Gabe San Agustin

To whom it may concern,

As a skilled and enthusiastic ESL/Language Arts teacher with 7+ years of experience developing lesson plans and curriculum for students of all ages, it is my pleasure to submit the enclosed resume for your review. I believe my background and passion for education positions me to significantly impact the students at your school.

For the last seven years, I have focused primarily on developing students’ language skills, cultivating critical thinking, and fostering test-taking sub-skills for the TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, I have devoted an ample amount of time to relationship building with my students and their families, hoping to create a safe and trusty-worthy space for learning. In many ways, I have been fortunate: the last four years I have taught and grown with the same group of students, meeting them when they were in sixth grade and continuing on up with them in each passing year. During this time, I have been employed as an English/Language Arts teacher and a homeroom teacher. 

The former has allowed me to use literature to engage and garner critical thinking and emotional intelligence in the classroom, as well as general reading skills (main idea, supporting details, sequencing, skim/scan, etc.). Generally speaking, literature is the heartbeat of our curriculum, from which all the other skills we need to learn, practice, and master stem from. For example, if a class of ninth graders are reading The Great Gatsby, we will spend multiple classes listening to podcasts related to The American Dream, where students are then tasked to listen for specific supporting details; or, if I want to work on writing, students will be asked to write a structured paragraph comparing and contrasting two central characters. 

Another central focus in my classroom is developing my students’ abilities to speak freely, responding to what someone else might say in a clear and organized manner. To do this, I place the students into small groups, typically four students. The group is then given a thought-provoking question (Should college education be free?), along with ten minutes to discuss it with one another. Each student is asked to speak at least three times, one of which should be in direct response to what one of their classmates said and/or asked. Depending on the time of the year, they will also be asked to incorporate vocabulary they have been studying and practicing over the course of the term, displaying their capacity to use new words in “real-life” situations. I started this exercise because I was finding that many of my students excelled in talking to the teacher in one-on-one situations, but that the majority of them struggled to genuinely participate in a conversation using their second language.  

As a teacher, I have many goals. I want my students to be readers. I want my students to be thinkers. I want to see my students become kind, compassionate people who display empathy with pride. But first, I want to show them, as young scholars in a cruel world, that there are people that care about them, that want to hear what they have to say, that wish to create a comforting space for them. If I can accomplish this, I am confident that the rest will fall into place. 

To conclude, I hope to hear from you, and thank you kindly for your time and consideration,

Gabe San Agustin

English / Language Arts Teacher - Colegio Bennett, Cali, CO

Methodologies practiced include: Whole-Language Approach, Project-Based Learning, Self-Determination Theory. 

• Responsibilities include: 100 + students (various grades), Homeroom Teacher, Collaboration across multiple subjects, Teacher-Parent Relationship building, Student Mentoring, College Counseling.   
• Approaches in the classroom include: Fostering critical thinking skills using literature, utilizing intertextuality to compare and contrast point of view, using student interest to guide and/or enhance curriculum, further constructing the emotional intelligence of students.
• Titles have included: High School Grammar Teacher, High School Reading Teacher, Middle School Reading Teacher, College Counselor, Leader of Creative Writing club, Leader of Board Game Club, and Homeroom Teacher. 

Bachelor of ARTS Literature/Anthropology

Hampshire College

CELTA Certificate 
International House

University / State / Company