Prior to joining the EPP faculty, Mr. David Shectman was the recipient of two English Language Fellowships from the U.S. Department of State; as a Fellow, he led teacher training workshops throughout Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia and taught pre-service teachers of English at a university in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. His webinar on the importance of building community in the classroom is featured on the Regional English Language Office Bangkok’s YouTube channel.

Mr. Shectman also developed a particularly close working relationship with Fulbright Thailand for whom he helped train, mentor, and supervise the work of several cohorts of English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) teaching in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; this relationship continued during the COVID pandemic when he single-handedly designed and led a week-long virtual training for ETAs undergoing quarantine upon arrival to Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

Before working as a Fellow, Mr. Shectman served as Director of Education at a large private school in Budapest, Hungary, where he supervised the entire teaching staff and was responsible for the smooth daily operations of the school. He is also formerly an employee of the Hungarian Ministry of Education for whom he spent three years setting up an innovative bi-lingual curriculum at a public elementary school in the suburbs of Budapest. This project remains closest to his heart, and he is proud to report that this program remains active and flourishing nearly fifteen years later.

His professional interests include best practices for teaching literacy (namely Orton Gillingham), ways to encourage critical thinking on the part of students, and techniques for developing and maintaining a warm, inclusive environment in the classroom.

A dual citizen of the U.S. and Hungary, Mr. Shectman is bi-lingual in English and Hungarian and speaks fluent-ish German (B2 certificate from ÖSD), a by-product of a brief teaching stint in Basel, Switzerland.

Aside from his deep love of working with students of all ages, Mr. Shectman is passionate about buying and selling on eBay, cardiovascular exercise, listening to podcasts, the website “Dlisted”, and experimenting (occasionally with some success!) with his beloved COVID lockdown sourdough starter, Audrey.