Submitted by Jefferson County
School District Adult Education
English teacher Rose Lamensdorf came to Monticello by way of Ecuador, India and China. Lamensdorf, a native of Madison, Wis., with undergraduate degrees in linguistics and political science, brings her expertise to classes for adult learners in Jefferson County School District’s ELL (English Language Learning) program. She started in September and since then, the district office parking lot has been full four nights a week with student vehicles.
Lamensdorf teaches three levels of classes to dedicated students who work during the day and attend evening courses. Current students come from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, and her commitment to the immigrant language learning community in Monticello is obvious.
“This week I helped a couple of students at the health department before class. They wanted to get vaccinated but were nervous about going by themselves,” she said. “We practiced some health-related vocabulary beforehand and they were fine.”
Adult Education Coordinator Theresa Sterling is thrilled to finally have a qualified and reliable instructor serving the adult learning community in Jefferson County. Sterling, who holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics and has served adult English learners (ELs) for 20 years, knows the District has struck gold with Lamensdorf.
“It’s been a challenge here. It’s hard to attract properly trained, experienced instructors for adjunct work in Jefferson County who are here for the right reasons,” Sterling says. “With Rose, I know learners are in the best hands. They are engaged, they are challenged, they are part of a supportive learning community and they are getting exactly what they need. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.”
Lamensdorf’s former employers concur. Larry Theiss, director at Pacelli Catholic Schools in Stevens Point, Wis., which has a sister school in Guangdong Province, China (where Lamensdorf taught on site and then virtually after she had to come back stateside due to COVID), summed it up after providing a detailed stellar recommendation during the hiring process: “Congratulations. You lucked out by finding Rose,” Theiss said in an email to the school district.
Adjunct instructors often don’t stay long-term and the District knows this good thing could come to an end, but they hope it won’t be soon. Lamensdorf starts graduate school next spring and plans to continue teaching in Monticello while she pursues a master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). After that, she has sights on law school to prepare her to work in immigration law.
But for now, she belongs to Jefferson County’s adult learners.
“This is what I love doing,” Lamensdorf says. “I see myself always having a side job teaching English, no matter what my daytime job is.”
For more information about adult education services in Jefferson County, call (850) 342-0516 or email theresa.sterling@ jeffersonschooldistrict. org.
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