My first experiences teaching.

My first experiences: Knowing my fears, expectations, and growing as a

professional.

One day, July, who at that moment had the opportunity to face her first

experience as a teacher, was very excited; it was in a project called

“Semilleros de Ingles”, in which we could find students from public schools

of the city where she lived.

So, those students went to the university and they received training in

English in order to trigger their knowledge about the language, but also to

enrich their school learning process focused on the English language.

In addition; she was not alone she was with a partner who knew and had

more experience teaching than July had, the good thing is that she could

learn from him things like classroom management, time management,

and how to develop an activity during the class; it was really meaningful

because she had not this kind of experience; so, when she see this it was

easier for her do that.

At the beginning July had lot of expectations about this first experience

teaching but at the same time she was a little concerned about it because she

learned many things at the university but it was only theory. So, July had

lot of ideas in her mind.

Also she had knowledge about the language and what she had to faced, but

what July was really worried about was how to apply all these things she

had in mind. However, she never gave up and all the time she tried to do her

best effort because the idea first was to explore and made that students felt

comfortable in class and that they could learn everything they needed for

that course and life.

Eventually, July was shocked when she had to face different students from

different schools, contexts, and cultures. So, she realized how diverse

students are and the importance of know students realities in order to have

a meaningful learning.

One day, I think it was a Tuesday in the afternoon one of July´s fears was

how she could teach her students and make that students learned many

things from her, but she always was wondering…

What happened if I could not do this?

What happened if students do not understand what I was trying to say?

If they do not like my activities or if they feel bored?

All of July´s partners had the opportunity to observe many classes in the

different institutions where they had this first experiences in front of a

board but July only had few opportunities to observe a teacher who had

experience teaching. Besides, what July really learned was how she could use

strategies to teach, but in her mind July thought that was not enough she

needed to explore and observe more things like all her partners could do it.

Nevertheless, July thought that she could do it. Also, she had learned many

things from her teachers, so now it was the moment to face this situation

and work hard to do this the best as possible.

As a consequence, July began to explore sources like web pages, books and

asking for advice in order to get materials, to know more about different

topics, strategies, and activities that July could apply with her students.

At the same time July was leaning from her partner who had more

experience than she had. Next, July had another real opportunity teaching

but she had to do it with teachers and she had to do it by herself that was

her first real experience as an English teacher. At the beginning was so

difficult for her and she started sweating and shaking.

In that moment she realized that..