Graduation Recovery and ESL Teacher, Mrs. Nicole Al-Amoudi Supports a Variety of Students

Mrs. Nicole Al-Amoudi graduated from Mt. Union University, majoring in International Business & Economics, where she made a lot of international (specifically Japanese) friends. Her friends convinced her to apply to be an English Second Language (ESL) teacher in Japan. After being accepted to the JET program, Mrs. Al-Amoudi traveled to Japan to live and work as an ESL teacher for two years.

“I loved it,” she said. “It was the best experience ever.”

After two years abroad, Mrs. Al-Amoudi decided that it was time to come back home. She soon realized that she wanted to continue teaching back in the United States and went on to pursue a teaching degree in social studies at Point Park University. She became certified in 7-12 Social Studies and later in K-12 ESL.

She was hired as a Social Studies teacher at PA Distance in 2010.

“It was a big adjustment, but I really liked it,” she said of teaching in an online environment.

“The connections that we make with our students and families are deeper than at traditional brick and mortar schools,” she added. “We are interacting with them one-on-one on a consistent basis.”

In 2012, and in addition to her social studies teaching position, Mrs. Al-Amoudi took on the PA Distance ESL Coordinator position where she supported students whose primary language is not English. Since assuming this role, Mrs. Al-Amoudi has supported ESL students from countries like Belarus, Cambodia, Russia, Germany, Africa, Japan, Iran, Columbia, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala.

“We provide a platform for students to grow, feel safe and understood,” she explained.

Presently, Mrs. Al-Amoudi coordinates 20 students within the PA Distance ESL program and her primary student population is of Latin and Central American descent.

“It usually takes 3-5 years for students to reach academic proficiency in ESL from start to finish,” she explained. “The ESL group we have this year is phenomenal and they come from various backgrounds.”

The Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) provides ESL instruction to our students for 45 minutes each school day where they incorporate the Pennsylvania English Language Proficiency standards and the English Language Arts standards. Before a student is enrolled in the ESL program at PA Distance, Mrs. Al-Amoudi does a family interview to find out their background and specific needs.

“I work as the liaison between our students at PA Distance and the AIU,” she said. “I also work with their core teachers to make sure we provide everything needed for our English Learners to be successful.”

Since arriving at PA Distance, Mrs. Al-Amoudi has shifted away from her social studies role and has been a Graduation Recovery teacher for the past five years, working alongside three other teachers.

Graduation Recovery is for students who have fallen behind in their classes and, in some cases, delayed them from advancing into the next grade. That's where PA Distance Graduation Recovery teachers come in. Mrs. Al-Amoudi works with students to help them get back to where they should be - academically - and in line with their cohort year.

Today, Mrs. Al-Amoudi works with 17 Graduation Recovery students to get them back into their regular classes by using Live Learning, Google Hangouts, and the web-based education program, PLATO, and to ultimately graduate. To do this, Mrs. Al-Amoudi works one-on-one with each student and coaches them when working on assignments. In addition to meeting academic requirements for graduation, Graduation Recovery also teaches students organizational skills and time management, the soft skills students need once they graduate. If they need help with the actual content, Mrs. Al-Amoudi will work through it with them.

To round out the variety of supports that Mrs. Al-Amoudi provides PA Distance students, she also co-teaches the College and Career Readiness elective course with CEW teacher, Ms. Budd. During the class, she and Ms. Budd provide students with information about planning post-secondary options, virtual college tours, information about college costs, financial aid, and many other career-related topics.

“The opportunities we offer our students are fantastic,” she said. “From future-focused courses to after-school club offerings to field trips - we offer a variety of cool things that people don’t realize we have.”

Learn more about Mrs. Al-Amoudi from the podcast series, Humans of Teaching, hosted by high school Social Studies teacher, Mr. Mysels:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humans-of-teaching/id1491984715?i=1000462568524