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.

Ongoing Projects

Since January 2015, I have been 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, currently in progress, aims at examining learning outcomes from the instructor’s perspective.

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. As a result of what I learned during some recent conferences for ESL instructors, I have also been trying to implement the flipped classroom model to enhance the amount of classroom practice. Other instruction tools that I enjoy using include incorporating humour and idioms to build a good teacher-student rapport as well as balancing interactive 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)                         
Listening Volumes                                         
May 2015                 

Teaching English as a Second Language, Waterloo-Wellington (TESL WW)                     
Exploring Great Ideas                                   
May 2014

Teaching English as a Second Language, Waterloo-Wellington (TESL WW)                     
Culturally Connected Classrooms             
May 2013                

Teaching English as a Second Language, Waterloo-Wellington (TESL WW)                     
​TESL Talks: Towards ESL Teaching Excellence                                 
May 2012 

Committee Involvement

I have been on Renison’s Academic Council since January 2016, participating in the process of discussing academic issues related to the whole college.

Leadership and Mentoring

Since 2011, I have been 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, I have been 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 have mentored one or two teacher candidates every year since summer 2013. This gave me many opportunities to help future teachers develop their skills and enhance my teaching practices at the same time.      

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 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