Each month, we feature a brief Q&A with a Questar III staff member. To kick off the new school year next week, we meet ENL teacher John Parker, or if you’ve read his books, Johannes Froebel-Parker. Learn about his background and his research.
What is your role here at Questar III, and where do you work?
Adult English as a New Language (ENL- formerly called ESOL, or English for Speakers of Other Languages) at the East Greenbush Public Library/one day a week at NYS Workforce Columbia Greene Community College
How long have you worked here?
Two years
How do you see your role as supporting the BOCES and its school districts?
As I teach adults, some with school age children, increased ease and fluency in English is immediately applicable to parents’ involvement in their children’s education and school activities
What is your background like – previous jobs, education, etc.?
Lecturer for German UALBANY and Master Teacher for community Adult ESOL (ENL) while getting my Master’s degree in Education. I taught one year of English as a Foreign Language in Germany at the Marie Curie Oberschule in Berlin (West), and then 26 years ESL/ESOL/ENL, K-12: Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central Schools
What do you like most about your job?
The feedback in ENL is immediate: a student has a vocabulary or grammar question which is dealt with on the spot. Pronunciation practice and subsequent improvement is immediately detectable, so the educator has the satisfaction of seeing progress on the spot. Add to that the cultural richness and sharing which is mutually elevating and enlightening to students and educator alike.
Tell us a bit about your life outside of Questar III.
I am the author of the Ahnentafel Series Books regarding characters in my maternal and paternal family tree found during research. Publications have included the stories of ancestors on the Winthrop Fleet (1635), Salem Witch Hysteria (1692), church reformers during the reign of Mary “Bloody Mary” Tudor, Friedrich Froebel who was the founder of kindergarten, etc. Currently researching and writing about Capt. George Lamberton of New Haven Colony, a maternal 9th great grandfather, made famous in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Phantom Ship.” Books available at authorhouse.com and all online book retailers.
