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.