William Denny
EAP Instructor and Student Support Specialist based in Iowa City
Phone: +1 319 804-9375
Email: will@wjdenny.com
Social: Website / Mastodon / LinkedIn / GitHub
Experience
Instructor @ Kirkwood Community College (Jan 2015 — present)
Faculty of Global Learning and English Language Acquisition
- develop curriculum for professional cross-cultural communication course
- support TRIO SSS and TRIO ESL students with coursework and scholarship applications
- advocate for language minority students across departments
- prepare non-native English speaking students for English-medium higher education programs
- conduct oral proficiency exams to place incoming non-native English-speaking students
- train students in basic computer skills
- train faculty and staff to use education and office software
- lead reading/discussion groups on barriers to success for resident immigrant students
Co-director, pro tem @ Zhejiang University International Campus (Sep 2019 — May 2020)
Faculty of English in the English Language Center
- prepared undergraduates for English-medium Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programs
- taught scientific writing and formal presentation skills to STEM undergraduate students
- maintained sensitive records of student assessments for over 1,000 students
- provided graduate students with on-going consults to improve their communication skills
- trained remote faculty to use online learning management system and video conferencing software after COVID-19
Visiting professor @ Suqian College (Sep 2018 — June 2019)
Faculty of English in the School of Foreign Languages
- taught over 300 English language major students in listening, speaking, and writing
- advised students on requirements to study abroad in the U.S.
- provided consultation to Foreign Languages department on recruiting foreign teachers
- voted Foreign Language Department students’ “most popular foreign teacher” for academic year 2018—19.
Lecturer @ The University of Iowa (Aug 2012 — May 2014)
Faculty in the ESL Credit Programs
- proctor and collaborate in development of shared final exams
- prepare non-native English speaking students for English-medium higher education programs
- conduct oral proficiency exams and assess writing samples to place incoming non-native English-speaking students
Tutor @ Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County (Sep 2010 — May 2012)
Creator and sole tutor of ESL tutoring program
- created ESL tutoring program for 10—20 participants
- maintained program records and reported to Center director
Projects
Language Minority Student Success Data Analysis Project @ Kirkwood Community College (2022)
- conducted analysis of institutional data to explore retention and success outcomes of language minority students.
- developed data strategies for monitoring disparities in academic dishonesty reports of linguistic minority students.
- collaborated with Institutional Effectiveness and Data Governance programs to begin collecting language skill data from student applications to improve emergency communications, anticipate student needs, and promote language diversity as an asset.
Sorting Out English Pronunciation @ Suqian College (2019)
- lectured on English phonetics to mixed audience of Chinese undergraduates and faculty
Exploring and Mapping Teachers’ Emotional Labor in EAP @ MIDTESOL (2017)
- collaborated with colleagues on presentation of our critical pedagogy discussion group on the emotional labor inherent in teaching EAP as adjunct, women, and queer professionals.
Tech Scouts @ Kirkwood Community College (2016—2018)
- provided technical support to faculty across all disciplines in the Iowa City campus
- researched and led training workshops for faculty on educational software and technologies
- presented demonstration and review of Calendly titled “Student appointments made easy” at internal conference.
- presented review of GoReact at the Iowa Conference on Higher Education in 2016
Resources for New Iowans in Johnson County (2016)
- built dataset of local organizations offering a variety of services to meet the needs of immigrant families
- shared the project with local teachers and social workers
- project was adopted and published by Kirkwood Libraries
Duolingo for the Language Classroom (April 16, 2016)
Plagiarism: Focused Teaching and Enhanced Understanding @ MIDTESOL (2012)
- researched and developed materials to teach international students the cultural differences surrounding plagiarism and authorship
- presented work at MIDTESOL conference to audience of English teaching faculty
Education
Master of Social Work @ The University of Iowa (in progress, graduating 2026)
Promoting Active Learning @ ACUE (2023)
- active learning cycle, teaching note-taking skills, planning and facilitating class discussions
Data Analytics Professional Certificate @ Coursera (2023)
- 8 course professional certificate series on data analytics
- includes courses on data collection, cleaning, ethics, visualization, and analytical thinking
- includes applied projects in Excel, SQL, R, and Tableau
Inclusive Teaching and Equitable Learning @ ACUE (2022)
- managing the impact of biases, reducing microaggressions in learning environments, addressing imposter phenomenon and stereotype threat, creating inclusive learning environments, and designing equity-centered courses.
M.A. Linguistics/TESOL @ The University of Iowa (2013)
- corpora database design, language acquisition, language typology
B.A. Linguistics/TESOL @ The University of Iowa (2012)
- Honors, Dean’s List, politics and language, Arabic, informatics
- Undergraduate Student Advisory Board
Associate of Arts @ Indian Hills Community College (2010)
- Dean’s list, general education courses, Spanish