My on-going development

After this Practicum, I can affirm that certain things have changed and evolved in relation to my thoughts on education. From a personal perspective, I think that I have experienced a clear improvement in some areas, which I'm sure would not have been possible without doing this stage.  In global terms, my conception of education has also changed somehow.

If I have to describe myself as a teacher right now, I would say that I am just a beginner, but a beginner much more prepared than one year ago. However, right now I am, above all, a student eager to get experience and to dig deep into the world of education and teaching. This Practicum has brought me the opportunity to prove myself that I am completely valid to teach. This evolution that I am referring to has been caused by different motives. For example, the activities and assignments done during this period have also helped me to improve my teaching skills. On the one hand, the design of the TS has been really useful to make me work in a more organized way and to improve my planning. Apart from this, I have acquired agility when developing teaching sequences and I have perfected my written skills. On the other hand, and thanks to the implementation of the TS, I actually realized the important role that planning plays in teaching. The implementation was also the perfect way to “put me on the spot”, and experience teaching in its real essence. It was through the implementation when I could analyze myself as a teacher, and reflect on my own characteristics, trying to enhance my abilities and minimizing my weak traits and, above all, being critical with my own professional practice. Related to this last issue, it is also necessary to mention the importance of teaching the students how to become critical thinkers. I would like to emphasize this point again, and say that it is essential to educate children in order to make them adapt to present societies, and to take informed actions, based on thought and analysis (Brookfield, 2011).

This experience has been obviously enriched by some people I have been in contact with during this period of time, such as my school and university tutors and my peers, both from the US and the UAB. I could mention several contributions from all these people, but I’ll try to be as precise as possible and highlight the most important ones.

Regarding my university teacher, I basically consider that she has broadened my horizons in relation to education and, particularly, to the L2 teaching. She has given me new and updated educational theories, resources, tools and meaningful advice that will be of great use in my future professional career. My tutor of the school, however, has helped me transmitting his own experience as a teacher. Thanks to him, I could understand a little better the current educational and social reality. He has made me realize that sometimes, there is a big distance between theory and practice, and this is something that I really appreciate. In addition to this, he also has shown me a possible methodology for the L2 teaching. Concerning my classmates, I would like to mention that they were very helpful in the preparation of all the activities. Apart from this, thanks to their contributions I have finally convinced myself to trust more in teamwork. Being honest, I wasn’t a supporter of teamwork so far, but this experience has brought the opportunity to see all the benefits of working cooperatively. The contributions from others definitely make your work better.