I want to start this first reflection saying that this
weekend session was more challenging and fuller of expectations than it used to
be. Usually, before starting a new course in this master program, a feeling of anxiety,
curiosity and a kind of fear accompanied me. Maybe, because as human beings we
often feel anxious about the “new” or “unknown” or because I sometimes think
that perhaps I won’t be able to achieve the course’s objectives, or to match
teacher’s expectations. In fact, I have to say that all courses in the master
have been a challenge for me in terms of content, time, readings assignments,
understanding of that content and even in the use of English. This last one, in
special, has not been a problem itself but an aspect that sometimes limit me in
the development of a course. To be honest, I consider myself I do not have a
high English proficiency level but I always try to do my best ;).
This time and due to the present circumstances, the
expectations about having a virtual class increased those frequent feelings. I
have to say, this was a new, rare experience for me, since I have never
participated in this type of classes. However, this situation has made me think
and reflect on some issues that I want to share.
The first one, is the fact that we confirm again the
capacity of human beings to adapt ourselves to new situations. It does not
matter what is our profession, status or personal situation, we are able to
find a way to solve and overcome any situation. The second issue I want to
highlight, is that anything replaces interpersonal (face to face)
communication. Although the sessions were almost completed as expected, I feel
that the interpersonal relation and interaction among teacher-students and
student-student was affected. In my opinion, I think that issues such as the amount
of time we passed in front of a screen, some technical difficulties, the
“freedom” we had while the classes went on, and some distractors inherent to our
own working place, altered in somehow the dynamic of the sessions.
All these factors lead me to reflect on three key aspects:
my role as a student in this course, my role as a teacher and the role of my
students in this unexpected situation. All those roles are being affected, challenged
and transformed due to the circumstances we are living now. The good news is
that this situation is clearly connected to the focus of this course: teachers’
professional development.
In my opinion, one of the objectives I want to achieve
in this course (from those proposed by the teacher) is to gain knowledge and
skills to keep building my profile as professional teacher.
Considering this
objective and grounded on the basis that the economic, socio-political and
cultural factors influence teachers’ professional development, I am quite sure
that the challenges I am facing, plus the knowledge I get from this course will
let me to transform and improve the pedagogical practice I used to have until
today. The particular situation we and our students are experiencing today, is helping
us to shape or reshape our personal and professional growth as student teachers
and as language teachers as well. We must consider the present situation to
critically analyze who we are, what are we doing and what we should do to
improve ourselves and help our students in their learning process as well.
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