Learning how to teach

While I was attending classes at the Teaching English as a Foreign Language College, I was already working in some state-run schools as a substitute teacher. I was 19 years old and I decided to take up the challenge to gain some experience before the practice period and to be able to afford my studies since there were no graduated teachers in my town willing to be substitutes. One of my first jobs was in a primary state-run school in a seventh year. There were about twenty students in the course, so having talked to the teacher in charge of the class, I supposed I knew what I had to do.
Although my classes were extremely dull at that time, one of the girls in the group was truly interested in the subject. Despite the fact that vocabulary and grammar were the perfect allies in my tedious lessons, she participated and was eager to learn English. The girl did not have a book to work with, but she always tried hard to do her homework and study for the tests. I was really proud of her and as I thought that imparting knowledge was the key function of school, I felt she was absolutely going on the right track.
One day, the girl started arriving late at school. Even though our English period lasted from eight to ten, she arrived at nine or later. The headmistress began telling her off because she did not give any reason for her absence in the first hour. I also asked her what was happening but I did not get any answer. Her performance was not the same once this incident began being repetitive. She was not the same girl I had met, I knew there was something wrong that made her feel unhappy.
Lessons passed by until one Friday morning she burst into tears. I asked her what the problem was but she did not reply. As she could not calm down, the teacher came and took her to another room to talk quietly. When I was about to leave, the teacher told me the student’s story. The girl was working as a newspaper street vendor because her mother was ill and she had to get an important and expensive surgery. I felt terribly miserable while listening to the story but I immediately resolved to help somehow. After some days, the teacher and I decided to collect some money among the staff to help the girl’s mum and to avoid the student’s working.
I consider this incident one of the most memorable situations I have ever lived in my profession. Obviously, I was the one who learnt the lesson: a lecture about life more than about expertise. There is a social function which is served by schools that I was not aware of until that moment. Even though imparting knowledge is a key feature of schools, the purpose of socializing in terms of helping each other makes us more teachers when teaching and of course, more humans to our societies.

Teachers as lifelong learners

The idea of developing critical incidents to improve teachers’performance is not new (Fernandez & Fernandez, 1994; Tejada, 2000). As Fernandez, Elortegui & Medina state, critical incidents are described as pre-service and in-service teacher education strategies to integrate theory and practice having diversity of teachers and different reflexive analysis as the main features (2003). Unfortunately, this type of methodology is not included in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Colleges or in In-service Education and Training days (INSET) when teachers are already working. This absence of reflection leads to disorganization and poor range of strategies at the time of solving problems at school.
Thinking about personal experiences, I remember being in TEFL College whereas working in state-run schools as a substitute teacher. I used to believe that students would learn the language in the same way I had done, so my interest was focused on imparting knowledge, no matter how. I was going to teach a 5th grade of fifteen children in a primary school. I introduced myself and asked what they had been doing in previous classes. As soon as I started explaining some grammar items, I found in students’folders, two of them began fighting in the middle of the class. They accused one another of not being their father’s child, but somebody else’s. I tried to stop the quarrel, but I could not. A teacher who heard the shouting, came and helped me to stop the scrap. I was really shocked. Not only did I realize that I was not ready to deal with conflicts in groups but also I woke up to the fact that one’s reality was not everyone’s.
Examples such as these are abundant in our contexts. Teachers- to-be without enough tools already teaching at schools because there are vacant posts that nobody covers, among other facts that are connected to absence of analysis, experience and reflection. As previously stated, the introduction of critical incidents in TEFL Colleges and in schools themselves is almost non-existant, leading to unsuccessful and unfruitful practices. The contribution of critical incidents is a key topic to encourage teachers to reflect upon their own perfomance, creating an atmosphere of working collectively within the teaching community.
All in all, the analysis of critical incidents should be included as part of a subject at TEFL Colleges and also as a teacher’s daily rehearsal. As well as the elaboration of new material and the introduction of latest ideas to the classrooms, this activity can be shared with all the colleagues at work, bettering our jobs and widening our perspectives. Learning from experience is part of our task as teachers; not only do we grow in our profession and vocation but also as individuals with the openness, candour and integrity enough to be called teachers proudly.







References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N. & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved September 2010, from
http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107