Hi, I’m
Jennifer Sharma
Long Beach,CA
Summary
Inspiring and self motivated instructor brings advanced teaching skills and department leadership experience. Goal-oriented to advance department, improve teaching and modernize courses. Extensive background in coordinating aspects of department: leading engaging professional development and faculty meetings. Commended for sustaining effective learning environments through relevant and engaging activities and course work. Consistently achieves high student evaluations and academic goals.
Overview
12
years of professional experience
Work History
California State University
University Teaching & Coordinator Duties
01.2012 - Current
Job overview
- Taught various credit and noncredit English language and Freshman composition courses, including:
- ALI 145 Credit Freshman Writing, ALI level 6 Integrative Strategies (Reading, Writing, Grammar, Listening, & Speaking), Reading, Writing, Vocabulary levels 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2; Listening and Speaking, 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2; Grammar, level 3 & 1, Electives: IELTS 3 & 4, Culture levels 1-4, Vocabulary 1 & 2 (taught courses multiple times)
- Created and taught 2-6 week English language study abroad programs at CSULB: UNAM, Hokkoriku, Gifyu, UDD, EPITECH, etc. Fall 2021 - current
- Taught and created integrative activities for 6 week Preparatory Program for students grandfathering into IEP or CSULB academic courses for semester
- Promoted to numerous coordinator duties after short period as just instructor
- Supervised, interviewed, trained, hired, and mentored tutors and conversation partners for the program wide Conversation/Homework Lab.
- Facilitated and improved lab experience by creating new activities and connecting different non-program CSULB facilities, such as the recreation and wellness center to use equipment as lead teacher
- Created variety and diversity in program activities, such as Dia de Los Muertos and games day. Developed brainstorming sessions with students and faculty to create more immersive programs.
- Problem solved for students as Student Success Advisor focused on solutions relating to multiple issues, supported, advocated, collaborated, and clearly communicated for varying needs as the interlay between the teachers, faculty, and students
- Conducted Student Success Workshop on Health and Wellness for the Lab that was widely successful
- Organized and met with struggling students to focus on resolving issues to benefit all aspects of their lives as Advisor
- Analyzed Summer Reading Final Exams '22 & '23 to compare scores across questions for accuracy, collect student data, and problems solve mismatch between objectives, questions, and student success to create greater program wide changes on SOPs, objectives, books, and teacher development
- Facilitated and designed Professional Development Fall '23 for faculty, collaboratively analyzed final exam questions, results, books, with course objectives, took notes and faculty suggestions based on Reading Final Exam analysis
- Administered English Proficiency Placement Test for ALL incoming students on Zoom with Canvas & Lockdown Browser, found solutions for numerous issues related but not limited to internet, test, Canvas, Lockdown Browser, Zoom link, etc. questions. Managed solutions successfully despite limited English proficiency of participants.
- Improved team productivity with regular communication and progress updates, fostering a collaborative work environment for students, teachers, and director as advisor in Student Success Team
- Developed curriculum, assignments, and activities based on student population and interests to meet SOPs and objectives
- Widely commendable socratic method of instruction to enhance educational experience and deeper level of thinking for more profound spoken and written answers highly appreciated by director and students.
- Highly collaborative education environment for students; they are largely responsible for many aspects of their own assignments
- Facilitated and led Professional Development Fall '23 for faculty, collaboratively analyzed final exam questions, results, books, with course objectives
- Elicited questions during Professional Development for next faculty meeting to create a dynamic space for underlying issues to be addressed that were then answered after meeting with director during Spring 24 faculty meeting
- Developed and updated Final Exams Fall '23 for twenty final exams across five levels based on beachboard to Canvas migration issues, led faculty meeting on norming finals, set up groups, taught canvas related testing procedures to new faculty, addressed questions / issues prior to and during exams to support all faculty
- Headed student Spring 24 orientation of academic aspects of the program
- Support instructor on cross cultural education workshop in the face of specific culture shock issues
- Led Health & Wellness workshop for program wide students and faculty creating a collaborative environment to focus on positive ways to create well being
- Managed numerous varying timelines for successful completion of objectives, assignments, final exams, placement test duties, advising meetings, etc., ensuring milestones were met and deadlines were adhered to. Collaboratively worked with director, faculty, etc. when there were overlapping requirements to solve issue
- Adaptable and proficient in learning new concepts quickly and efficiently. Successfully designed and created assignments and materials for level 6 course were there were no materials.
- Skilled at working independently and collaboratively in a team environment.
- Strongly self motivated and able to achieve and accomplish any responsibility assigned by director or coordinators.
- Strong philosophy on education, it's purpose and roles in students' overall well being and betterment in life, socratic method of inquiry and thinking when appropriate to advance higher level thinking abilities.
- Worked well in a team setting, providing support and guidance, shared experience and insights to collaborate on solving issues.
- Demonstrated respect, friendliness and willingness to help wherever needed.
- Professional yet open and thriving rapport with student populations. Created assignments related to objectives that also met the students needs and interests to create a holistic learning environment.
- Excellent communication skills, excellent English ability, both verbal and written.
- Passionate about learning and committed to continual improvement as a teacher and faculty. Always streamlining processes, skill and objective teaching to create the most effective and interesting courses.
- Ability to flexibly adapt to fast paced situations with lots of changes. Switch from in-person to online when required because of COVID.
- Suggest and provide feedback on short study abroad programs about what issues arose and how to create more culturally and language wide immersive experiences.
- Extremely flexible and creative, able to switch lesson midway based on student needs that arise, also able to freely create activities on the spot based on strengthening skills or student collaboration.
- Always respond in timely manner to all communication, explains requirements clearly to students both verbally and in writing on Canvas.
- Taught and created materials in half semester Spring Preparatory Program for incoming Summer IEP semester students
- Taught and created highly efficient materials Fall semester EPITEC program, French STEM technology school prior to grandfathering into regular semester study abroad
- Transformed previous EPITEC activities to better met the existing desires of students: set up pitch to San Francisco entrepreneur.
- Employed multiple online platforms & changing technology: Beachboard, Canvas, ebooks, ebook publisher platforms (MyEnglishLab), Lockdown Browser, Zoom, podcasts, Ted Talks, etc.
- Kept high average of performance evaluations from students.
- Participated in multiple professional development in person and online: NAVI mental health, Safe at the BEACH title IV training for students, various CSULB online sexual harassment, OSHA, etc.
- Organized textbooks via excel spreadsheet for Spring 24 for all faculty to access
- Organized test questions options for Writing Final Fall 23 for faculty to choose from based on questions not previously used.
- Reviewed diagnostics for Spring 24 with director and decided if students should move levels based on previous experience in program and/pr placement test scores with teacher comments from first week of classes
- Active participation in director meetings, faculty meetings, ALI weekly staff meetings, student success meetings, norming meetings, etc.
- Mentored TEFL certificate and MA Linguistic students in class, provided supportive feedback and experiences teaching; completed detailed written feedback for their supervisor and student-teacher on successes and weaknesses with thoughtful suggestions.
- Increased efficiency by streamlining coordinating in faculty meetings to improve team productivity and overall success fostering a collaborative work environment
University Of California, Irvine
University Teaching Experience
01.2013 - 03.2013
Job overview
- Taught Academic credit Freshman English courses, !00A & 100B.
- Established weekly office hours frequented by students for grammar, plagiarism review, writing support, required by students multiple times per quarter
- Followed strict program rules related to binders, grammar quizzes, essay drafts, texts, & assignments.
- Strong rapport with student despite short length of program.
- Vigorous in-depth program, intensive grammar and content responses to all students' essays weekly (all mistakes must be highlighted weekly in large 30 plus student classes)
- Worked effectively in fast-paced environments.
- Proven ability to learn quickly and adapt to new situations.
- Demonstrated respect, friendliness and willingness to help wherever needed.
- Managed time efficiently in order to complete all tasks within deadlines.
Education
California State University, Long BeachLong Beach, CA
Master of Arts from Linguistics
01.2012
University Overview
- Awarded Most Distinguished Graduate Candidate in Linguistics Program
- GPA: 3.9
- Invited to Phi Beta Kappa Based on High Honors
- Attended Numerous Linguistic Research Talks by Southern CA Academics
- Presented Final Research Study at USC
- Numerous MA Research Awarded Highest Scores
California State University - Long BeachLong Beach, CA
Graduate Level TESOL Certificate from Linguistics
01.2012
University Overview
- GPA: 4.0
- Graduate Level TESOL Certification
- Concurrent with Linguistics MA
University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeeMilwaukee, WI
Bachelor of Arts from Literary & Critical Studies
12.2003
University Overview
- GPA: 3.3
- Member of Specialty Honors Class Program Freshman & Sophomore Year
- Minor: Comparative Literature
- Invited to Golden Key Honors Association
- Awarded Scholarship in Comparative Literature Based on Coursework
- Independently Lived, Worked, and Full Time Education
Council On International Education ExchangePrague, Czech Republic, Europe
Study Abroad Program from Czech Studies
12.2002
University Overview
- Semester Long Program on Czech Studies: History, Language, Literature, Music, Art, etc.
- Numerous Cultural Events and Heritage Site Field Trips
- Independent Travel Before, During, and After Semester Program
Language House, Czech Republic Prague,v CZ
TESOL Certification from English-as-a-Second-Language Education
12.2006
University Overview
- Promoted to highest group of language instructors
- Short term Certification Program in Prague, CZ with lots of experience teaching
- Taught various level class English and tutored one-to-one with Business Executive
- Independent Travel and Living while Completing the Program and Teaching.
Skills
- Experienced with Diversity
- Expert Teaching Using Technology & Online resources
- Adept Curriculum Development
- NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health) Training, Title IX, etc
- Accomplished Advising Students
- Proficient Final Assessment Creation, Development, and Analysis
- Successful in Negotiation
- Problem Solving Leader
- Highly Effective as Public Speaker Leading Professional Development, Meetings, Placement Tests, & Orientation
Other Applicable Experiences
- Medical School Writing Tutor, Over fifty hours of instruction via essay comments, emails, and discussions with medical student applicant who received multiple rejections on first round of applications, 2015
- TEFL Certification, The Language House, Prague, Czech Republic, 2006
Linguistics Research
- Effect of Teacher Questions on Student Output
- Formulaic Language Use in Composition Papers
- Acoustic Phonetic Project
- Punjabi Phoneme and Syllable Structure Analysis
- Multiple Choice Assessment Creation, Implementation, and Report
- NonMultiple Choice Assessment Creation, Implementation, and Report
- Garret’s Model of Language Production for Speech Error Analysis
- Replication of Grosjean’s Gating Paradigm of Spoken Word Recognition
- Partial Replication of Carmichael, Hogan, and Walker’s Experiment on the Effect of Language on the Visually Perceived
- Effects of Gender on Student Output
- Nonnative Perception of Hindi /t/ and /d/ Phonemes
- Socialization of Students into Tibetan Buddhism: An Ethnographic Study on the Socialization of Religious Students
- Narrative as Identity: Emergent Identity Through Syntax of Agency
- Word Class Case Study: How Word Classes Found in Maternal Child-Directed Input Influence Word Classes Found in Child Output
- Influence of English as a Second Language: Mandarin Speaker’s Acquisition of Japanese Katakana
Relevant Experiences Interests
- Travel
- Writing
- Language learning background: Japanese, German, Spanish, Hindi, Czech, etc.
- Philosophy and Socratic method of educational instruction
Presented Research
Los Angeles Regional CATESOL Conference: Endeavor to Unite, Succeed, and Connect, University of Southern California (USC), Presented Final Master’s Comp Research Paper: Teacher Directed Questions’ Influence on Student Responses
Awards
Most Distinguished Graduate Candidate in Linguistics Program, CSULB MA Linguistics Program Invitations to join Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, CSULB, need > 3.75 Honors Program specialty curated classes only for honors students, University Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golden Key National Honor Society, University Wisconsin-Milwaukee Roy A. Swanson Scholarship of Academic Excellence in Comparative Literature, UW-Milwaukee, given based on Comparative Literature
Travel Experiences
Widely traveled. Have lived in other states and countries. Experienced with independent living in Eastern Europe for six months during school. Am able to interact with any group of people easily and read situations quickly. Varied experiences and the ability to connect with anyone creates a rich rapport in my classrooms. Taught English in other countries as well.
Timeline
University Teaching Experience
University Of California, Irvine
01.2013 - 03.2013
University Teaching & Coordinator Duties
California State University
01.2012 - Current
California State University, Long Beach
Master of Arts from Linguistics
California State University - Long Beach
Graduate Level TESOL Certificate from Linguistics
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Bachelor of Arts from Literary & Critical Studies
Council On International Education Exchange
Study Abroad Program from Czech Studies
Language House, Czech Republic
TESOL Certification from English-as-a-Second-Language Education