MY REFLECTION

Throughout my experience as an English teacher and as a teacher training course student, I have learned that motivation strategies and the teaching methodology that we decide to use in the classroom are two very important factors that determine the way of acting of the learner in the classroom, and that these factors positively or negatively influence the learner's decision to get involved or not in the learning process.

Reflecting on this, I think that for this process to work effectively we must first get to know our students, talk to them, get feedback from them.
Being in class with secondary school students should be something that demands from us being more attentive in the use of these two factors, given the psycho-emotional characteristics of the secondary students: adolescents in the process of formation and growth and with great sensitivity and vulnerability to external factors.

I think that it is not enough to know the previous knowledge of the English language the students have, it is not even enough to know what they expect from the language. If we as teachers are not able to get along with them, to know their social and cultural contexts, their interests and preferences in order to achieve adequate interaction and guidance that motivates them and significantly involves them in the teaching-learning process. Only then can we appropriate our role as teachers and thus overcome the first obstacles in the pedagogical process of delineating the approach, dynamics and resources that we will use in class.
With regard to the motivation and autonomy of the high school students, we have seen in the training course how the attitude of the teacher, an adequate classroom environment and the activities that we have planned are vital elements in getting the student to be positively involved and committed to achieve the necessary independence and expected outcomes in their learning.
We have to be able to know the preferences and learning styles of each of the students in order to achieve an efficient organization and development of the methodology and resources to be used.

In relation to the approach, it is also important to familiarise with it and consider the students as an integral part of it, where they feel the need to participate actively in making decisions, where they can choose activities that respond to their interests and needs and where the teacher is rather a facilitator and guide of these activities instead of the controller of the whole thing.

A classroom that allows the students to develop and express their critical thinking and creativity and work in different ways, express emotional themes, tell stories, perhaps their own stories, and create new ones: «songs, chants, rhymes, stories, mime, dramatization.

The resources to be used should always be dynamic and that promote diversity as well as group and collaborative work. Encouraging the use of modern technologies that are so attractive to them and that promote the student's approach to the new global cultural reality, which is the basis on which interculturality and diversity are built.

I believe that the dynamics in a secondary level classroom should be learner-oriented so that the students work with a predominance of communication skills. Encourage fluency in the use of the language by empowering debates and involving students personally with their own opinions. The contents of the activities must be contextualized and reflect real life events.

In short, the teaching-learning process at the secondary level must be student-centred more than ever due to the psychological characteristics of the learner mentioned above and if we do this process with respect, empathy and authenticity as Carl Rogers says, we can create an effective learning environment.

Regarding the evaluation at the secondary level, I consider that it is one of the most difficult aspects to take into account given the different variables to consider. Assessing whether a student is competent or not in the knowledge acquired has always been a challenge for me since I consider each student a different world and each one has a particular way of learning. I think that the evaluations in secondary education are still designed in a massive and generic way so we need to rethink the way we evaluate students since many of them are not interested in obtaining good results.

I think that for a teacher to objectively monitor the learning of the students, we have to take into account the specific reality of each one of them. In this way we can work on the personal development and transformative education that ratifies the knowledge, abilities and skills that are desired to achieve in each of our students.

All in all, in this time of pandemic and unusual forms of teaching and learning it is more important to be responsible in developing autonomy and critical thinking in the students as I consider that these skills will help them to understand the real world we are living.
Anyway I can say that I miss being in the classroom with my students. Something new always happens so we learn from each other. I am still motivated to continue developing my skills as a teacher because I want to give my best to them.
Gustavo Rendon