Leigh Anne Sippel
English as a Second Language Instructor

	Contact Information
	Office: Building 8, room 8-215 or TLC
	Spring 2009 office hours: Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri 7:30am-8:00am Tue 10:00am-12:00pm or by arrangement     ESOL 655 (the ESL Lab) in TLC rm 5110: Thursdays 10:00-1:30 and Fridays 11:00-12:00 (The ESL lab is not a requirement for our class, but you can find me there every week)
	Phone: (650) 738-4408
	E-mail: sippell@smccd.net
	About the instructor

Courses

Powerpoint Shows for Students of English

Are you stressed out about classes? Here, take a vacation. Meditate on this photograph:

Ahhh. Feel better?

About the instructor:

I am in my fourth year here at Skyline College, and I have been teaching ESL for 16 years. My experience includes teaching in the United States at private language schools, community colleges, and executive one-on-one programs. I have also lived and taught English in Litomerice, The Czech Republic, and in Rabat, Morocco.

From a young age, I had a passion for cultural exchange, language, and communications, and I travelled extensively in North America, Europe, Eurasia, and Oceania. This travel got me interested in diplomacy, so I tested out my desire by doing a short tour for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as an elections supervisor in Bosnia i Herzegovina in 1996. This was very stressful! I decided that diplomacy wasn't the career for me, but I loved cultural exchange, so I began teaching English as a Foreign Language. I have studied a few languages: Je parle un peu Francais, Ich spreche ein bissen Deutsch, ja mluvim trosku Cestinu, wa atahedeth al-arabiya qalilan. I eventually learned that language teaching was my true love, one that would also allow me to experience cultural exchange.

My B.A. is in Drama, which I studied at San Francisco State University, and I also was awarded a TEFL/TESL certificate from Transworld Schools in 1991. I received my Masters in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in 1998 from School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. I also finished a Certificate for Teaching Post-Secondary Reading from San Francisco State University in 2003.

I enjoy traveling (see my picture above in Scotland!), hiking and camping, reading, and hanging out on the beach. I love music of all kinds, especially music from the Middle East such as Rai, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian music. I am a tribal style bellydancer and I perform with a local dance troupe called Nefer Tem. I love animals: I have owned and ridden horses in the past, and now I have two cats - Tanya and Bagheera.

Here's Bagheera using Tanya as a pillow.

My beliefs about learning English, or any foreign language:

• A little bit every day makes improvement over a long time. Have you practiced today?
  
  
• Building language skills is like starting an exercise program. You may hate the idea at first, but,
  • If you do a little bit every day, you slowly get stronger.
  • If you do a lot every day, you will be sore at first, but later, you will be even stronger.
  • The more you do, the more you want to do!
  • However, if you only practice every few weeks, you will be very sore, you'll see no benefit, and you won't want to do it anymore! Therefore, practice every day!
    
    
• To improve your language, you must first awaken your awareness.
  
  
• Tutoring is good, but take care not to become passive. Don't make your tutor do all your work for you.
  

Past courses

STOT Sample Online Readiness Quiz - Summer 2008

Audacity Workshop: Record Your Voice Using Audacity

Sample Paper Format