There are a few essential ingredients needed before a thunderstorm can become a thunderstorm. Initially, there needs to be a transference of heat from the earth’s surface to the atmosphere. Then, if moisture, instability, and movement are added to the mix, you better grab your rain boots! My decision to become an educator formed similarly to a thunderstorm. A necessary atmospheric series of experiences culminated into what would eventually become my downpour of knowledge. Now, that’s a bit of a joke, but I just wanted to grab attention and get the moist out of that metaphor. Alright, that’ll be the last joke; I promise. More seriously, a set of experiences did in fact shape my desire to teach, which took me by storm. I didn’t fully realize
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Two authors, who are also teachers, truly reinforced and solidified this way of thinking in me: Dr. Cristina Igoa and Dr. Guadalupe Valdés. Their books, The Inner World of the Immigrant Child and Learning and Not Learning English were vital to the development of my own teaching ideology and my desire to teach language. From Igoa and Valdés, I learned the importance of fostering students’ self-confidence and self-esteem, embracing dual-language identities, involving parents in a student’s education, being patient with newly arrived students, and being honest about the realities of being a language learner in the United …show more content…
I hope to accomplish this growth at the University of Minnesota. I will be an excellent addition to the program due to my energy for teaching and my passion for language. I want to substantially improve and strengthen some of my weaknesses as an educator such as my ability to employ questioning strategies, my ability to teach understandably to speakers of many different languages simultaneously, my ability to follow specific curricula, and my ability to navigate and be patient with the bureaucratic processes involved in education. Although several meaningful experiences led me to the pursuit of an advanced degree in education, there are still many more experiences I hope to have in order to create the perfect storm: one that never quits, one with influential rains, and one whose wind gusts blow language education in a positive
Two authors, who are also teachers, truly reinforced and solidified this way of thinking in me: Dr. Cristina Igoa and Dr. Guadalupe Valdés. Their books, The Inner World of the Immigrant Child and Learning and Not Learning English were vital to the development of my own teaching ideology and my desire to teach language. From Igoa and Valdés, I learned the importance of fostering students’ self-confidence and self-esteem, embracing dual-language identities, involving parents in a student’s education, being patient with newly arrived students, and being honest about the realities of being a language learner in the United …show more content…
I hope to accomplish this growth at the University of Minnesota. I will be an excellent addition to the program due to my energy for teaching and my passion for language. I want to substantially improve and strengthen some of my weaknesses as an educator such as my ability to employ questioning strategies, my ability to teach understandably to speakers of many different languages simultaneously, my ability to follow specific curricula, and my ability to navigate and be patient with the bureaucratic processes involved in education. Although several meaningful experiences led me to the pursuit of an advanced degree in education, there are still many more experiences I hope to have in order to create the perfect storm: one that never quits, one with influential rains, and one whose wind gusts blow language education in a positive