Teaching Philosophy Statement (final version)

One of the first entries on my blog, was my Teaching Philosophy Statement, document that, once I've had shared it with my colleagues and also with the students at the University of Maryland, has changed in order to take into consideration the comments and opinions they have provided me.

The comments I have received are the following, I've also had highlighted those aspects of the comments that were mostly interesting for me and, in fact, I've added to my document:

--> Laura commented: Hi Ángel! Your Teaching Philosophy Statement has caught my attention from the very beginning! Reading it led me to think about the importance of the "teacher's diaries", which invite us to reflect on our practice and help us to achieve all the goals we set for ourselves in teaching.

--> Ángela commented: Hi Ángel! I read through your teaching philosophy, and I can tell you’re passionate about English teaching :) I completely agree with motivation being a key factor in a classroom. Motivation allows for more meaningful learning, and it also encourages learning outside the classroom. I also appreciate that you included accessibility as an important factor in education. I was wondering how you would incorporate ideas of accessibility in the classroom. Are you referring to ensuring the classroom space acknowledges different bodies (for example having wheel-chair access, having left-handed tools, etc.)? Or are you referring to different types of learning, such as different cognitive abilities? If so, would you include different types of assessments to measure each student’s specific cognitive needs? Or are you talking about Special Education pedagogies? I’m fascinated by disability studies and how it fits in with pedagogy. Good luck with the rest of your semester! Angela (from the University of Maryland)

Therefore, answering to this comments, here you have my final Teaching Philosophy Statement

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

 

Since I was young, I’ve always been attracted to English, I’ve had the lucky of starting to learn it when I was just 3 years old, and since that moment, I felt strongly connected to the subject, also, my primary teacher helped positively to strength that connection, I remember my English classes as a child as the most fun time of the whole week.

 

When I wanted to become a teacher, I immediately knew that my specialization had to be around the English subject, the path that my English teacher created in me is in my mind till this day when I think of the type of teacher I want to be. That is one of my main concerns as a teacher, the role or perspective to the subject that the teacher inputs into his or her students. There are lots of different techniques, methods and approaches that can be used, but I strongly believe that, above all of it, stays the idea of motivation. Referring to it brings up the idea of making students feel directly attracted to the subject, this is accomplished through different abilities and resources that teachers must have. Also related to this, and as a tool from my teacher's perspective, I think it is pretty useful to keep track of your daily work as a teacher with a teacher's diary, in fact, this resource allows us to avoid keep on repeating the same activities if they did not go as planned and to check for any espontaneous modifications that worked effectively previously

 

The class model in which all the learning process relies on the teacher through explanations which few or no participation of the students, will led them to feel bored and disconnect with the activity that is taking place in the classroom. I believe that a beneficial class model is the one in which the teacher encourages the students to participate actively, in a way in which they feel that making mistakes and errors does not mean a bad thing, errors should be conceived as learning opportunities. In this way, students will feel more attracted to participate and discover the knowledge by themselves, elaborating their own ideas and concepts through trying and experimentation.

 

Also, the idea of errors as learning opportunities can also be used as a chance to create a safe, fun, and free environment in the classroom, where students learn to respect and recognize themselves, their ideas and their partner’s too. Transmitting to pupils different values and beliefs related to the concept of respecting each other is the main way of stablishing a great connection with them and also encouraging students to stablish friendly connections between one another, and I strongly believe that the teacher is the one that should act as a role model in this case. My ideal classroom is the one in which every student is welcomed, independently of their personal characteristics.

 

When thinking of my ideal education process, the first thing that comes up in my mind is the idea of accessibility. We can’t forget that being able of participating in the teaching-learning process that takes places in schools is an undeniable right for every child, so, as teachers, I strongly believe that we must compromise ourselves in making this access equal for all of our students. Related to this last idea, we must keep in mind that each of our students is completely different to the others, and, in consequence, each one has their own concerns, preferences and desires, which most of them are needed to be taken into consideration while working in class with them. In other words, every student has their own needs, and it is our work as teachers to answers to these demands in order to fulfill completely the acquisition of the concepts that are going to be worked in class. Every student learns in a completely different way, so we must adapt the ways we bring the education process closer to them, so, in this way, we will make education accessible for everyone. In order to this, I think it is pretty important to put into practice all of the different knowledge on different pedagogical strategies to approach the students with special cognitive needs.

 

On the other hand, deepen in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which is the area I mainly focus on, one of my main concerns is transmitting students the idea that English is everywhere. In other words, I believe that reducing this subject to the transmission of knowledge such as grammar and vocabulary is a complete error in making them completely acquire a language. English should be transmitted through realia, giving the students different knowledge which relates to a certain context, just as how certain methodologies like CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) do. With English is everywhere I refer to the role it has acquired in nowadays society, undoubtedly, it is being introduced in different daily situations that students access to, so, as teachers, I believe that we have to focus not on just improving the pupils second language proficiency, we must try to make them able to completely participate in real life situations, contexts and conversation using their Second Language, in other words, enabling them to interact with the world that surrounds them.

 

We can’t forget that we are working with kids, and kids are tomorrow’s societies, so, if we want to reach a society in which everyone can interact between one another respectfully and completely, schools and education are the main tools we have to do it.

 

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.

-       Nelson Mandela.