Hello There!

I am George Collins, the ENL Teacher at  Joseph D'Aquanni/ West Road Elementary School. This is my first year of teaching ENL in the United States, so I am excited about it.

I am an alumnus of the Arlington Central School District. I graduated from Arlington High School back in 2012. I attended Dutchess Community College and then SUNY New Paltz from 2012-2016, where I received my bachelor's in adolescent education for social studies 7-12th grade. From August of 2018-2021 I lived in South Korea where I taught English from third to twelfth grade on Imjado Island at four different schools. This is where I developed my great interest in teaching English as a new language to students. I returned to the United States in 2021 and have substituted K-12 for the Arlington Central School District while once again attending SUNY New Paltz to attain a master's in Teaching English To Non-Native Speakers from 2022-2024.

My time in South Korea has shown me how difficult it can be to learn a new language in an unfamiliar setting. How moving to a different country can at times be scary, exciting, wonderful, annoying, and so many other different emotions. As someone who went through this, the least I can do is try to help a student learn the language of the host country they are now in. Helping students to effectively communicate better with their classmates, teachers, and others around them in their new language of English is my goal as an ENL teacher.

I look forward to working with students and their families and will do my best to help students navigate the sometimes confusing world of the English language.