My goal as an ESL teacher, Spanish teacher or Math teacher is to motivate and inspire my students and make a structured learning environment that actively promotes their learning process of the English Language or any other subject matter. In that sense, I consider myself as guide, coach, and mentor, more than the proverbial “sage on the stage.”
My teaching philosophy is based on teamwork: Students learn best when they enjoy the process and learn with and from each other. Learning is an active process that students have to participate and engage in. The key to guarantee effective teaching and learning is to create a positive and encouraging learning environment. I wholeheartedly agree with one of my engineering teacher’s point of view that anyone can teach a student the lesson of the day, but to prepare the students to promote team work or be independent learners, to inspire them in their second language learning, molding their attitude and ethics, are the essential elements of a quality education. Teaching goals and strategies:
TEAMWORK: I can't elaborate more in this point that I already have in my other assignments. I consider that it is simply essential for our students to learn their second language by social interaction. Group projects are fun for students. They help students to understand the assignment and to get help from each other. Sometimes the assignment will require the students to take a step forward to become a leader for the rest of the group. Communication with their teammates is essential for real life scenarios.
HARD WORK: Hard work at the end of the day always pays off. It helps the students learn a very important lesson in life and it boosts their self-esteem and personal fulfillment, not just their grades. In engineering school I took a class called “Foundations”. The teacher gave us 3 tests during the course of the class. The first test had a value of 5%, the second test had a value of 10%, the third...