 |
| 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.
