I was born
in Medellin, Colombia in April, 1966. I went to a state school from
kindergarten up to 7th grade and then I went to a public high school where I studied English for five years. There I felt the fascination for English
language and I began to think about the possibility to become an English teacher. After finishing my
high school studies, besides studying computers programming, I kept on studying the
language because I really liked it and because I didn’t want to forget anything
I had learnt so far. However, I was not sure of how well I could teach it or if
becoming a teacher would make me happy. After some years of studying and
gaining experience in the classroom of private institutes, I started feeling
much more confident and sure that this was the only occupation I would like
to do. Although I kept studying computers and finally I could finish this degree course that I never enjoyed. (Actually I only finished it just to please my mother who practically made me to complete it).
My first
job related to English was in a computers company. I was in charge of
international purchases. At first, I enjoyed a lot the job because I was in
contact with foreign people who spoke English all the time. Then I realized
that to work with a boss who demanded of you just producing as much as possible, was not my job. For some years more I worked in other companies related to
computers until I decided to come to Argentina where un uncle of mine who had lived
here for many years invited me to stay. So I took the decision to come and live here and
I realized that this was my opportunity to take advantage of my studies of
English. So I started working in private institutes of English in Cordoba Capital where I lived for
twelve years. Little by little, I began to understand that working at a
school was not so excited either: being with students, sharing materials with other teachers, monitoring of break
times, do a lot of paper work and so on. Some years later, I moved to Bariloche
and got a job in a private school of languages where I taught English to adults and Spanish to foreigners,
who learnt in such an enthusiastic way that I was motivated again with teaching. Here I
worked in Private Institutes for few years until I started teaching at primary State Schools
up to the present. It was also when I decided to improve myself as a teacher and take this course at Lenguas Vivas.
I can still
remember every feeling I had on my first day in a primary school with 25 children
of 7th grade in the same class: I was nervous, anxious, tense. The
night before it had been very hard to sleep; I had so many doubts and worries
that I could not sleep well. The class started at 8:30 a.m so
I woke up extremely early and tried to have some breakfast, I could take just a
coffee and drove my car on the way to school.
In the
school I was introduced by the vice principal to other teachers who told me to
wait in the teacher’s room to the moment the class started. The bell rang and
I felt sick. I wanted to run away. I took a deep breath and went to where the vice
principal of school told me to go: a room with 25 students who were chatting and
playing. Some of them did not even look at me, but some others were more
anxious than me and started asking questions like: “What subject do you teach?
what’s your name? why you speak like that, are you from here?”. That’s when I
took another long breath and started answering their questions and to my
surprise, it felt quite good to chat with them.
After
talking for some minutes and refreshing on how to make personal questions in
English, we were ready to start the activity I had in mind. I took a ball so as
to play a simple game: the person who has holding the ball had to throw it and
make a question to another person from the class, such as “What’s your name?
How old are you?
Besides playing with the ball, we reviewed the
numbers from 1 to 100 trying to count them one by one. Finally, the class
finished and I could say that I was having so much fun with my 11 and 12-year-old
students. I went home after that class. I felt at ease again. I was happy and I
actually found myself smiling alone at home. I think that day I learnt so much
from my students that I was more a learner than a teacher. Those students
showed me how to have fun while teaching, how to let things flow
and how to enjoy what I do.
I really
like teaching children even though it might be challenging sometimes.
As regards
the approach I take to teaching and learning, I believe it is quite hard to
identify with only one since I think I choose and apply what is more effective
to a particular class. However, my classes are usually based on the
Communicative Language Teaching approach and Multimodality (games, videos,role plays). First of
all, I believe that communicative competence should be the aim of language
teaching; students need to know when and how to say something to someone. I try
to use the target language as much as possible together with materials and games where students can communicate in “real” events, such
as in role plays, interviews and surveys. This is not always achievable,
especially at lower levels. Furthermore, in order to help students feel more
comfortable to speak the foreign language, I make them to work in small groups or
in pairs in a collaborative way.
Finally, I believe that the approach a teacher
takes and his philosophy of teaching go hand in hand with the experience he
gains year after year. Also, I can say that
gaining experience in the classroom is what has helped me grow as a person and
as a teacher more than any book or course about teaching. What I find motivating is that
there is still so much more to learn along with my students and with my formation
as an English teacher.