A journey through learning

The learning path is not linear and integrating skills, grammar, and vocab is essential to motivate students.  The activities must be meaningful to students and go beyond the linguistic approach, integrating other areas. The projects I worked on with primary school students brought biology, geography, and arts to class.  Moreover, the activities went from more controlled ones, with vocabulary related to the topic and grammar focus, to a project work.     Pinter (2016) sustains that vocabulary and grammar should be learned in a holistic way. This method is also exemplified by authors like Moon and Roth (2001), who emphasize the role played by context in teaching young learners. According to Slattery and Willis, “young learners acquire language unconsciously” (2001). The activities done in class should help this kind of acquisition. A project, for example, is a valuable resource to the integration of skills and it offers children a word of ...

Keeping students motivated isn’t an easy task, especially in times of technology. Children, for instance, have short attention spans and prefer now to later. The first key to motivate them is to show your own enthusiasm. If a teacher is not excited about what she or he is doing, nobody will be. Mixing up activities is also another way to make students like and participate in the class. Using a variety of teaching methods include all types of learners and avoid boredom. Relating lessons to student’s lives is another great strategy to get their attention. Sports, music, and activities that make they feel identified will boost up their interest in the class. Taking the students out of the classroom is also effective. It can be a field trip or just having the class somewhere inside the school. I’ve been trying to use these strategies on a daily basis.

Five years from now, I expect to be working full time as an English teacher. Some of my goals are: Inspire: I want to inspire and encourage my students to learn more and more and to be and do whatever they feel happy about. I expect that my passion for the English language and for teaching might help them find their passion, whatever it is. Learn: as a teacher, I learn something new every day. Teaching requires us to step out of ourselves and through this we learn about ourselves as teachers and as persons. Change: I want to be able to touch students in a way that can change then for the better.  I believe my main strengths as a teacher are the will to learn always more, the patience, the knowledge to understand that each student is unique and has his or her own pace.

iStock image I take an approach to teaching and learning based on Cognitive Constructivism. Piaget's theory of constructivism claims that children produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. In this context, the role of the teacher is very important. The practitioner serves as a guide; a facilitator whose role is to aid the student.  That said, I use some tools that help me achieve this approach:     Collaboration: children work in groups, sharing materials and responsibilities. It helps them build interpersonal skills.   Integration: connection to what is been teaching in one lesson to other lesson of the same subject (intradisciplinary) or other subjects thus making the approach interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.   Narratives: storytelling allows children to explore the symbolic potential of language, create and use their imagination.   Play: children learn through playing. Experiments: hands on a...

My philosophy of teaching is that all students are unique and must have a stimulating education environment. That way, they will be able to develop not just language abilities, but physical, mental, emotion and social ones.  I believe that a good atmosphere for learning should follow these statements: the teacher is a guide, activities must be challenging and fun and students must be encouraged to be curious and innovative.  One of the roles a teacher has is to act as a guide. My goal is to be a good guide to my students. This is why bringing activities that stimulate their multiple intelligences is so important. According to Howard Gardner they are different competencies useful for problem-solving.  Multiple intelligences can contribute to the capacity of children to be creative and innovative, and that is also one of my goals. I think creativity and innovation are keys to the development of a child. In order to foster creat...