Diary of a teacher - Chapter 5: The Course of Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of Languages
At the beginning of the semester, I had great expectations of starting the course of Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of Languages; since the subject’s name reminded me of some constant debates and reflections about methods that I had with my colleagues last two semesters. In addition, this subject had a lot of information about the educational field over time; then, for that reason, I currently consider this subject as one of the main ones of my career. However, to begin this reflection, I want to emphasize and reflect on the following two things that caught my attention in class and changed my thoughts about myself as a teacher:
- Reality check: it was an activity that we did during the first class, and it was related to the educational field and what we know about ourselves as teachers. Also, I consider the reality check a transversal and continuous exercise that we develop throughout the semester because it was implicit in the diverse subject’s topics, such as lesson plan, classroom management, etc.
- The professor’s proposal: Conversations that help us to build our teaching and scholarly personae or, in short words, Demo Weekdays.
Keeping in mind the above, I want to begin this reflection with the first point that is the main inspiration for my words in this writing. Nevertheless, the reality check activity needs to be contextualized a bit more because it was the pivotal moment that changed my thoughts about myself as a teacher. The activity consisted of questions about the current context of the educational field, the current debates related to language teaching in Colombia, and other things that most of us could not answer at this time. However, the lack of answers and knowledge was the beginning of the change in my thoughts because this activity allowed me to wake up to know that I should not relax and there is a long way to go yet.
Moreover, the reality check and the conversation of the first-class changed my thoughts of the last four semesters, which consisted of “I’m a futures teacher” because I realized that I am a teacher now, in this present, and not in an uncertain future … which has no happened. In short words, and as Dr. Berry mentioned the first class, “NOW, HERE, YOU! …are TEACHERS”; then, I urgently had to stop thinking that I’m a future teacher to recognize and appropriate who I am today. I woke up and began to think differently about my present; likewise, today, I can respond to those questions that I could not answer the first time.
On the other hand, the second point is conversations that help us to build our teaching and scholarly personae, and it is the most meaningful thing that I did throughout the semester. These conversations took place with the Demo Weekdays (i.e., Demo Friday & Wednesday), and they allowed me to experiment more than receive knowledge because I had the opportunity to feel part of a community of teachers. I have to admit that before the demo classes I had no idea what teaching community there is. Every week was a moment for construct worldviews through a reality check, and I can develop reflection and my character as a teacher. In essence, these two things were the before and after for me as a teacher during the semester.
