About me

Back in the day when I was known as Jeff McClelland, I first got interested in teaching ESL in San Francisco through organizing with Food Not Bombs and doing solidarity work with Hogares Sin Barreras, a Latino day laborer advocacy group. Since then I have taught ESL and developed curriculum in a variety of college and community-based settings since 2000. They include:

  • Teaching content-based ESL classes that link with college credit classes at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston since 2015.
  • Co-leading a major revision of the ESL Program at Bunker Hill from 2016-2020.
  • Teaching a film class that explores immigrant and multicultural experiences to ESL international university students at UC Berkeley every summer since 2013.
  • Researching, developing and piloting an ESL curriculum for med students in the Universidad de Talca in Chile as a Fulbright Fellow in 2014.
  • Developing and teaching an ESL and leadership development class for Latina immigrants in partnership with 2 San Francisco community-based organizations, The Women's Building and Mujeres Unidas y Activas, from 2011-2012.
  • Teaching multi-level ESL family literacy (CBET) classes for immigrant parents in K-12 public schools in San Francisco and Oakland from 2006-2010.
  • Teaching a content-based ESL class framed around post-WWll US history at the Universidad de Azuay in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2004-2005.

I earned my Masters in TESOL at San Francisco State University. My teaching approach is grounded in contextualizing all aspects of my instruction around the specific characteristics, needs and aspirations of my students. Read more.

After a lot of moving around between San Francisco and Bulgaria, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile, I have made the Boston area my home as an Ellenbird along with my partner Caroline and our two young daughters, Leo and Ivy. Here I have found my ideal job at Bunker Hill Community College where my passions for teaching in community-based settings and teaching college level academic content come together. Outside of teaching, I love playing music with friends and family, shoveling in compost piles, making fires on the beach, and getting around.