Who I am as a teacher?

 

What about my philosophy?

My philosophy is very easy to understand: Give your best always, keep moving, and never give up. God is in charge of the rest. Sometimes we feel that we are not enough for the things we want to, or that we don't have enough talent or capabilities to reach our goals. But, if you think for a second, nobody said that it would be easy or that you would reach your goals easily. If you have a good attitude to face the problems and you encourage yourself day after day no matter what, maybe you won't be able to reach each goal but, at least, you will get something close to them.

And what about my beliefs in teaching?

Every teacher must understand that he/she is a role model for students, an influencer that encourages them to change their negative minds and attitudes, and a developed life project that shows students that they also have the opportunity to reach something higher than they imagine

What I learned about teaching speaking skills?

As a speaking teacher, I have learned several things, mostly about my students. It is not about what I know about the English language or how fluent I am. It is about my students' weaknesses, potential, and attitude. As a speaking teacher, I must understand that the students, in the beginning, are shy and fear to make a bad English performance before their mates. Normally, they feel all kinds of negative feelings because it would be an unknown thing to them speaking in another language plus the difficult to pronounce some strange and weird words. In this sense, I've learned to be patient with them, to guide them through their fears, and make the class a safe space where they can experiment with the language, where it is allowed to fail, and where they can learn from their mistakes.

What I learned about teaching in online environments?

Teaching in online environments has its pros and cons. You can count on the technology to offer more significant and entertained educations to your pupils and even make use of the several platforms to use great images that help you to make a clear explanation about a topic. But, on the other hand, it is very difficult to create and establish a relationship with the students. They struggle to turn on their cameras and to participate freely and, as a teacher, you must waste precious minutes encouraging them to participate. Sometimes, you or the students have some problems with the internet connection making the explanation kind of tedious for both the teacher and the students.

What are my principles about teaching speaking online?

- Never be late. As a teacher, I must be in the online session before the students.

- Always be polite with the students. Before getting started, it is a good idea to ask them about how was their day and how they are feeling to create a good confident environment.

- The class is for the students and not for me. The idea is for the students to participate as much as they can. The less the teacher speaks, the better will be the students' participation.

- Sometimes the problem is not the students' comprehension, sometimes the problem is the teacher. As teachers, we need to be quite flexible in our teaching strategies, in the resources we use, and the way we can carry out an explanation

- Never forget you are treating human beings, not machines or objects. They have a background and a particular context that you must take into account when you are teaching