Teaching Philosophy

My only serious experience teaching was this first practicum opportunity. Before that, I only had "taught" friends who needed help with English or wanted to learn basic Japanese. I have always enjoyed showing others "how easy" something is: help them relax, take some kind of enjoyment in the topic and through that, achieve what they thought impossible. But of course, it is not the same practicing this with friends than having a responsibility towards former students who are expecting from you a "professional" attitude. 

To start explaining my teaching philosophy, I need to illustrate how I saw myself as a learner: I always considered myself very lazy, a member of the procrastination club. I used to say that everything I knew, I did because of osmosis, since I tended to avoid studying and used instead whatever I had internalized: that's "how easy" it was. Please, do not misunderstand me: I'm not saying I was any sort of genius nor that I scammed everyone during my student years. I learned during my training about learning strategies, which explained why I used other resources to get to the same point my teachers aimed to: instead of reading about the French Revolution I would watch a two-hours documentary on the matter... and I felt that was not studying, although I was learning. Having settled this, I mean to show my students that even the most challenging topics, the most difficult subjects, have a "twist" where everything becomes crystal clear, and that they are capable of finding that twist and overcoming anything they face.

I still have the belief that knowledge is withing us, we just need a helping hand to take it out.

Also, due to my international and intercultural experiences I have lived in my own flesh the need to foster in the population not only love and respect for the own cultural background, but also the respect and comprehension for others, no matter how dissimilar these might be: understanding does not mean accepting, means "you can walk on someone else's shoes". I believe teachers have a special role when it comes to fighting against bigotry, prejudices and narrow-mindedness; specially language teachers since language carries a lot from the culture it was born and the ones where it is being used.

 

Teaching is about using your subject to make a better world than the one you are living in, is about sharing the wonders you have found along the way, about noticing the goods and bads and preparing others for the roller-coaster of their own life.