The Last Reflection

I never thought I was going to be a teacher; in fact I did not want to be a teacher at all, however, a major in language teaching had to do with something I really love, languages, but not teaching; so the story of how I got into teaching is more of an accident than anything else; I’ll explain why.

After having financial problems to continue studying at medical school, I had nowhere to go. Accidentally, I came across Luis Amigó webpage and found that this school offered a major in English teaching. I read everything about it and I got interested. Two months later I was studying at Luis Amigó University to become a language teacher.

At the beginning it was an accident (I define accident as those situations that make you wonder why some things  happen in life), but now that I have been able to explore and experience many things in life through this beautiful profession, I am able to say that this accident, from all perspectives, has made a great change in my life.

For example, initially I thought that language (in this case English) served to achieve things (get a good job, get paid well, you are smarter if you speak more than one language, etc.), my reduced mentality at this point could only see that, nothing went beyond this diminished outlook. Now that I’ve lived so many great experiences, that I have learnt so much from my Professors, classmates and students, I can tell that languages are more than just channels through the ones we obtain those types of things I was telling you about. Now, my perspective towards languages has evolved. I see them as part of our identity (no matter where we come from), I see them as ways to express our knowledge and feelings, share our thoughts and our ways of how we in our particular contexts perceive and understand reality, a possibility to understand other people’s concerns and difficulties, and even more important, I now see languages and education as great instruments through the ones I can change the lives of others, just as in the same way my Professors, colleagues and students have changed mine.

That’s why I believe in the power of education. I have experienced it myself and my belief has become so strong that I decided to adopt it as a life style. Yes, I know it may sound ambitious, but if I want to do something different, I have to look at things in no ordinary ways. I find in this great opportunity (education), the chance to veer towards the opening of change, a change that would help bring to our contexts, to our communities, justice, equity, acceptance, freedom, love, etc. In this way, having students learn about prescribed plans might be important (at least for some people), but more important, as educators, is to be facilitators of students’ personal growth, a growth that later will allow them to make the pertinent decisions about the path they would like to follow as active and responsible members of society. As human, I know that my drop of sand won’t make the world turn upside down, but as an educator, I know I am going to do my best to help bring a little change to the lives of my students.

• Especial thanks to my Professor Liliana Maturana and her course “Fundamentos de Ingles 3” for allowing me see teaching differently, for helping me become a better professional, a better person. 

Truthout Interviews with Henry A. Giroux "When Schools Become Dead Zones of the Imagination"

In this entry you will find an article and an interview with Henry A. Giroux. The interview is an invitation for teachers to start looking at schools and students in a very different way. Please take a minute to discover what this invitation is all about. The article is Giroux's most recent publication and pictures a reality that as teachers we must be aware of. I hope you enjoy it!

Retrieved from: http://www.truth-out.org/

Critical Pedagogy Principles Proposed by: Giroux, Freire, Kumaravadivelu

This entry is a space to reflect upon three specific documents written by advocates of critical pedagogy philosophy. The three authors I am referring to are: Paulo Freire, Henry A. Giroux, and B. Kumaravadivelu. So as a way to enlighten and enhance the understanding of our role as language teachers, our Professor proposed several readings written by the previously named authors. The readings proposed were to be read individually.

Two or three weeks later in one of our meetings, the main postulates and principles found in the read articles were gathered and put in a Conceptual Map by all members of “Fundamentos III” class, as a way to make connections and interpretations of what those principles and postulates are trying to show us as language teachers. So here I am presenting not only my work, but also the contributions made by my classmates to comprehend better some of the bases that should guide our practice as educators.  

   

Please take a minute to download the full version of the conceptual map so you can see it in detail. 

Click on this link to view the full version of the Conceptual Map above

Reflecting about our Practicum

Retrieved from: www.e-faro.info

Today’s reflection comes from a discussion that we lived in class a while ago; so as a way to understand better this reflection, I’ll try to explain who we are, and where we come from.

Our School, “Fundación Universitaria Luis Amigó is located in Medellin-Colombia, where we are studying to get a degree as BA in English Education. As part of our preparation to become teachers, we take a course that is called “Fundamentos de Ingles Lengua Extranjera III” and part of this class’s purpose is to reflect upon our practicum, which is developed at different schools (both public and private) throughout the city of Medellin.

Since reflection is paramount for this course, we all started to share our stories and experiences during our practicum, and as we talked and shared, many questions came up. Some of those questions were: How do you handle discipline in the classroom? What are some possible ways to approach those types of situations when kids are fighting? When the discussion started, most had something to say. The ones that had gone through situations like those shared the different ways in which they faced those particular circumstances. Then, one of our classmates wanted to share his story and when he told us what happened to him during his experience, he left the classroom speechless, no words, no nothing. But that was only for a moment, because right after that we all started to intervene. I’ll tell you what happened to him (from now on I’ll refer to him as Terence).

That day, Terence told us that two of his students were not paying attention to his class and besides that, they were fighting and throwing things at each other. Terence explained that he tried to calm them down, but they kept fighting, and was almost impossible for him to keep going with the class. So following that, Terence responded yelling at them saying: (in a rude tone) “are you two going to keep acting like gays”. As I said above, for a moment no one said anything, but then we all asked him “Why did you act that way? Do you think that’s the appropriate way for a teacher to respond to a situation like that one?” Obviously, Terence came to the conclusion that this was not the appropriate way to try to handle that particular situation, but he insisted that he had nowhere to go and that he felt cornered by the indiscipline. 

Before judging Terence and in order to understand this case, we have to go a little bit back in time and take a closer look at Terence’s process.

Terence is one of our classmates, and as a part of our group, he has been with us for several years now. The story gets interesting because Terence has always expressed openly and in front of teachers and classmates, that he doesn’t want to be a teacher, he doesn’t like the universe of education, and even though he likes English and learning about languages, he feels like he is inside a world where he doesn’t belong, feels like a stranger, like a fish swimming inside a baby’s bottle. But at this point, you may ask yourselves: Why does he go to school to study something he doesn’t like? Well, Terence’s answer is very short and straight to the point; he says: “I am forced to; my parents say I should keep going, what can I do? I just need to get my diploma and that’s it”

Now that we know this, we may understand better why he reacted that way; and here, I personally highlight the stance Spranger gives us, which is something I already talked about in the previous reflection and is that one that says: “in order to become an educator, the individual must train his own education, and experience by him/herself the biggest sense of ennoblement, because the sense of life for someone must be great and meaningful, if you want to awaken it in someone else”. I think that even though you educate yourself for a specific profession or job, that doesn’t mean that by the end of it you are going to end up loving it.

Personally, I came to teaching by accident, but as time has passed and now that I’ve been for three years in the fields of language teaching, I’ve been able to experience many situations that every time I go through them, they give sense and meaning to what I do. Those situations I talk about are: sharing with my students, classmates, and teachers; studying from theorists and academics like Freire, Giroux, Kumaravadivelu, Frank Smith, etc.; and learning from all that is within the universe of education. All that, has contributed to enhance my perspective and understanding of that universe, and has allowed me to expand that love that once started by accident, that’s the biggest thing for me and my life, because from now on this is what I want to be. This is why I consider so important to let big things happen in our lives, get some time to explore inside ourselves, make mistakes as we walk, and take risks without expecting the worst to come.

Terence’s story is tough, and I am nobody to judge him, but the biggest conclusion that I can come up with after writing this reflection is: if you want to do something, that something has to arouse the deepest feelings of your soul and must make your life meaningful; otherwise, you might end up reducing the life of others.  

Primer Reflexión - "La Educación de la Mujer para Educadora"

Retrieved from: Google Images

La siguiente reflexión proviene del capítulo “La Educación de la Mujer para Educadora” del libro “Cultura y Educación” por Eduardo Spranger. Como una forma de explorar esta lectura, me gustaría desarrollar esta reflexión resaltando los apartes del capítulo que me han llamado la atención, seguido de algunos comentarios e inferencias acerca de él.

El primer aparte que me llama la atención, es aquel donde el autor menciona: “se puede uno educar para pedagogo tan poco como para artista. Pues ambas actividades están ligadas a previas cualidades internas, que concede tan sólo  la naturaleza de modo misterioso y que se llaman talento o genio”. En esta misma línea, el autor menciona: “¿Cuál es el camino hacia la función educativa?...Llegara a educador quien ejercite su propia educación y experimente en sí mismo el sentido del ennoblecimiento, de la humanidad completa. ¿Por qué así? Porque debe llegar a ser en uno mismo la vida grande y sagrada si uno quiere despertarla en otro”.

Aquí, en este capítulo, el autor resalta el rol de la mujer como educadora y enfatiza en ese instinto maternal de cuidar, de proteger y de mejorar que naturalmente le es concedido a la mujer. “Lo que para la mujer es orgánico, en el hombre resulta de la formación”. Y es que con la frase anterior, además de la formación, veo que para poder despertar en uno (como hombre que soy) el deseo de educar, debo ir más allá de la voluntad, del afán propio de la mera inclinación y pensar que para poder dar sentido a esa tarea de educar, tengo que hacer grande mi vida, si mi deseo es despertarla en otros.

Relaciono mucho esto cuando por primera vez quise ser Profesor de Idiomas (en aquel tiempo pensaba que para ser un buen maestro, era suficiente con conocer bien la lengua y aprender algo sobre pedagogía). A medida que he podido dar más pasos, de poder explorar más en el campo educativo, de interactuar con mis compañeros, alumnos y maestros, de poder empaparme de diferentes teorías; hoy, puedo de algún modo ampliar esa visión tan cerrada y reducida que tenía sobre el universo de la educación. Pienso ahora que para poder educar, debo ir más allá de lo técnico, de lo que me pueda inducir en la rutina y de lo que me mantenga en la superficialidad. Hoy veo más que necesaria la formación de la que habla Eduardo Spranger; educación sin la cual sería imposible despertar en otros el deseo de formarse.

Ampliándonos aún más, Eduardo Spranger, resalta que la mujer “no solo limita sus cualidades a una esfera específica; no se reduce a un solo círculo de la vida; lleva con sus cualidades, un toque mágico que permite ver el mundo de una manera diferente. Para la mujer el mundo es más que una sucesión de imágenes que se mueven cinematográficamente, en cuanto que introduce en el contenido de cada corto retazo de la existencia una profunda conciencia del conjunto, llega todo a ser divino hasta el dolor”.

En este aparte, los hombres que nos formamos en el mundo educativo, debemos tomar claro el rol que asumimos, y una vez más no reducir nuestra labor a lo más simple y facilista que implica tal responsabilidad. Como hombres, dice Spranger, “debemos aprender que no solo lo que decimos hace parte del mensaje que queremos comunicar, se debe tomar en cuenta esos toques sutiles de la mirada, de los gestos, las expresiones, el tono de la voz, los matices de la alegría y la tristeza, pues ellos en si ya esconden misteriosas fuerzas”.

Y es que la mujer por su naturaleza, conoce bien de esta situación que marca diferencias en el acto educativo. Aquí, como educadores que nos formamos, debemos aprender al máximo de las mujeres que con su sutileza, pueden advertir que el acto educativo va más allá de la mera transmisión de conocimientos y saber que con cada uno de los actos que dentro del mundo educativo se da, de alguna forma se le afecta y se le modifica. Por esto, debemos ser conscientes que para poder despertar lo mejor en nuestros alumnos, primero debemos explorar y escudriñar en lo más profundo de nuestros seres. 

En el siguiente link puedes encontrar el documento completo "LA EDUCACIÓN DE LA MUJER PARA EDUCADORA": https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wqd9uprvf8yume1/3bMJw1QyUZ