My Student's Story

Now I have a couple in my class, they are taking cycle 2. The girl is in her twenties and I think that the man too. In class they share the student’s book and they don´t get involve with their classmates, they are always together. During my classes I realize that Andrea* doesn’t acquire well all the information or all the topics and she also has some problems to communicate her ideas in English. I wonder what the problem is and I talk to her twice. I asked her why she is learning English and she said to me that she’s going to Curacao in September because her boyfriend works there. So they are trying to learn English as soon as possible. The real problem is she doesn’t like English at all and thinks that it is so difficult. She also said that she studies and practices with her boyfriend and she understands for a while, but when she takes an exam, she just forgets everything. I think the problem is her boyfriend because he understands some things about the language, but he is not a very good student. Maybe he’ not teaching her in the right way and he doesn’t let me to help his girlfriend in class and he just asks for my help few times. I think that he sometimes confuses her more and he’s not a patient man.

*It's not her real name 

Critical Reflecion

1. How do you define learning?

It is the process of acquiring knowledge about certain topic or skill.

2. How do you define teaching?

Teaching is to help others to learn.

3. How do you define language?

Language is the way people communicate and transmit things such as feelings, ideas, etc.

4. What roles are students expected to assume in your classroom?

They are expected to be active and participate constantly. I mean, I’m not the only person who teaches them something; they also receive feedback from their classmates and have interaction with them.

5. How do you see your role in the classroom?

First, I try to have a good relationship with my students but at the same time I show authority and that they must have respect towards me. I’m an understanding person and a good listener too, so my students can talk to me when they don’t understand something or when the explanation is not clear. I try to pay attention on each student.

6. What are the qualities of a good teacher?

I think the first important thing that a teacher must have is passion for teaching. Secondly, a teacher displays self confidence; it means that he/she must be well-prepared to know what to teach and how to teach it. Besides, he/she should be responsible and organized and pass on her/his knowledge to the students in an easy way.

7. What kinds of interactions occur in your classroom?

First at all, they interact with me, the teacher, and then they also interact with their classmates and the environment. In my classes I try to focus the topics on real life and put them on context, on real situations. Additionally my students, especially teens, can manage the class with activities that they really like.

8. What is the most rewardig aspect of teaching for you?

When you see that all the effort and investment you do in your classes has a positive effect in your students’ learning process. This is a reward for me.

9. What kinds of students do best in your classroom?

I have noticed that the students who really like English, the ones who participated in class and show interested in learning more.

10. What kind of training do you think English language teachers in our context need?

I think that at this point we need to learn about strategies to do our class the best and the most interesting one. Also, it is important to pass on our students the knowledge about English culture and teach them useful conversation, vocabulary and writing strategies.

11. What kind of support for professional development is there at the place you work or you are familiar with?

I don’t remember any especial training, but we have constantly meetings where we discuss problems or things like that and give solution to them.

12. What are the best ways to learn a language?

First at all, you have to enjoy what your learning and practice a lot. Nowadays, there are a lot of advantages that you can apply in order to learn in an effective way.

13. What dialect of English do you think should be taught (American, British, other)?

I think that we should teach the Standard English. Although in my class I speak American, sometimes I use both languages when the word has different pronunciation.

14. What changes would you like to make in your own practice?

I’d like to make my classes more dynamic it means that I’d like to know more about classroom’s management and how to arouse motivation and engagement to my students.

My English Teaching Biography

When I started to study this career everyone asked me why I had chosen to be an English teacher and my only answer was because I like it. But this pleasure for English has an origin and here is my story.

I began my first year of high school in 2000 and I remember that my English teacher’s name was Deyanira. I can remember her pretty well because she was a bad-tempered woman and very strict. During the whole year I learnt the “Verb to be”, some things about personal information, colors, numbers and no more. Next year my English and Spanish teacher was the same person, but I can’t remember too much about her classes or methodology. In 8th grade my teacher was Ligia. She was a kind woman and she spoke softly. I remember that once she told us to sing a song and perform a dance and it was very funny. My friends and I sang “Underneath it all” and we wore costumes and that stuff. It was amazing but a kind of embarrassing. I really liked all the activities that we did during that year because they were different and we enjoyed them.

I was a good student during those years and I didn’t have many difficulties with English language. However, I wanted to improve my skills, so I started an English course at Panamericano School on Saturday mornings. In that course I learnt more than what I had learnt in my school and it gave me the opportunity to be better in my classes. In 10th and 11th grade I had the same teacher, her name was Miyi and she was the best teacher, even though she was strict. The classes with her were dynamic. I remember that once we recorded a video, our group chose the reality show called “El Desafio” and other people chose movies such as “Scary movie” among others. Besides, we performed different plays and fairy tales in class, so we had fun. I think that the experience in those years was essential to decide to get into the English teaching program because I knew that with this career I could improve all the skills.

I can say that my experience learning English at high school was good owing to I had knowledge about the language and it wasn’t too difficult for me. Also, the teachers, the methodology and my classmates were of great help in this process.