Watching
the movie Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall, I was thinking about the
fears the teacher has to face every day in front of the students. According to
the movie, the scientist feels fear to discover and assumes the bad or good
consequences. The teacher every day has to take risk to teach new things but I think
the most defiant challenge is to awake teenagers to learn and it is a discovering
and challenge.
The second
fear is to make the difference. It is easily to comprehend, when you as a
teacher tries to innovate the teaching process and maybe (This is no maybe,
this is sure!!!) the colleagues start to mock and make that teacher loses
his/her enthusiasm because they prefer to stay in the “comfortable place”. The last
fear is to defiant the authorities in order
to get the goal and help the students as
the scientist who had to face his authorities in order to help the ill people
to overcome without any kind of supporting.
The education
in Language reacquires super heroes: teacher has to be just in five, just a
real super hero because education needs a person who assumes the challenges of
innovation, someone who wants to be awake, someone who believes everything is
possible, someone who wants to be resourceful person and someone who supports
and cheers up the learning teaching process.
This super
hero has to face and go beyond the evident, beyond the “normal” pedagogical
issue, not only someone who does not let go deeply in an education as a business
but also someone who makes a stop in the
way and criticizes the way he or she is teaching. This super hero should develop
the researchable strategy to change the paradigms.
We as a
students of M. A. language teaching must awake because we are studying theories
that maybe are reevaluated and another theories which are rising but we do not
know and perhaps we are following others who do not want to change. So my
questions are: Are we super heroes? Are we awake? What are we doing for being
awake? How do we make our students awake?
Luisa: I love the way you compare the labor of Doctor Sayer with our labor as teachers. I think we have to be super heroes not only inside the classroom; but also in society. The problem is that maybe we are not prepare to confront changes and critics, specially critics from the experts. So, I think that we need to prepare ourselves as researcher teachers who are able to justify changes in theoretical support. We know that our students hope many things from us, and it is basically because we have a power given by social context. But, we can become that power in something positive. It means, from the classroom we can model our students in order to become open minders.
ResponderEliminarI know it sounds fantastic and maybe easy. But, we have to face a huge force, it is people's stereotypes, beliefs, traditions and experiences. It is not an easy task to do. It is difficult to change people's mind. But, I still believe that it can not something impossible. We need to open our eyes and see what we have learnt and start preparing to be already when students call us.
Good reflection!! I will be thinking about all your questions. So interesting!!
thank you!!! Today is a day of continuous reflection about the real knowledge and the believed one. So the best moment to start making the difference is just right now. We should awake ourselves and our students.
EliminarI am going to keep thinking about those questions. Today more than other days!!!
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ResponderEliminarLuisa arregla para poder seguirte :(
ResponderEliminarFollowers bar!!
It’s really hard to step outside our comfort zones (or as you called it, "comfortable place"). You start thinking on the possible consequences of doing something new (much more work, anxiety, you have to face the unknown, more anxiety, you might not get the results that you want). I was reading a bit about the comfort zone, and apparently making a too drastic change will put you in a “panic zone” (which is even worst). According to that, innovation and facing anxiety should be done step by step. That way you’ll start seeing little results that together will become bigger results.
ResponderEliminarThanks Sergio. So, I want with this post make our colleagues think and face the new challenges because I consider that the teacher must be studying every day, learning every day because it is impossible that we advance like a turtle in linguistic studies. So it is because nobody wants to go out from comfort zones and prefers to study the same with the same bibliography along years!!! In my personal opinion and experience I want to ask and find answers beyond we have learned. My anxiety is to find, face and overcome different difficulties but my efforts will be rejecting by the "authorities". Do not forget that we belong a system and many times who is agains it, he or she is condemned to lose.
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