Teacher Reflection #1

        Going to a dual curriculum Elementary, Middle and High school has allowed me to have the experience of being an L2 learner. I think that having this experience is very important for a future ESL teacher to have. It takes a certain amount of patience, understanding, dedication and commitment to teach a second language. Therefore, being someone who has sat in a classroom and stared at the chalk board in confusion and gotten so frustrated with myself when I was unable to grasp the information, I am able to identify with other L2 learners. I spent my whole schooling experience struggling with a new language, new alphabet, new grammar and rules, and the amount of work that it took to fully understand and complete one assignment. However, it finally clicked and I was able to overcome my feeling of being uncomfortable and my fear of failure vanished. 

       I was in many classes that consisted of the teacher standing in the front of the room, writing notes on the board for us to copy, and lecturing. These are not the classes where I learned anything. This type of teacher is not the one who I want to become. On the flip side, I also had many teachers who believed in having fun, doing projects, group work, playing games, etc. These are the classes that I looked forward to going to, I retained the most information in and the ones that really helped me achieve my goal of being able to speak and understand a new language. This is the kind of teacher I want to be, and I think it was very beneficial for me to have L2 learning experiences that fell on both ends of the spectrum. I am not more aware of the things that I know I will definitely not every do in my classroom, and the things that are worth a try. 

       It is important to understand what the students are going through, be able to relate to their frustrations and have solutions to help them. THese are all things that I believe I am capable of. I have had horrible L2 learning experiences and amazing ones. I can put myself in the place of my future intimidated students and try to help ease their discomfort in the learning of a new language. While I do not have all the answers and teaching techniques that will help me in my future as a teacher, I look forward to hearing from other classmates throughout the semester and learning more ways in which I can make teaching ESL a more beneficial and exciting experience :)