My Philosophy of Teaching
My philosophy of teaching is based on beliefs that learning is a never-ending process of discovering. Over the course of twenty years of language teaching for kids and adults, I realized that we are all learners, that we never stop to integrate new knowledge and re-evaluate our personal way of thinking and acting in life. This conviction makes me see myself as a learner too. Therefore, my place as a teacher is not distinct from my place as a human being, in the search of evolution and improvement.
Due to my personal convictions, I conceive education as one of the most engaged activities and one of the most challenging. Teaching is not a static entity. It evolves with history and society. Besides family, nothing influences people’s life more than a teacher, for the good or the bad. An educator always represents something more than a professional doing a job. The teacher has the power of modeling individuals’ expectations and way of thinking. That is why I also see myself as someone able to promote awareness, self-consciousness and values in others.
Being a second language teacher gives me the opportunity to invite others to observe and analyze new visions of the world, which is not an easy goal if we consider the worldwide tendency to social division and fear. My classes are an invitation to curiosity, to ask themselves about other realities, to make reflections about their native language and culture, to take in mind all the dimensions of communication, to create emphaty for the other not considered before as an equal.
I am convinced that language teaching requires special attention to the students’ needs and interests, but these aspects should never stop the opportunity to expose our students to new interests brought by the social consequences of interacting with a new culture.
There should be a balance between global tasks and student’s specific needs. The teacher should expose students to multi-task goals. As far as they advance in their studies, we must give to students the opportunity to develop more complex language skills, permitting them to go beyond the basic four task skills of communication.
I always move second language teaching as a cognitive and emotional bridge, a necessary tool for the development of a renewable sense of global community, where everybody’s culture is promoted and respected. That makes a language teacher an interpreter of reality. Teaching a language is teaching a culture. New sounds and rhythms introduce new colors, ways of thinking and feelings. A new language is therefore an open door connecting people. Therefore, Intercultural approach is critical to achieve my goals as a language teacher.
Motivation is essential in every learning-teaching process. It is part of the self-awareness of individuals and it use to be very vulnerable and dependable of educational experiences. That is why I believe that a good teacher is able to encourage others to evaluate their own learning process, to support their motivations in their strengths and be critics with their weakness. The teacher’s feedback should always follow that way too. The student has the right to be evaluated scientifically, to acknowledge what he has achieved and what he needs to improve. The teacher I work to be is the one who always send practical feedback for the student, indicating in a clear language how to correct their production. That is essential to make him conscious of their own learning.
Hence, my philosophy of teaching is the one that evaluates the student accordingly to progress instead of technical results. I believe in the importance of individuality in and out the class. The teacher should respect individual aspects of students, as the time each one takes for input processing, the way they react to new knowledge and how they use to communicate.
However, all these aspects should not detriment the scientific evaluation of learning processing. This is when a good background in learning theories are sine qua non for every professional of education. Be related to the Zone of Proximal Development of Vygotsky is essential. A strong theoretical background helps any teacher to realize that each student’s progress involves the creation of its owns learning strategies. In that sense the teacher becomes a guide model of these learning strategies where, the more diverse they are, the better.
Finally, I promote the idea that a teacher is an individual who push others to be better thinkers. This can be done by the exposing students to several learning strategies and tools. In addition, the language class is one of the few times people have to meditate about the way they behave in society.
Ergo, language teaching is interaction, connection, engagement. The teacher is a promoter of social development as Paulo Freire stated in his Pedagogy of the Opressed. Awareness of the time and space we are corresponded to live. Our place in the community and the care for others. These are the values of the language within the language.
Due to my personal convictions, I conceive education as one of the most engaged activities and one of the most challenging. Teaching is not a static entity. It evolves with history and society. Besides family, nothing influences people’s life more than a teacher, for the good or the bad. An educator always represents something more than a professional doing a job. The teacher has the power of modeling individuals’ expectations and way of thinking. That is why I also see myself as someone able to promote awareness, self-consciousness and values in others.
Being a second language teacher gives me the opportunity to invite others to observe and analyze new visions of the world, which is not an easy goal if we consider the worldwide tendency to social division and fear. My classes are an invitation to curiosity, to ask themselves about other realities, to make reflections about their native language and culture, to take in mind all the dimensions of communication, to create emphaty for the other not considered before as an equal.
I am convinced that language teaching requires special attention to the students’ needs and interests, but these aspects should never stop the opportunity to expose our students to new interests brought by the social consequences of interacting with a new culture.
There should be a balance between global tasks and student’s specific needs. The teacher should expose students to multi-task goals. As far as they advance in their studies, we must give to students the opportunity to develop more complex language skills, permitting them to go beyond the basic four task skills of communication.
I always move second language teaching as a cognitive and emotional bridge, a necessary tool for the development of a renewable sense of global community, where everybody’s culture is promoted and respected. That makes a language teacher an interpreter of reality. Teaching a language is teaching a culture. New sounds and rhythms introduce new colors, ways of thinking and feelings. A new language is therefore an open door connecting people. Therefore, Intercultural approach is critical to achieve my goals as a language teacher.
Motivation is essential in every learning-teaching process. It is part of the self-awareness of individuals and it use to be very vulnerable and dependable of educational experiences. That is why I believe that a good teacher is able to encourage others to evaluate their own learning process, to support their motivations in their strengths and be critics with their weakness. The teacher’s feedback should always follow that way too. The student has the right to be evaluated scientifically, to acknowledge what he has achieved and what he needs to improve. The teacher I work to be is the one who always send practical feedback for the student, indicating in a clear language how to correct their production. That is essential to make him conscious of their own learning.
Hence, my philosophy of teaching is the one that evaluates the student accordingly to progress instead of technical results. I believe in the importance of individuality in and out the class. The teacher should respect individual aspects of students, as the time each one takes for input processing, the way they react to new knowledge and how they use to communicate.
However, all these aspects should not detriment the scientific evaluation of learning processing. This is when a good background in learning theories are sine qua non for every professional of education. Be related to the Zone of Proximal Development of Vygotsky is essential. A strong theoretical background helps any teacher to realize that each student’s progress involves the creation of its owns learning strategies. In that sense the teacher becomes a guide model of these learning strategies where, the more diverse they are, the better.
Finally, I promote the idea that a teacher is an individual who push others to be better thinkers. This can be done by the exposing students to several learning strategies and tools. In addition, the language class is one of the few times people have to meditate about the way they behave in society.
Ergo, language teaching is interaction, connection, engagement. The teacher is a promoter of social development as Paulo Freire stated in his Pedagogy of the Opressed. Awareness of the time and space we are corresponded to live. Our place in the community and the care for others. These are the values of the language within the language.
Being a second language teacher gives me the opportunity to invite others to observe and analyze new visions of the world, which is not an easy goal if we consider the worldwide tendency to social division and fear. My classes are an invitation to curiosity, to ask themselves about other realities, to make reflections about their native language and culture, to take in mind all the dimensions of communication, to create emphaty for the other not considered before as an equal.
I am convinced that language teaching requires special attention to the students’ needs and interests, but these aspects should never stop the opportunity to expose our students to new interests brought by the social consequences of interacting with a new culture.
There should be a balance between global tasks and student’s specific needs. The teacher should expose students to multi-task goals. As far as they advance in their studies, we must give to students the opportunity to develop more complex language skills, permitting them to go beyond the basic four task skills of communication.
I always move second language teaching as a cognitive and emotional bridge, a necessary tool for the development of a renewable sense of global community, where everybody’s culture is promoted and respected. That makes a language teacher an interpreter of reality. Teaching a language is teaching a culture. New sounds and rhythms introduce new colors, ways of thinking and feelings. A new language is therefore an open door connecting people. Therefore, Intercultural approach is critical to achieve my goals as a language teacher.
Motivation is essential in every learning-teaching process. It is part of the self-awareness of individuals and it use to be very vulnerable and dependable of educational experiences. That is why I believe that a good teacher is able to encourage others to evaluate their own learning process, to support their motivations in their strengths and be critics with their weakness. The teacher’s feedback should always follow that way too. The student has the right to be evaluated scientifically, to acknowledge what he has achieved and what he needs to improve. The teacher I work to be is the one who always send practical feedback for the student, indicating in a clear language how to correct their production. That is essential to make him conscious of their own learning.
Hence, my philosophy of teaching is the one that evaluates the student accordingly to progress instead of technical results. I believe in the importance of individuality in and out the class. The teacher should respect individual aspects of students, as the time each one takes for input processing, the way they react to new knowledge and how they use to communicate.
However, all these aspects should not detriment the scientific evaluation of learning processing. This is when a good background in learning theories are sine qua non for every professional of education. Be related to the Zone of Proximal Development of Vygotsky is essential. A strong theoretical background helps any teacher to realize that each student’s progress involves the creation of its owns learning strategies. In that sense the teacher becomes a guide model of these learning strategies where, the more diverse they are, the better.
Finally, I promote the idea that a teacher is an individual who push others to be better thinkers. This can be done by the exposing students to several learning strategies and tools. In addition, the language class is one of the few times people have to meditate about the way they behave in society.
Ergo, language teaching is interaction, connection, engagement. The teacher is a promoter of social development as Paulo Freire stated in his Pedagogy of the Opressed. Awareness of the time and space we are corresponded to live. Our place in the community and the care for others. These are the values of the language within the language.
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