Hello CUIN 4361 Class!
My name is Hannah Gooch.
I am a senior at the University of Houston and I am an education major
with certification to teach EC-6. I will be graduating in May of 2022, and I
cannot wait to start teaching!
When I was growing up, my
dad spoke Spanish with my grandparents whenever they came over but did not
speak Spanish with me or my three sisters. I longed to be able to understand
and participate in this beautiful sense of community among the relatives on my
dad’s side of the family, so I took every opportunity I could to learn Spanish on
my own. I took Spanish classes from kindergarten through college. The format of all my classes were the same. The teacher would do a lesson on a new
tense, or vocabulary, then I would complete pages in a workbook or complete a
worksheet. There were very few instances where we were able to create videos or
PowerPoint presentations where we could talk or have conversations with classmates.
Finally, in college I took a class where we would have roundtable discussions
and really get the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to truly conversate
with peers.
As a future educator, I would like my teaching philosophy to be focused around building relationships and creating a safe environment for my students in the classroom. I believe one of the best ways to do that is truly getting to know my students and their history to figure out what their individual needs are to succeed (Wright, 2019, p. 25). I recognize all my students will be different and they will need different strategies and goals to feel proud of themselves, and they will reach their own goals at their own pace. I think one way I can help my English language learners develop their English language skills is to start them off with their own personal lexicon/dictionary book that they will keep all year. I can create these booklets for them, and before we do a lesson, we can look through all the critical terms being used in the lesson. Then, we can create their own personal lexicon booklet with words, sounds, parts of speech, pictures, and definitions to make sure they will understand the lesson. Doing this with each lesson will help provide context to help them learn the content easier, and to help them feel like they are able to participate in classroom discussions (Wright, 2019, p. 37). This participation will allow them to feel like they are a part of the classroom community. This safe classroom community is the key to success.
References:Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing.
