How can I describe my teaching practice? I should
say that it is a trip full of many adventures!
How time flies! I still
remember when I was a little girl playing with my brothers and cousins in my
grandma’s room. That was the place in which magic was given. My love for
teaching has been present since I was in elementary school. I remember, I used
to be the teacher and my brothers and cousins were my students. We usually met
at my grandmother’s room and we used her closet’s door as a board and a chalk
to write on it. We did this activity secretly because my grandma would be very
angry if she realized that we were doing that and also, using her stuffs.
I spent four years in
that school. However, I never knew what English was, because my teacher was an
all-knower who taught me the main subjects such as Spanish, Maths, Biology,
Geography, among others. Nevertheless, she did not teach me English. At that
time, I had to move and live in Neiva. Hence, I started doing my fifth grade.
That was the first time that I knew English existed. Therefore, English was something
new for me and I was delighted to learn that language because the mere thought
of communicating with others in a different way was amazing.
Over the years, I continued
learning, and English was becoming an important part in my life. Likewise, I
wanted to know more about cultures, people and places. It was one of the
subjects I enjoyed the most. Moreover, one of the activities we did a lot was
translation but we also worked on different activities. Nonetheless, I had
great influence in learning English because my teacher was good at it and she
motivated me to be better every day.
One of the most
important decisions I’ve made in my life has been choosing a career. I knew
that decision would change my life. Also, I did not want to be a frustrated
professional. In that sense, I spent my last year at school thinking about the
best choices for me. At the beginning I wanted to be a doctor because I
believed helping people was something incredible. Then, I realized through an
experience that I was afraid of blood. Therefore, I was sure I will not be able
to help someone who was hurt. Then, my English teacher gave me a piece of advice
and she suggested me to study English and I thought “oh! that’s great, that
would be a good choice”. So, I decided to study English at Universidad
Surcolombiana.
When I started college,
I had lot of expectations. I knew it was not going to be easy but I decided to
face it. Classes at college were dynamic and well-organized. Besides, my
professors were supportive in the whole process of being an English teacher. Needless
to say, the approaches that were taught at that moment were meaningful for my teaching
methodology. Moreover, the research that I carried out with other classmates
gave me a notion of real contexts of teaching and learning. Taking into
consideration all of these facts, my teaching was enriched with all of the
pedagogical tools and strategies given by all my professors and experience
itself.
Furthermore, when I got
my first job, I was anxious and maybe nervous because I wanted everything in a
perfect way. So, I started working in a private school. I had to face lot of
challenges. First, I had never worked with pre-school before. Second, they were
affectionate and I was the opposite. Third, they were all the time in movement
and that was really demanding for me. Finally, I had to prepare many activities
and play with them. Also, they did not speak even Spanish and my job was to
teach them English. They only word I always understood from them was “pofe”. That
was the way they called me at the beginning. After that, they started calling
me “teache”. I worked a whole year in that school. I am inclined to believe
that all of these kids contributed in my teaching practice because I changed
some things of myself and I was more aware of my role as a teacher.
Hence, after worked in
a private school I had the chance to get a new job in Gigante. The time I spent
in this school has been the most pleasant reward so far. I am convinced that students’
contexts influence their learning process. In this place, I learned to support
my students and be more than a professional. I chose to be a guide for them.
Therefore, I presented a meaningful experience from my students in Bogotá. As a
result of this, we published a book.
Nowadays, I am
currently doing an MA in English at Universidad Surcolombiana and I am very
happy to continue studying and learning. I firmly believe that being a teacher
is an ongoing process that needs to be carrying out every day with innovations
and lot of compromise. Nobody has said that being a teacher it is just to know
little things and to teach every day the same lesson and in the same way. Consequently,
I am trying to be a better teacher every single day, understand my students’ needs
and take into account all of those variants that are immersed in my students’
learning process.
For the above mentioned reasons, I feel that
being a reflective teacher benefits education in a positive way. As I said
before, I had to change some things that were not appropriate for my teaching
practice. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I had to reflect on what I
was doing and I realized that there were some pitfalls, so, I looked for
alternative solutions. In my view, I am still learning and the idea is to
improve my teaching practice every single day.
