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.
Hello Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed learning about your experiences and teaching philosophy with English learners. Your video and reflection is very informative and well written. Thank your for sharing your story about your family/father’s side and the Spanish language. I love how you had the opportunity to learn the Spanish language throughout grade school and college. Though, like you, I wish schools provided higher quality education and experiences, instead of worksheet after worksheet. Students need quality practice when it comes to learning another language.
Something that really stood out to me in your video was when you mentioned that “If students do not feel safe, they will not want to go outside of their comfort zone.” I could not agree more with this statement. Students learn best when they are soaking in information outside of their comfort zones. Learning a new language is not an easy task/adjustment. When these students are given high quality, respectful education, they can see how important culture and diversity is. According to Wright’s Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners, “… educators have a responsibility to help prepare the next generation to continue working to solve important social problems related to diversity that past generations have failed to fully address” (2019, pg.22). Respect and positive relationships in the classroom benefits students more than we could ever know.
As educators, I believe we need to provide that motivating, encouraging, high quality, rich environment students can thrive in. English learners deserve all these things, including support. As teachers, we should know our students cultural and linguistic backgrounds and family life at home. This is critical for a successful classroom.
I love how you mentioned that you want to focus on building those positive relationships and creating a supportive environment. Understanding students’ individual needs and differences is an amazing way to do this.
Great post!
Hi Hannah! Welcome to Second Language Methodology. My parents too spoke spanish to each other but did not speak spanish to neither me or my sister. When I was growing up, I wanted to learn spanish more and more. I ended up learning spanish on my own too. Thats awesome that your class had many opportunities to conversate with peers. I believe the best way to learn a skill is through practice. I like how your teaching philosophy is focused on bailing relations and creating a safe environment for your students. I do believe that the first step for a successful classroom is creating a relationship with each and everyone of your students. Good luck this semester !
ReplyDeleteHello Jasmine!
DeleteThank you for your insight, I enjoyed reading your post! I find it so interesting that we have the shared experience of one of our parents speaking Spanish but not speaking to us in Spanish! That is a very unique experience. I wonder sometimes how different my life would be if if I could also speak Spanish, and how different some of my life choices would be. I agree that one of the best ways to learn a skill is through practice as well. I think that is really important for our students in the classroom.
Hello Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI really admire your willingness and dedication to learn another language. It's a very inspiring story, and I think it will definitely be relatable to some of your future students if you ever choose to share it. Your teaching philosophy is somewhat similar to mine. As a future teacher all we can ever hope for is creating a safe, welcoming, and nourishing learning environment. In order to build that environment, we must put the effort in learning our students interests, learning patterns or our "students' cultural backgrounds and how [their] culture influences learning at school" (Wright, 2019, p. 18). I think keeping an open mind and taking these kinds of factors into consideration is a great first step into building that teacher-student bond relationship.
Hello Gabrielle!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insight, I enjoyed reading your post! I did not think about how my experience could be relatable to my students, thank you for pointing that out! I will be sure to share my experience with my students to create a positive mindset around struggle and success. I agree that having an open mind in the classroom is critical to our students success and building those really important relationships. Without those relationships we cannot have a successful classroom environment for our students.