metaphor by lorena cabrera

Who am I as a teacher?

For me Teacher is like a gardener, the student is the seed or the flowers. The classroom serves as the greenhouse creating a warm, safe environment for growth. The parents are the soil, serving as a strong nutrient base for the seed. The water and sunshine provide live and maintaining it, this is the knowledge. When the water is not plentiful, the seed will suffer. It shines knowledge to ensure growth. The teacher should be patient with the seedlings, because no matter how much water or how much sunshine they receive, they are all individuals, and, as a result, they will all grow at their own rate, in their own way, during their own time; no two are the same.

We need to treat each of them differently for that reason I use differents tools to each students, in some cases I have to use a spade or rake. Those are the different learning strategies for the different learning styles.

The fence Make the environment be more comfortable, compatible, secure, and appropriate for the seedlings to flourish.

Each time the students enter the garden, is my responsibility as a teacher give the students interesting activities take into account the needs that their have, the learning styles which will enable the students to grow strong and tall into their natural splendor.

I don’t blame the plant when it’s not performing well; I check the growing conditions. Is the soil the plant is growing in suitable or does it need amending? Does the plant need more water; does the plant need less water? Does the plant need more sunshine; does the plant need less sunshine. 

metaphor by harold!

METAPHOR OF JESUS AS TEACHER

The role of the teachers is a very wide concept; the teachers are in charge of teaching a subject, they have to create the best conditions in the classroom to ensure a dynamic process of learning, they have to impart knowledge to their students, but these are just some of their duties, they´re also responsible to guide, orient, direct, conduct and shaping student´s life according to ethic values and moral aspects. 

I chose Jesus to reflect the teachers´ role, because teachers are involved in many different aspects of people´s life as well as Jesus, both help and teach people, showing them good and bad things, showing them the different ways to develop a task and letting them take the decision they want but direct them toward the best one.

I see myself as a teacher developing a work like Jesus did, full of love, confidence, dedication, enthusiasm, giving always the best tools to help my students to achieve their aims and dreams, to make them good people, as I said before we need to teach them not just the cognitive part but the affective one to make them people aware about their life, and conscious about the world´ situation and how they can interact with it and help to change things which are affecting their own lives and their closest environment, their family, friends, school, classroom, classmates, neighborhood, etc.

I consider I will be an affective teacher because in my experience as student I noticed the classes are better when teachers are friendly, when they adopt a positive attitude toward the students, when they motivate students to participate in class, when they create a comfortable environment where students are full of confidence and all of them can work together with no fear and so the learning process can take place easily.

Finally, it is important establish a relationship not just with our students but with their family, because our job does not begin and does not  finish in the classroom as many people believe, our job goes beyond, we must take care of our students in all the aspects of their life.

Metaphor by Lina Mora

I decided to do this metaphor like a Jesus because he is teacher of teachers and I would like to be as him. He taught mainly to 12 disciples and the influence that just one person has is huge, so I think that as a teachers we can transform learners’ life and with just one life changed, can be the change for our society and we need to help them to find their purpose in the life.

 Jesus didn’t any exception of social status and he was setting down at the same level as learners; and teachers we have to stay at same level as learners because they are people and they need respect as well.

As Jesus loved his learners I have to do the same with my students because I think that they will receive the information in a better way.

I want to motivate my students and they can feel as home or place that they enjoy it, and Jesus motivated his disciples to tell all the good news to all people.

I am absolutely sure that teacher we can change students’ life and we contribute in their life and I want to do it for good.

The theories showed in this blog have been organized according to the time each one appeared, how they were used in a specific time of the history and the kind of  tools and materials they provided to the development of current education. 

Behaviourism

According to John B. Watson, Behaviourism is a theory that points out that second language acquisition takes place through the habit formation and it is acquired by means of stimulus and response in the form of mechanical repetition.

USES

• You can use this theory to find out the most effective stimulus to provocate a secod language acquisition.
• The linguistics enviroment plays and important role then you can use many images, tools through repetition.
• You can use  class management through the reinforcement to reward the students efforts or punishment to dicrease undesirable behavior.
• This theory focuses on speaking and pronuntiation more than writing because is based on repeating sentences. 

Drawbacks 

The video shows us how the Behaviourist Theory ignores completely  the inborn aspect of human knowledge because the students only repeat what the teacher says.

The theory puts more  emphasis on the role of imitation and ignores completely the creativity of the child, making him/her somewhat passive viewer than actor in the process of language acquisition.

Comprehension Hypothesis

The Comprehension Hypothesis refers to subconscious acquisition, not conscious learning.

The Comprehension Hypothesis states that we acquire language when we understand messages, when we understand what people tell us and when we understand what we read.

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• We acquire by comprehensible input (i) + 1.
• Input Hypothesis relates to acquisition, not learning. 
• Focus not on structure but on understanding the message.
• Do not teach structure deliberately; i+1 is provided naturally when input is understood.
• Production ability emerges. It’s not taught directly.

Sociocultural Theory

The sociocultural theory believes that language can be acquired when the students socialize and interact either with other learners or with the speakers of the language they are learning.   . In the context of the classroom, the sociocultural theory in second language acquisition can be practiced through social activities that simulate the cultural context of the language.

The socio-cultural is based on vigotskian thoughts, that language is a socially mediated process. The society  has importance in the learning process in the people. The mediation  is a fundamental principle to acquire second language, and we need the mediation from the parents, teachers, relatives or classmates.

According to Vigotski the theory is based on:




ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT


1.  CHILDREN CONSTRUCT KNOWLEDGE.

What  teachers  have to do is to produce learning or knowledge.

Teachers have to help students how to learn. 

HOW?

Developing the habilities  to understand all the context in the speaking and use it in the real context.  

2. LEARNING CAN LEAD DEVELOPMENT


It is the concept  that a child accomplishes a task he cannot do alone with the help from a more skilled person. the result of this process is that  children become more socialized in the dominant culture and it induces cognitive development.


3. DEVELOPMENT CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT


Social interactions lead to continuos step by step changes in children´s thougth and behavior and these depend on the culture which we are exposed.
development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world.


4. LANGUAGE PLAYS CENTRAL ROLE IN MENTAL DEVELOPMENT


Children use private speech when the task becomes too dificult and a child doesn´t know how to proceed. Private speech helps the child accomplish a task.


Interactive Activities

Aside from the classic role playing, here are some activities for strengthening the communication skills of second language learners based on the sociocultural theory:

1. Shared Story Telling

In this activity, the teacher will present a set of related pictures that tells a story. In groups of 4 to 5, the learners would have to construct a story by describing what they see in the pictures. Each member of the group must be have an assigned picture that he will connect to the other pictures. Depending on their level, they can add dialogues and characters. This activity can also be used in retelling a story taken up in class.

2. Think-Aloud

Give the learners a situation in which they have to make decisions or choose options. While they are deciding on what to do with the situation given to them, they spontaneously say out loud the things that go on in their mind. They must be able to have a resolution at the end. Allot a specific period of time for this activity. For example, a learner must be able to decide within 2 minutes if he will attend a party of a person he doesn't like. The situations must be realistic and within the experience of the learners. The purpose of this activity is for the learners to think in the language they are acquiring and make it automatic to them. This will also help them see that communication is not only with other people but also with oneself.

3. Language Date

Arrange a day in which students can meet up with native speakers who will serve as their company for the day. The learner and the native speaker must arrange some activities they can do together like dining out, shopping, playing some sports. The native speaker must not be able to understand the learner's native language. This way, the learner will be forced to use  the target language he/ she is learning. At the same time, this will also expose the students to the use of language in an authentic situation.