INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

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WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO LEARN ENGLISH FOR THE TIME BEING?

Some time ago, there was this child who did not know what to expect about his life. Trying to figure out what it was going to be, what kind of burdens he was going to have to carry on his shoulders, and what he was going to do with his future, he was still unsure about the decisions he had to make. At that time, he needed someone to help him wake his dreams up; fortunately, he found good people in his way to help him develop his abilities to the fullest, specially one teacher who inspired this child to follow his steps. That child was I, and that teacher was my first English teacher. That is what first inspired me to choose English as the major I wanted to study at the university; but that is not what keeps me interested in learning more and more about this language every day.

In fact, what motivates me to learn English for the time being is that, along the jobs I can apply to, the knowledge I can acquire, and the ability to understand songs, lyrics, books, and even native speakers, I can demonstrate that my effort and the time I put in studying is leading me to be a better person, a better professional, and most important… a better teacher, which is the job I want to get some day. For sure, to accomplish this outcome, I have to work harder each day, and take every opportunity as if it were the last chance I have to do whatever helps me make the person I want to be; for that reason, I have to do many different things in order to better my abilities, and enrich my vocabulary. Reading different kinds of texts written in English, listening to different kinds of accents, and trying to practice my English as much as possible, keep me focused on my objective, and show me non-boring ways of learning by my own. Moreover, watching movies in English helps me empower my understanding and let me discover “new” ways of using my vocabulary even though it is really tedious sometimes. I also try to learn idioms, but some people have told me that they are not used in American English most of the time; that makes me doubt of keeping on learning that kind of English sometimes. However, idioms are part of the things I am being taught at the university, and, somehow, they are going to be useful if I learn how to use them. So I'd better keep on learning more.

Basically, those are the reasons that motivate me to learn English, and the resources I am using to do so. I know there would be plenty of other ways to better my skills, yet those are the ones I am aware of now. In addition, the free time I have seems to be not enough sometimes, and looking for new ways of learning appears to be an impossible mission. To be honest, I prefer to trust in what I know instead of trying new things as it has worked for me all the time.

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEDAGOGY MODEL

After spending about 18 years of my life studying, being at school, facing the day-by-day routine typical of any educational environment, I wonder what’s the that makes some people want to become teachers and spend the rest of their lives in a school environment, and if there’s any motivation beyond the need of a job and survival in this world. Well, I’d like to have an answer for everybody’s questions as there might be many reasons involved in the choosing teaching, first as a major and posteriorly as a career, but the only answer I have is my personal opinion of why I want to teach. First of all, there must be something inside the person that makes him or her have the desire to teach FAR BEYOND A PERSONAL GOAL; for me, that’s the inspiration I got from one specific teacher I met when I was in Junior High School. What made that teacher different from the others was his teaching methods, personality, passion, and well directed objectives for his students. He didn’t want to be better to brag about it; he wanted to be better for us to learn more and wish to be better than he, and to some extent he accomplished that goal as some of his students decided to follow his steps. Now, that’s exactly what leads me through the journey I am in, the desire to change somebody’s life and inspire him or her to become a professional.

 Once one has clear why he or she wants to teach, it’s time to think of what kind of teaching is the most appropriate to the goals and expectations he or she has and what kind of teacher he or she wants to become... is then when the transformation pedagogy model can be a really good source of experience for both the teacher and the students involved in the process. The transformational pedagogy model is that which takes the students and the students’ development as the center of the educational process and the one that “is designed to demonstrate that holism in education can have a transformational quality” (Transformational Teaching In The Info Age, Page 15), it means students are not seen as individuals that have to study and store information in their brains to pass an exam or to finish a course of studies. Students are seen as skillful individuals that need to be “touched” by someone to discover their inner potential and then keep on working on their skills to be successful people in the future. For sure, the whole process is developed with the guidance of that “someone”, in this case the teacher implementing the transformational pedagogy model. But this model is designed not only to change the learner academically but also to chance the learner socially and spiritually. This leads the teacher to build a different kind of relation with the students and then “to be changed as much or even more than the learner is changed” 

(Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 18). By applying the traditional teaching methods, but converting them into deeper implications for students’ lives, a teacher can build a different relation with the students, and encourage them to think of studying as more than a tedious routine they have to do every day.
A teacher using the transformational model is aware of his or her students’ feelings, so he or she can detect the changes in a student’s mood and adapt the environment in the classroom so it can be more supportive for the student and unconsciously enhance the bonds between them. [Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 24 (Anna’s parents’ divorce)]
We can also quote the main purpose of education “self-fulfillment” that, in some cases, has to be inspired by someone else in a student’s life. In cases like this, a teacher can transform the student by giving him or her support and help when needed. [Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 20 (Nathaniel’s problem)]
So it’s clear that both pre-service and in-service teachers can be changed by implementing the transformational teaching model; it depends on the level of commitment put into practice while teaching.
To wrap up, the transformational teaching model allows us to be a source of inspiration for our students as they don’t want someone TO TEACH them, they want someone whom they CAN TRUST IN and LEARN FROM. Good teachers can make great sources of inspiration for their students, and good students can make teachers as the ones they ARE INSPIRED to imitate. All students need is someone to lead them through the way to success.

FRONT OF THE CLASS

Front of the Class is a beautiful story based on a real life character, Brad Cohen, a passionate man whose dream is to become a teacher, not just a simple teacher but the best one. His passion leads him to search for opportunities wherever possible no matter what kind of obstacles he can find; his biggest problems are not only that he has to show his abilities off in each interview he goes and convince the principal of any school, but also that he has to fight day by day against his illness, the Tourette Syndrome, illness he has had since he was 6 years old and that has been his biggest handicap. However, he's a great teacher and what makes his teaching so great is that he cares about his students aver any other issue that surrounds him, even over his own problems, his worries, or his disadvantages;he's always focused on what is the best for his students. One of the best things he teaches to them besides the subjects' contents is the values everybody must have such as, respect, responsibility, self-confidence, optimism, friendship, loyalty, and humbleness, which are his best attributes and which are more important than his obstacles. He had to get over many difficulties for becoming the awesome teacher he is; maybe,the worst were bullying and teasing because in his childhood he was seen as smaller or insignificant due to his condition. He was the odd guy in the classroom, the one whom everybody could laugh at, and that was, for sure, unpleasant for him. But what's bullying and teasing someone can ask. Well, bullying is the act of hurting or threatening someone who is weaker or smaller than you. Unfortunately for Brad, the weakest person was always him. On the other hand, we have teasing which is the act of bothering or annoying someone by joking or mocking talk, playful fooling and so on, and guess who was the victim of that... Yes, Brad. He faced that too because he was always making weird noises either at school , in class or outside. That's why he got the nickname "BOBO;"  he didn't like that, but he learned to deal with all that pressure somehow. All of that makes you think about your future. What are you inspired to be? What's your goal? What do you want to do throughout your life? Well, in my humble opinion, I can tell you that I'm inspired to be the best teacher I can, and I know that life might bring me obstacles that will seem out of this world for me ; maybe, I will want to give up, but I also know that if I fight with all my courage against my worries and fears, I'll get all what I want and maybe something better. As the movie shows and, I think it's the most valuable lesson it has: Everything is possible if you believe in yourself and think you can do it.

TEACHING VYL

Teaching VYLs seemed to be a really tough challenge at the beginning of  my practices; it presented me a big and different world that I didn't know and that I had to discover by my own. During the first weeks, I had to adapt my schedule to new routines, and I started to burn the candle at both ends as many other people has done before, I think; at first it was really tiring and I knew I had to find a balance to keep on working. Finally, I found out that doing the right things at the right moment was all what I had to do to manage everything and don't  become crazy. There were some things that helped me understand that; those things were the presentations that my classmates and I had to perform some weeks ago. I learned to manage groups of children through making funny activities, implementing different techniques in class, and ,the most important, enjoying being with them. I tried some activities shown in class to keep children interested in what you are teaching to them, and I'm glad to say that many of them worked very good. I realized that it's wonderful to see the smile of the children when you are teaching them something they are keen on.  Although, sometimes it didn't result as I expected, but what matters is that I'm learning by doing, 

When something doesn't go the way we think it has to, we tend to think that we cannot do things that seem to be out of this world for us, but we have to bite the bullet, and we will see that everything is possible if we believe we can do it. Teaching is not a matter of doing something because you have to, but it is a matter of loving what you do.  So, be patient, love what you do, and if you're teaching VYLs now, enjoy as much as you can being with them instead of fighting all the time against your own thoughts about your teaching.