Who I am as a teacher?

My teaching philosophy

My teaching philosophy is influenced and guided by approaches to learning and by experiential and learning theories. In general, this means that I see students as unique and active learners who have the potential to be creative and innovative, and the desire to develop themselves. There are no bad students. Rather, there are students who have different personalities and learning styles. If students are given the right resources and opportunities, a supportive, encouraging and interactive learning environment, and the possibility to participate, engage and build on their previously acquired experiences and knowledge, they are certainly able to achieve good learning outcomes.

Therefore, when teaching a course, I use varied activities and methods lectures, independent work, group work, analyses, exercises, discussions, reflections, web-based learning environments, and so on. In order to support the students’ learning styles. Experiences that are the route to deep learning. Hence, my lessons are interactive and social experiences: students are encouraged to actively do things either individually or with their peers. In my courses, learning often becomes a shared activity in which students learn from each other. In the end, it is of course the student’s responsibility to learn.

My beliefs about my teaching

I think my teaching of the course is to give a theoretical and practice on of interaction and then to provide students with a rigorous methodological background for collecting their own data and analyzing them. I have learned to reflect on myself as a teacher and to evaluate and develop my teaching methods; I have become sensitive to different kinds of learners, their needs and learning styles, and diversified my teaching practices and the used teaching methods accordingly.

What I learned about teaching speaking skills.

I learned to interact with different students and with different levels of English. Through the teaching of English intro with each of the students it was possible to achieve grammatical comprehension skills, vocabulary and above all pronunciation. They felt very satisfied with their work in class and I was amazed by the ability to learn each subject and the good results that each one achieved in the different topics studied.

What I learned about teaching in online environments.

I often think teaching online has gifted me with a better sense of how to explain certain concepts, primarily because I sometimes have to go outside my comfort zone in the online course in order to explain things in writing that I could much more easily explain verbally. I have to think more carefully about how to word certain things, and I sometimes have to do additional research to find resources I might be able to share that have visual cues or alternate explanations. I cannot rely on physical cues for example, the look on a student's face to know if the student gets it, and I have to find other ways to gauge whether the student does or does not understand the material. I learned to adapt to different learning styles.

My principles about teaching speaking online.

1. Create commitment and responsibility in the classes.

2. Apply constant practice in each subject worked. 

3. Full participation and critical opinion. 

4. Maintain an atmosphere of respect and collective help. 

5. Understand the situation of each student taking into account their level of learning, thus providing opportunities for help.