Thanks for joining us in this discussion.  My name is Donna Kinerney.
As you may have read earlier, I'm the Instructional Dean for Adult ESOL
& Literacy Programs at Montgomery College (a community college) in
Maryland.  Like many of you, I came into adult ESL sideways.  First I
got an undergraduate and graduate degree in a field (German Language &
Literature) that, although interesting, didn't really have huge
employment potential.  Somewhere in those years though, I found a gig
teaching ESL and the world suddenly opened up.  Work with refugees, a
master's degree in TESOL, a few years in K-12, and a bunch of part-time
jobs later, I found full-time hours (but with no benefits) as a program
director of our county's refugee training program.  Finally came the
full-time job with the benefits as the program administrator of our
county's federally funded adult education program.

I teach a graduate TESOL class at the University of Maryland in
Baltimore County and one of our topics is the ESL job market outside of
classroom teaching.  Program administration is certainly one of these
areas, although it doesn't always sound as exciting and challenging as
we know it can be.  Over time, I've come to think of being a program
administrator as being a combination of leader, advocate, program
designer, coordinator, and visionary.  In any one day, I can wind up
being all of them, just one, or any combination you can think of. 

So here are my first questions for you.  Which of these roles (leader,
advocate, program designer, coordinator, and visionary) do you find the
easiest?  Why?  What's the most challenging for you?  Why is that?  Of
course there are other roles in my mental checklist that I'm leaving
out.  What do you think they might be?

Thanks for being a part of this discussion.  I'm looking forward to
hearing from you!

Best,

Donna



 
***************************************************
Donna Kinerney, Ph.D.
Instructional Dean
Adult ESOL & Literacy Programs
Montgomery College
11002 Veirs Mill Rd, Suite 210
Wheaton, MD 20902
Voice 301-962-8950
Fax    240-567-8977
 
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/wdce/aelg/