee, and Assessment Sub-committee for Math Communication Skills Initiative. My service on these committees made me aware of multiple aspects of functioning of this college.

Leadership and Mentoring

From 2011 to 2018, I was on the TESL Waterloo-Wellington executive, serving the Waterloo-Wellington community of ESL teachers and instructors as well as LINC teachers. From summer 2011 till spring 2015, I performed the role of the secretary for this organization. I greatly enjoyed being involved in the process of creating opportunities for professional development for fellow teachers as well as preparing conferences, especially the logistics of this process.

In addition to that, for several years, I was engaged in the process of mentoring Advance Consulting for Education Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ACE TESOL) certificate and diploma program teacher candidates. In this role, I mentored one or two teacher candidates every year. This gave me many opportunities to help future teachers develop their skills and enhance my teaching practices at the same time. 

My engagement with the FAUW Lecturers’ Committee and OCUFA’s CFC led to me accepting the position of the chair and co-chair of RAAS Lecturers’ Committee, and I am assisting the current chair with some ongoing activities.   

Membership

Teaching English as a Second Language Ontario (TESL Ontario)      
May 2009 – present       

Teaching English as a Second Language Canada (TESL Canada)
March 2009 – present  

Ontario College of Teachers (OCT)
April 2012 - present

Courses Taught

• EMLS 602R: Scholarly Writing in English
• EMLS 101R: Oral Communications for Academic Purposes, Renison, English Language Studies
• EMLS 102R: Clear Communication in English Writing, Renison, English Language Studies
• EMLS 129R: Written Academic English, Renison, English Language Studies
• Academic Skills, 400, Renison, English Language Institute
• Listening and Speaking IV (an ELAS program course), Conestoga College
• Academic Writing IV (an ELAS program course), Conestoga College