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 Richard Zelenetz
English Second Language Teacher
As the ESL (English as a Second Language) Teacher for the Windsor Southwest Supervisory Union, I'm happy to be working with children whose families enrich our learning community with a variety of native language backgrounds here at Chester-Andover Elementary School and the other schools of WSWSU. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, I received my Bachelors degree from Brooklyn College, where I focused on Music and Foreign Languages (including German and Chinese). After a brief sojourn in France, I returned to New York City to secure my Masters degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from New York University. During my teaching career, I've been privileged to teach English to children and adults in many different settings, including Queens College and LaGuardia Community College in New York City; Yunnan Teachers University in
Kunming, China; the School for International Training, Bellows Falls Union High School, and the Westminster West School here in southern Vermont. I have also been involved with the online training of other K-12 public school ESL teachers in a number of states across the U.S. through the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C. In addition to my work as a teacher, I have worked in various aspects of the educational travel industry.
If I have a philosopy as a teacher, it might best be expressed by the precept taught to medical students ,"Primum non nocere" or "First, do no harm." I feel that children, and adults as well, are naturally curious, naturally inclined to learn, and that my job as a teacher is to help sustain and not hinder this self-initiated quest for knowledge and skills.
Although a flatlander by birth, it's over twenty years now that my wife Teri (a high school foreign language teacher) and I have lived in Vermont, where our two daughters, now in college and high school, were born and raised. I enjoy reading, walking, biking, skiiing, playing classical piano, and eating good food.
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