Reflecting about our Practicum

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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.