TESL - 100 Unit 1 reflection - Memorable Teachers

I have had quite a few memorable teachers throughout the years. I would have to start with my elementary school physical education teacher. She got me interested in teaching by taking the students interests to heart and helping us do activities that would interest us. For example, when I was in 3rd grade, knowing that I was a competitive gymnast, she got my help to plan the “gymnastics unit” for the other students at school as well as got me to help demonstrate for each class and I got to help teach a class for an hour every day of the first week they did the unit. I valued that she took into consideration what we, the learners, cared about. She used our interests to help us learn. I also had other teachers throughout the years that did similar things which made learning more interesting and easier to understand because they would approach the information in a way that we could understand. I also valued many of my teachers because they didn’t treat us like children, they talked to us as equals and I valued that a great deal.

There are many different ways to answer this question, as someone who studied English language arts in university as well as critical theory surrounding that, being a speaker of the language means that you have the knowledge on how to use the words, sounds, etc. to either gain more knowledge or to use it to get what you would like or need. Speaking the language means that you can understand the language more than just saying the words or hearing them, but making connections and creating relationships between words, syllables and sounds. It is also a form of power that you can gain. When I went to teach in Spain, I tried on my own to learn some spanish to be able to at least communicate important statements or questions in Spanish. However when I got there, while those simple questions and statements were useful, they were not helpful in everyday conversation and understanding. This made me feel powerless. As an English teacher, I have this experience and knowledge in the back of my mind which helps me shape what I plan to teach to be helpful and to give the learners the power that I did not have when I was in a new place with no way to communicate.