MY TEACHING BIOGRAPHY

Being a child means having lot of dreams to reach. When people are children they think on becoming in astronauts, teachers, doctors, pilots, and so on. Children have many of expectations, and they do not worry about how achievable those dreams are.
When I was child I was always dreaming about two things, the first one: I dreamed about becoming a great marine biology, who swims in the ocean and fight for protecting aquatic animals. But also I was always dreaming on becoming the best teacher, that is why I spent my time playing to be the “teacher" with my friends. At that time I did not have clear what I would become, but what I had clear was that studying was my favorite hobby.

My mother always had said that my experience of studying was very chaotic. I am the last of three daughters. Then, when my older sisters had to go to school, I did not study yet, so every morning once they left the house I started to cry because I wanted to go with them to study. That story happened lot of times until my mother went to one of the schools that there were in my little town (Vegalarga), and talked to the preescholer's teacher about if it was possible that I could start to study, she refused my mom’s idea because it was require to be 5 years for starting the school. I do not know how my mother did it, but she persuaded the teacher until she was in agreement, but it was not an total admission. There was a requirement, I had to spend some time on an observation period, if I performed well, I would be accepted, and it was so. I started school at 4 years old, and since I linked education I was the best student, I always had the best scores and won honorable mentions.

At the age of nine years, I moved to the city (Neiva) for starting 5th grade.  Education here was quiet different nevertheless, I continued being one of the best students. Because of that there were many classmates who were always asking me about the things that they did not get, especially in math class, I was the best student and one of my responsibilities was to help my classmates, I taught them, and many of them usually told me that they did not understand what the teacher said but with me was different, they could understand everything. I liked to help them, I liked to teach them, and since them I started to see me as a teacher, as a math teacher. 

The story of why I changed that thought and linked to my English degree is another story. Although, I was one of the best students, there was one subjects which represented a big deal for me, was English. I was not good at English, but in 8th grade I started to love it, and then I was the best student in English. Instead,  in 10th grade math became a pain in the neck for me, because of that, with the pass of the time, I lost interest on math, and I started to see me as a English Teacher.

I think the decision of study English, and the love I started to feel for English is because of the music. When I was in 8th grade, I became a fan of a british band, and I felt the necessity of learning English. In 8th grade, the teacher was dinamic and she asked students to learn songs, and I loved that.  Althouhg, I think the desicion of becoming teacher had too much influence beacuse of the high school I went.  I studied at Escuela Normal Superior, it is an educative institution in which the focus is pedagogy. And one changed in the curriculum is that there is not social service as a requirement for graduating instead students have to do a practicum in public schools in order to develop an education project.

Then it happened, I got my first real teacher experience. I did my practicum at Humberto Tafur Charry, a public primary school. I had to work with the youngest boys, preschoolers. Working with little children is a huge challenge, and as a teacher it requires many effort and too much energy, little Children likes to play, and most of them learn by playing, that is why the teacher has to be dynamic and creative. However, teaching to kind of boys is amazing! Preschoolers are lovely, there are the most thankful students, and being teaching means feeling yourself loved. I remember with much love my students. Every time I arrived to the school at break time, once they saw me they run towards me, screaming. After, the hugging’s session started, and even though walking until the classroom became a hardworking task, I used to think that it was just the weight of carrying love over me.

This practicum period last about 3  months, and it helped me to realized that teaching was my vocation, I liked too much working with those children, and the day we met for the last time I got an empty sensation that disappear little by little through days.

That was my high school time, I was time to decide what to study. In the national ICFES test I drove well and I won a scholarship in Ser Pilo Paga. My first thought was to study biology in another city, but I realize that it was kind of difficult and also, my parents did not have the necessary economic balance. Therefore, I decided to start the training for becoming teacher. I always thought about studying that, it was my other passion. Actually, it was what I was thinking on studying since I was in ninth grade, just that the opportunity of the scholarship sounded as a lighting door for reaching my other dream.

I loved English, and my desire was to learn English very well, so I studied Licenciatura in English. Moreover, something that encouraged me to study that is that my older sister is a teacher too, as well as, her husband, in conclusion Teaching is the family business. 

On the other hand I have had other teaching experiences. Sometimes I had to replaced my brother-in-law, and one day I had to teach to a group of Saturday students, usually those students are very complicated to deal, and most of them were from vulnerable areas. According to my brother-in-law, teaching to them was a challenge because they were very disrespectful, but they worked with me, although it was a very hard worked. 

In another opportunity, I had to work a day with 5th graders at Ceinar School. Working with those kids was really hard, there were some much undisciplined students who were at all time shouting and playing, and not paying attention to the class. That day I experimented a real teacher day. 

Finally, I am in my teaching practicums and it has been a meaningful experience, although it had taken a huge effort form me. Through all this time in the career I had acquired too much knowledge about how to teach English, but when I had to confront the real world, I realized that it is not as easier as the theory says.  To gain classroom management, to learn how to deal with students, to encourage students to learn, to do interesting classes; all of this at the same time, and to make that everything works well is very difficult. Actually, it requires a lot of practice, and that is what I hope to learn, in order to become a good teacher...