Wrapping up Semester One

I´m an English Teacher??
So, I made it. I came into this teaching program in Ecuador as a college graduate with a BS in Graphic Communication with no official training in how to teach English at University level. The first couple months were hard and I questioned my ability to teach almost every day. Lesson planning took me hours and despite all the hard work, lessons still didn’t run as smoothly as they had been planned. But, and I can’t quite pinpoint when this happened, I became a Profesora de Ingles, for real. My lesson planning time became shorter and shorter. I built up a confidence that allowed me to walk into the classroom without every minute and every detail planned and, amazingly, these were the best days of class. I definitely still had some horrible days as a teacher where I questioned my ability to be in the position I was in, but as the semester came to an end, I truly believe that my students learned from me. They put aside my fears of their hatred for my classes by asking if I would be teaching the next level and I know it was not for the reason of avoiding my classes because on the last day, one of my students said to me “ Miss, it would be really great to have you again.”

The class that really pulled through and proved they had learned was my level eight conversation class. They had never been my favorite and I struggled in the beginning to facilitate a class primarily filled with speaking practice that was entertaining. Getting some of the students to speak was like pulling teeth and this was the final level of the entire English program!

As the class neared its end I decided to really put my students on the spot and make them realize their ability as English speakers. The last unit I designed for the course was centered on the idea of a debate and all it entails. My students learned to recognize and use common statements for agreeing and disagreeing and then were warmed up to the task of a debate by performing mini debates in small groups. I borrowed a brilliant idea from Bryce to divide groups into three smaller groups. One group stands for Agree, the second for Disagree, and the third group represents a jury which then decides the verdict (who wins the debate). We started off small and I gave them simple arguments such as “ It is better to have a job where you work overtime and make lots of money or to have a part-time job where you make little money but have much more time to spend with your family.” They loved the mini debates more than I had anticipated and I looked forward to the grand finale of the entire class debates.

For the final I split the class into three groups. Each group had to come up with a debate topic for the final debate day. The chosen debate topic would then be discussed between the two other groups and the group that created the topic would serve as the jury. I gave the groups complete freedom to choose topics and stressed the fact that debates are not limited to serious topics and that funny and simple topics were welcome as well. Well, my class decided to get themselves involved in some serious debates and created more work for themselves than I had planned by choosing the following topics: Abortion should be legal in Ecuador, The use of Euthanasia should be permitted in Ecuador, and Gay Marriage should be allowed in Ecuador.

Based on the topics of choice I worried for the big debate day in which I would be grading each student on his or her performance as part of the final grade. As soon as the first debate began I realized I had not enough faith in my students. They absolutely blew me away and it was obvious they had put real time and effort into preparing for what turned out to be three intense, intelligent and impressive debates. I knew they were good when I found myself subconsciously agreeing with a team to which, in actuality, I disagreed with the statement. I will never forget this last day of debates with level eight. My students showed me just how hard they were willing to work for my class and made me realize just how rewarding it can be to see
students demonstrate the knowledge and skills I have helped them achieve.