Autobiography

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Going back to my childhood is not as easy as it sounds. However, those unforgettable memories such as the ones one gets because of a variety of moments of shock or shining moments. My very first approach to the teaching field experience happened when one of my obnoxious cousins had some trouble understanding the English language. I was in the fifth grade by then same as him. As we were attending to the same grade, same teachers and same graders we had to see one another every single day from Monday to Friday. I had got to know most of my classmates and my teacher very well. Back then in the fifth grade all the English classes were basically translating words and rarely the teacher taught us tenses in the target language. The classes were traditional and strict –students were not allowed to talk to each other during the class, we were afraid to talk because if we did, she would yell at us, she would not let us stand up when we have doubts or concerns…-, all of them. As my cousin was very obnoxious no one would offer to help him when he would not understand a topic related to any subject –not even my teacher-. So, I was happy to help him. We met in my house, he told me his issues about some topics and fortunately I was an outstanding student in the English subject. So, I told him to try to imagine the meaning of the word when he saw the word. “Déjame te explico” I said. “ Cada que leas una palabra en Inglés busca un recuerdo o una imagen que mas te llame la atención de su traducción por ejemplo la palabra tall que significa alto, para que memorices la palabra, acuérdate que termina en l, la l es un palito, si juntamos la otra l y ponemos una encima de la otra vamos a tener un palito alto que represente la palabra alto o también, ah mira, acuérdate del tío Leo ya que el es una persona muy alta y listo, así con todo”. I literally said that and from there on, my cousin never had any trouble understanding words in the English language. 

Although, after that year we never saw each other again because he moved with my aunt to another city. Two years ago, I saw him at my grandma’s house visiting and the first thing he said to me was how thankful he was because of me and due to the extra class I gave him more than a decade ago, he said he found an inspiration in learning English that took him to the US to work for a company as a translator for business sales. I was so glad that my skills to teach inspired someone so close to me to do something extraordinary because of one shining moment.

Six years ago, I was in high school. I studied at Liceo de Santa Librada School and I was in the senior year of the English technique. Right before the third term was going to be over, the English teacher told us to pick one topic learnt between fresh and senior year of the English technique. Of course, my classmates chose easy topics that they knew by heart. As for me, I wanted to take risks, so, I chose the most complex topic at that time which was the past perfect tense mixed with prepositions of time. The teacher never told us what we were supposed to do with that, she just said we had to pick one. The next class, we were ready to hear what the plan was so, the teacher said: “please, write down in a piece of paper your topic followed by your full name and give it to me” to what we happily did. After that, the teacher said: “Alright girls, now each one of you will have to teach me and your classmates the topic you chose. You will have 15 minutes to explain, no more no less” We were frozen because we didn’t expect that. I must admit that in general, it was a complex task at that time, as we never thought we would be teachers one day. I never had that in mind till the time to explain the topic arrived. I felt confident that day, studied hard the previous week, I surfed on the Internet different ways to teach that tense. As the English classes were so fun and interactive at that time, I used some of the activity that the teacher used. I began teaching the tense by providing the grammar rules to what I wrote in pieces of cardboards some words that helped me save time, a power point presentation to provide examples and I designed a Who Wants To Be a Millionaire game. I must say I really enjoyed that day and it was worth the agitation. At then end of the provided time the teacher gave me, all of my classmates including my English teacher stood up and gave me a round of applause. I could see their smiling faces all over the classroom; the teacher congratulated me as well as my classmates did. On the recess time, one of my classmates, someone who I did not interact that much with said she was really proud of my skills to teach, and that she was amazed and astonished to when I was teaching, she said she saw a light in my eyes and the way I spoke to the whole class was pretty convincing.

I must admit that since I heard that, I have always believed that someone who teaches is someone who is gifted and that has the passion to inspire others. I will never forget my two most precious and unforgettable memories that I have from years before. Teachers are meant to influence others in many different positive ways; teachers are born with passion within themselves. I swear I have seen them. I have had many teachers in my life and each one of them have been so different as for their ways of teaching, as for their personalities, as for their ways of involving with the students. Anyways, I have had great experiences in my learning process throughout my whole academic life.  Of course, there are other teachers who never thought they would be teachers in the future, like me. I never thought that I would ever be a teacher. It was only when I was right before to graduate from high School that my best friend and I were wondering about what we were going to do with our lives after the graduation.

One week before graduation, I was skipping Math classes with my best friend. We climbed a big tree in which we loved spending time at in the recess time or when we wanted to talk about something important. So, back at that time I remember that it was the last time we would spend there. My best friend was wondering about her plans in a near future. As she didn’t know what to do with her life, she actually made me wonder about my future too. So, we started to think about it. Indeed, we began to question ourselves, the questions were some sort of like: what do we like to do? What do we like to actually do it for a living? What is worth the time to spend it studying for 5 years in a row at some university? What are we really good at? What programs are out there? How much money do those programs cost? How much money we can make our parents pay for a program? To what we answered with a complex I don’t know. Something huge was coming, some unknown future was going to be made by me, by the decisions I had to make. So, I had to make sure that I was absolutely sure about my future plans that I was about to decide. As my best friend and I couldn’t answer those questions right away we decided to take them home and think about all of them. As those questions were super important, I had to take them seriously because they were worth it.

So the next day we met and she was the first one to talk. She said she liked languages a lot, she had enjoyed learning it for several years however, she wasn't sure about what to do with that to what I said, well, I'm in the same situation as you then, let's study that! So, we searched and unfortunately there wasn't any program that would match with our parents' pockets. Later, we searched on public programs and the only one that matched was whether the Ileusco Institute or the English teaching program. So, we were sure that the institute wasn't worth it because we had been studying English for two years; we thought we had had enough of it. So we gave it a try. We decided to study in the English teaching program because we wanted to be together. I must say we were not sure about that decision at the moment but we were sure that we were meant to be together. At that moment, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a teacher or even an English teacher but I knew I had to start at some point in my life and it was just in front of me. I knew that I couldn't let my life go by and that I would notice that. So, that was my very big first step I took in this wild journey on learning how to be a teacher. 

The first semester was chaotic, it was a complete chaos. I never imagined how complex the life of a teacher would be inside and outside of a classroom. I found it quite hard to catch up because I never  ever thought how involved all of the classes would be related to the development of the human being and the processes of teaching and learning in the educational field. However, my best friend and I were together, that was all that mattered to me at that time and when any of us had trouble to understand something, we would help each other. Nonetheless, by the second year, I started to like teaching because I was growing personally, intellectually and I was getting to know more about the educational field. I was motivated and I believed that that was something for starters like me. As I was deeply motivated to teach, I had this crazy idea of going to the battle. I wanted to experience what it was like to be a teacher, I wanted to know everything about it. So, I told myself, if I really want to be doing this for the rest of my life, I must know now what it is like and what to expect. 

Accordingly, I applied for a job as an English for a public primary institution in one of the most dangerous neighborhood in my city. I did not care about the place that much but to be hired because my main objective was to be a teacher and to experience what it was like to be an English teacher for primary students. The same day I applied I was hired and I was told to start as soon as possible, I organized my schedule because I had to teach 10 hours per week. I started to work the next day and I was really excited about it, I couldn't believe it. The night before I planned something fun for the students as it was the second month of the year, the students were new to the school. The first day that I started to work, I was pretty nervous but it was not that much until I arrived to the class. The first class I taught for a school was to the fifth graders. There were 48 students in the class. I could not believe it, the class was full of students, fortunately the classroom was so big that all the students could sit down and utilize a chair for each one. The students were very nice with me the whole time and I was happy at the end of the week because I had taught to nearly 200 students. This first encounter of teaching was wonderful because it made me realize that I really wanted to be a teacher. I worked there for 2 years until I left to the USA to be an Au Pair. But, I will always be grateful with my students and the other teachers at that school they were very kind and friendly with me. 

These have been the most unforgettable memories that I have in terms of teaching. I can reassure to myself that owing to those experiences I am who I am and those concurrences have made me grow in all personal, academic and professional aspects in my life. I really appreciate those moments with students in and out the classroom. The students that I have had throughout my experience at schools have been extraordinary little people. In addition, the experience at the public school opened the doors of my mind to get involved into my students lives and their hearts. Those kids opened their hearts to me and they made me a wonderful person. Every time I finished a class with them, they would usually came close to me and showed me their appreciation through hugs or nice words or food and candies even fruits. They were so affectionate and showed me respect that are unforgettable memories for me. They still remember me and say hi to me and I know that everyday I did a great job at that school because before I left, students and the other teachers told me so many kind words and an exceptional speech that will remind into my heart forever. Thanks to them, I have become an awesome person and admirable teacher.