Self-Reflection: From Failure to Great Teacher
The year was 1992, I was going to my first English class. I was so excited to begin. I’d always wanted to learn that language. The movies, music and everything I loved the most was in English. I was ten years old, my whole class was the same age, but the only thing I didn’t know was they were much ahead of me. The course placed me in a classroom with kids that were already speaking English since they were six years old. They spoke all the time and I couldn’t understand anything. I felt so disappointed and ashamed, I couldn’t even comprehend the difference between him and her. Even my teacher made fun of me. As a result, I got out of the course after lots of swollen eyes and arguments with my parents. One year after this episode, my mother decided it was time to try again in another course. I was very reticent but I went to the first class. It was everything I dreamt of, quickly I became the best student in my classroom. Afterward, I graduated with a degree in Journalism, Cinema, and History, completed my MBA in Marketing, though I’d never been happy with my jobs. Until I started to teach English. This is my self-analysis.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Naila G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Educational Background
Every course I took before I started to teach was the path that built me to be the teacher I am today. The degrees I graduated empathize with the knowledge in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and subsequently taught me how I can be empathetic with my students. I learned that I have more people skills than I thought. To be able to see my students, analyze them, and identify where their difficulties come from enables me to make them feel more confident about themselves. It also, I can’t deny, makes my job a lot more interesting. Some groups of students are more of a challenge than others but what is life without that either?
Also Read: The 5 Best Places to Learn French When Teaching English Abroad
Practice
In the classroom, we may have a lot of different personalities and skills. The students have different backgrounds and whole other experiences with English. Some love videogames, others like arts. On the other hand, we have some that don’t even know what they’re doing there besides the need imposed by someone else to learn a new language. So, how to work with such an average group? How to work their Multiple Intelligences and make the class interesting to all of them? This is the best challenge of all for me: to plan the best class I can for everyone and still work on their individuality. Music, movies, articles about video games, and sometimes even playing games, those are the best moments. Those are the moments when they learn faster and that stick on their memories. They create unforgettable momentums.
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With this philosophy, I’ve been teaching English for eight years. It’s more than teaching a language. It’s trying to impact the students' lives in the most positive way possible. This has been my means of living, my every day, and my passion.
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