Greenville Magazine - June 2008 - (Page 23)

ESL Instructor, Megan Knight Her classroom is filled with students of every race, gender and internationality: a handful of Hispanic students volunteer for her grocery store debriefing; two Asian women type unfamiliar words into their electronic dictionaries; an Iraqi man, more advanced than his peers, helps his wife and daughter get the most from her class. Through the Greenville Literacy Association, Megan Knight is teaching these people how to speak English. Though she began by assisting in the GLA’s computer lab, Knight says she finds teaching these classes “very fulfilling.” “These are people who speak at least one other language fluently,” she explains. “They’re very educated people who are eager to assimilate to their new home.” Knight begins each lesson by greeting her students. She then takes attendance, noting that some students come and go as their work schedules change. Some weeks everyone will be in attendance; some weeks she has to adjust her lesson plan to two students. “It really just depends on what’s happening in their lives,” she says. Then Knight typically reviews some of the past few lessons to seek out any questions and see what her students are retaining. Next they begin discussing the current week’s topic. Each lesson she does focuses on a particular theme, so whether she’s going over banking terms or reviewing the foods in an American grocery store, her students are able to learn vocabulary related to a single subject in a comprehensive lesson. Although this is a volunteer position, Knight says, “I consider this a job I deal with the same as I did my former job. It takes a lot of preparation, so I usually develop lesson plans on Wednesday and Sunday.” Prior to working as an ESL instructor, Knight assisted a town manager in Boston. She and her husband relocated to South Carolina, but after her retirement and his passing, she began looking for some way to keep herself busy. It turns out, she says, that teaching others in ESL during the day is the perfect position for her. While many volunteers are available to teach night classes, oftentimes ESL students need to attend classes during the day because their work requires them to take less traditional shifts. Knight says eventually her goal is to pick up another daytime class. “My greatest interest is in helping as much as I can,” she says. Accepting this voluntary position with the passion and commitment of a career and always looking for ways to give more, what more could we ask from this everyday hero? Megan Knight may/june 2008 | Greenville maGazine 23

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Greenville Magazine - June 2008

Greenville Magazine - June 2008 Contents From the Publisher My Greenville Everyday Heroes Tackling Diversity Greenville’s Gone Global In The Lead From the Pros Anderson Suburban Sprawl Wellness The REAL State of Real Estate Something to Bark About Minority-owned Business A Look Back 1-Tank Trips Private School Resource Guide After Hours The Bulletin Around Town Viewpoints

Greenville Magazine - June 2008

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