MY EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

I spent my thirteen years of primary and secondary education in different parts of Colombia; included Huila, Caquetá, and Putumayo. This was due to the fact that my father used to enjoy being a globetrotter. However and unfortunately, this brought some negative educational consequences such as having to spend more than seventeen years to get graduated from high school and having to study in dangerous places where violence was the bread and butter.  

I began my educational career in Susana’s preschool in Pitalito Huila. Actually, It was not a preschool whatsoever. The first day I was taken there; I was so terrified that I clung to my mother’s legs while I was crying and screaming like a dying pig. Nonetheless, I stood there and after some minutes I escaped and went back home to my father’s protection. However, the next day I was taken there again and I did my best so as for me not to cry again and to stay there and I did so. Finally, I became accustomed to being there and having a good time with my new friends.

After having spent one year in Susana’s; my father took me to a rural area in Pitalito to study my first year in a primary school. Nevertheless and while I was studying my first year, my father had economic problems and decided to take us to Florencia Caqueta.  So, I had to start studying again in a big school for primary and secondary students called Antonio Ricaurte. To some extent, I was happy because for the first time my two brothers joined me to go to school. But a terrible fate was waiting for us in Florencia. At that time in the year two thousand, the people’s army ( FARC) was in its splendour and best time. The war between the Colombia government and the guerrilla fighters seemed not to reach an end. Every day bombs, detonations, machine guns, bullets, mutilated bodies and the deafening sound of Black Howl helicopters terrorised the city. Owing to this fact, our teachers constantly teach us how to protect ourselves from the bullets especially to these children who lived near to the mountains.
 But our education was about to collapse because of the war. Every day I and my brother had to walk several miles to get to school. Some days there was some money to pay for the bus other days did not.  So, one day when there was no money for the bus I and my brothers walked to school without knowing that the guerrilla had set a huge bomb next to a police station which stood next to the road where we used to walk. Fortunately and thanks to Jehovah, the bomb exploded 2 minutes after we had passed by the exact place where the bomb remained.  This occurrence led my father to take us back to Pitalito.

Again my first year of primary education had not been completed and my mother had to register me again for my first year again in Pitalito in a rural school called El Danubio. In this school happened something that would change my view of learning and teaching experience. One day while I was playing in the classroom with my cousin and some other friends, my cousin’s cousin urinated another friend. This was a funny moment for us but not a funny one for our teacher when she was told what my cousin’s had done.  She told him off severely and banned him from getting the morning break. I still remember his melancholy face looking at us while we were playing so happily outside. The next day he didn’t show up in the classroom and it was the last time I saw his innocence childhood. That day, I asked the teacher ( who used to be a merciless and arrogant teacher) the reasons why the boy did not come and she said arrogantly   “ he won’t come back again”.  And in fact, the boy didn’t come again. His father was told what the boy had done and beat him and decided to not send him to the school again. Instead of studying, the boy was forced to work. I hoped that the teacher went to the boy’s house and he would talk to his father and his father would let the boy come back the school again but she did nothing. Her ego and arrogance didn’t let her. Sadly, the boy grew up being a thief, drug addict, and beggar. He ended up living in the Pitalito streets.

 Sometimes, I wondered myself if the teacher knew that the boy had a terrible and heart-breaking infancy; I asked myself if she was told that the boy was a motherless and, to some extent, a fatherless because his mother poisoned herself and his father was a miserable drunker. Every time I remember this, great sadness mixed with hatred comes to my mind because something on the part of my teacher could have been done to deliver this poor creature.

Things went on in my school but again and laughingly my first year had to stop because my mother decided to move to Teruel Huila and take us there. Once there, I started studying in a rural school called  La Castilla. Our teacher taught to several grades at the same time; he would assign us work to do for later to assign work to the others. But again the fate was against us and I could not finish my first grade and I was taken to Palermo. 
There, I was registered in a school called Misael Pastrana Borrero but because of my advanced age to start the first year of primary school, the school made me take a placement level. I did so and I was placed in fourth grade; a big reward for me after having passed through many obstacles.  Quickly, I reached some basic knowledge useful for future procedures. A nice teacher was assigned to our special course because we were separated from the normal fourth grade owing to our advanced age. Finally and after long years of having us moved from one place to another; I finished my primary school with some honours.

Immediately, I was registered in Promoción Social School in Palermo. In the beginning, I had a tough start because I realised that I didn´t know anything about English and Maths. My English teacher was a traditional one and he never would smile. I remember trembling every time he entered the classroom. The same happened to me when the math teacher entered. Also, students had to stand up every time teachers came into the classroom as a sign of respect. All in all, the school was very strict, students were very respectful and the teachers were the ones who kept the order.

I got to finish my sixth grade In Promoción Social. Then, I was taken to Rivera Huila and I was registered there for seventh grade. In this new school was great because I got on with new friends. Happily, I finished my seventh grade successfully and things started to go on very well. However, the shadows of the past were waiting for me. My father had traveled to Putumayo and told me to accompany him to live with him for some time. I agreed and went to Putumayo without knowing that I was going to a terrible place. 

When I got there things looked nice and I thought to keep on studying. But days later war and cruelty appeared again. I was in the middle of the war again and many terrible childhood memories came to my mind. So, I decided to not study in that place because of the war. This bad decision retard my studies for three years. After having retarded my studies for three years I registered myself again to study in an adult programme owing to my advanced age. So, I studied eighth and ninth grades in just one year and tenth and eleventh in another year. The quality of education was not very good; however, there were some skillful teachers who did their best to transmit us their knowledge.

 In the beginning, our group was formed of thirty students. But as time went by, they were murdered by criminal groups until we were just fourteen out of thirty. This event marked my life and I thought of quitting of studying forever. Anyway, I managed to finish my secondary education, but when I went to get my secondary diploma; the institution gave me nothing because according to them I didn’t finish a subject called ethics. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Again the war in Putumayo was in its peak and my father took the decision to get out of that terrible place. At that time, I was 20 years old and haven’t finished secondary education. 

So, I went to Palermo Huila and registered myself for tenth grade. I finished it successfully and applied for the Universidad Surcolombiana. I decided to study foreign languages because I wanted to become a teacher. All those heartrending experiences that I had had with the war and cruel teachers motivated me to study English language teacher education programme. 

Once into the university in my first semester, my past shadows seemed to come back because I had a despot professor named Ximena that reminded me what a vicious teacher can do to their students. Some students dropped out because of her vicious attitude and because they didn’t have the English level necessary to go on and also there was nobody to motivate them to go on. So, they went away and no one cared about them. With this new teacher, I went back to the past where that merciless teacher punished my cousin’s cousin and,(to some extent, were the disgrace of his life) and  I thought of dropping out as well, but I decided to continue. I thought that I could make the difference being a teacher and maybe I could help and motivate students to study for their future so as for them not to repeat my cousin’s cousin history.

During my university process, I have met wonderful professor as well bad ones. But, it has been those great professors who have been my inspiration and engine to keep on ahead. I have learnt many key educational aspects such as the students’ learning styles and the Piaget´s stages of development among others. This has helped me to understand that teaching is not just to fill students’ heads with knowledge but to discover that every student is unique in his way of learning. Something that never was applied to me when I was a child. 

Now I am a pre-service teacher and  I am doing my first practicum at a school. It has been a wonderful experience to be a teacher after many years of being a passive student. Nonetheless, I have tried to remember all the negative aspects of my learning experience in order for me not to repeat them with my students. On the other side, all the positive learning experience that I have accumulated through my University process, I have tried to put them into practice with my students. Now I have a new insight into the educational paradigm. Every time I am teaching I try to be patient with my students for I know they are people who might have familiar,  economic, and health problems. Sometimes, they behave badly and I threaten them with negative points but then, I go next to them and have a little reflective conversation with them. 

In short, being a teacher requires many skills. No just professional skills but also, human skills. Because unlike other professions, teachers work with human beings. One good action from a teacher towards a student could be decisive for her/ his prosperous future but, on the contrary, one bad action towards a student could mean the total failure of a student; not just educative but for his entire life. I strongly recommend those who work as teachers and just do it for money to quit the job because they could be doing and irremediable harm to students.  Finally, I encourage teachers to learn from their good past experiences to teach students and also to learn from their bad learning experiences to avoid making them with their students.

  

journal 6

This week was a nice week. I could not teach so much because students had some cultural activities and also was the exam week. Nonetheless, I taught 801 and 802 one hour per group. As it was just one hour per group I did know that my time was a little bit short. So, I did some nice powerpoint slides about the topics that we have been learning through the academic period. Which are past simple, past simple negative and past simple with negative and positive questions. 

All students could not participate because there are so many students that it'd take many hours for all of them to get engaged in doing that. Nonetheless, I played a game called Who wants to be Millionaire. Students had so much fun playing it; while the others participated. I gave them so candies to those who got it right.

the second hour was the test and my cooperator told me to help students with the questions that they did not understand. Unfortunately, many students had no idea of the test. I was a little ashamed of this because I felt, to some extent, that it was my blame but my cooperator told me that students do not care about learning English and also told me to tat it was not my fault whatsoever.

Journal 5

Journal 5

This week was a little bit better that the last one. This was because I implemented my last two sessions of the innovation plan. To tell you a little bit about my innovation; it was concerning the global environment. Students watched a video about global warming; then, they learnt some vocabulary related to the topic. So far, students were kind of reluctant owing to the fact that they were just passive learners; I mean they had just to pay attention to the video and learnt global environment vocabulary. Nonetheless, things were about to change.

In the last two interventions of my Innovation plan, students had to bring some plastic bottles to create a broom. In this part, students were so happy making the broom because they felt useful. I gave them in English the instructions of how to make a broom and they understood and had lots of fun in doing so. They worked together like a real team and everyone was participating actively. For the first time, I saw in them that they were, to one extent, exciting.

The next fourth session of my innovation plan, students had to make a poster about global warming. Again, I could see that they were all drawing happily. Everyone participated eagerly either drawing or painting. I showed them some poster models and they chose the model they wanted to work with. All these manual activities showed that students are really bored of being sitting and listening to teachers. They just want to get really   involved in activities where they feel useful and also where they can sow their talents.

Journal 4

Journal 4

This week was a tough one. As the days pass away, students misbehave every day. They don't want to pay attention to me. In my first classes, they used to listen to me but now the atmosphere is oppressive. There are some moments when I find myself talking to the air for nobody is listening to me. So, I cry out so as for them to keep silence and it works for some seconds then the mess starts again. So, I had to take the attendance register and call some students to go in front of the board. By my surprise, It really worked.  For the first time, they felt frightened because they felt that at any moment I could select them to go in front of the board. I did not want to do it but I just do it. This made me feel bad but to some extent, I felt that it was my responsibility and my duty to make them behave properly.

Another technique that I was obliged to do was to put the negative points. The students are given a free English book (English please) to work in class. Nonetheless, some did not bring them. They told me that the books are too heavy to be carried. I understood their complaints. However, I told them to work in pair in a reading activity with those who had brought the books. They agreed but when I asked them for some questions form the reading; they were doing nothing. So, I took the attendance list and put them negative points to those who were doing nothing. They felt sad and worry but they gave me no more options but to be severe.

 At the end of the class, I told students in Spanish that I did not want to put the negative points but I was forced to do so. They realized that they were the ones who made the mistakes and agreed to behave, next class.

       

A good teacher

What makes a good teacher?

A good teacher has to have many qualities. some of them are: 

1. He has to be like a father, this because they will work with human beings, not with machines. So, sensitivity has to be present within him/her.

2. he has to be very intelligent. This because he has to show students that he can transmit knowledge and trustfulness.

3. He has to be very understanding. Because in most of the cases students come to schools with many familiar problems. Others, don't have money to feed themselves while others have suffered the cruelty of sexual abuse and war.

4. It has to be resigned to failures and successes within his students. Because many students will die in the process of education while others will become criminals. But there will be some who will be great professional thanks to your help.

5. He has to be very responsible with his work. Many teachers have been directly responsibles for the student's failures because he/she has mistreated students. As a consequence of this, children give up schools with so much resentment and then they transform this resentment into hatred and by contrast, they fail in life.

Journal 3

Journal 3.

The third week started to become quite hard for the students’ indiscipline. Nonetheless, the teacher co-operators help was helpful. In this week, were supposed to work with simple past and I did so. However, I had some problems with the time management for the students took so much time doing just one activity. So, my co-operator told me to make the activities shorter and with low complexity. This because I was doing some exercises to complicated. This is another constraint for me because students from eighth graders are supposed to start acquiring level b2 of English according to the common European reference for languages. But, in fact, this is not a real fact for my students. So, I have to plan classes for students of the third grade of elementary.

 Another important issue of reflexion during this class was that students need opportunities to participate in class because they feel useful. In the beginning, I taught my classes alone but then I selected some students to go in front of the board in order for them to do some exercises. Some students were reluctant to participate but little by little they went in front. This showed the whole class that they must be ready and prepared at every moment to go in front of the board to do exercises. Another important aspect which I noticed was that students must work in pair to develop a sense of teamwork. Bu doing this, they develop a good rapport among them which can be key for their coming future. 

Journal 2

Journal 2

Unfortunately, I had to renounce to the first rural school where I was teaching for the school has a rotating schedule. What it means that the schedule moves unpredictably. This made my classes impossible to teach. Hence, I moved to other schools nearer to Usco and with a fixed schedule called Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In this new first class that I taught, it was quite difficult to manage the group for the disorder. I have two groups of eighth-graders. One of them is quite nice but the other is the opposite. When I got the classroom they were doing so much noise that I wasn’t able to control them. Immediately, I tried to remember the theories which I was supposed to have learnt at university but could not find anyone about how to control these guys. I tried to persuade them to be quiet but they did not listen to me. Then, I decided to approach to them one by one and tell them to sit down but while I was giving commands to some, the others were standing up on the other side of the classroom. This bad behaviour really upset me and, in fact, I did not know what to do.

It wasn’t until my co-operator arrived that they started keeping silence. So, I did realise that the students do not respect me. This can be because at the very beginning of induction before we started the eighth semester all the practitioners were summoned for a week of induction. In this week, we were given some important piece of advice to have a better performance in the classroom where we were supposed to teach. Something that I remember from one of my teachers was the fact that she told us not to say to the students that we were just students. This because students by knowing that we are students like them, they would not respect us. I internalised that piece advice and was committed in the first-class observation to tell the students that I was going to be his second new teacher in charge of them, but before I could say something my co-operator told the students that I was going to be the university practitioner. Also, she told them that I was going to try to teach them to know if I was capable of teaching.  Immediately, the students whispered and laughed among them and I knew they had plans for me.

Owing to this fact, many questions came to my mind like do I want to be a teacher? Is this what I really want for my life? Can I do something else, so that I could avoid this stressful environment? Nonetheless, I kept going with my class. Later, while I was teaching I realised that once upon the time, I was a child and did almost the same as the students. So, I smiled and tried to incorporate myself. Then, the teacher went out and students started making noisy but when I thought the chaos was going to come back some students stuck up for me. They stood for me and made feel better. This showed me that some students want to learn and that there is a reason for me to keep working.

Journal 1

Journal 1

     The first week of teaching took me by surprise because I found many issues which I was conscious that had to be addressed. One of the many issues that I found was the that the school I am supposed to teach is a rural one. This means that, this school lacks of many important things such as technology and educational resources like a library and so on. A part from that, it was quite sad to know that this school does not have an English teacher and it has remained in this way for many years. Hence, the student’s level is really poor with respect to English. My first lesson did not take me by surprise for I have already gained some experience in teaching English. Nonetheless, I used the L2 to introduce myself even though it was a complete fiasco since the students did not understand me nor did the official teacher.

At that moment was clear to me that the students had many problems. Also, that I had to start since the beginning as if they were students from elementary schools even though they were seventh graders. So, with those issues ahead of me; I started my first class. At the beginning I could see that they had problems understanding me but then I noticed that some of them were getting some ideas, this was a great moment and a good premonition of what the future could have in store for me and for my students.