MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Amelia Teresa Correa

ENGL C0855

Professor B. Gleason

May 19, 2015

            I took many courses during my undergraduate years in which I learned the material of the subject matter at hand.  Semester in semester out, I learned a set of information which became part of my knowledge repertoire: the one I am now able to use in conversations to sound as though I am a well-read individual or the one whose vocabulary I can use to perform my job as an interpreter/translator. I could pretty much say the knowledge I learned in college has served me just right.  Nonetheless, while taking Teaching Adult Writers in Different Contexts now in my graduate years, I have come to realize that if knowledge gain in courses does not affect an individual’s thinking or perspective, then chances are it was learned in a vacuum, divorced from the very things it should be affecting.  Taking a course in any subject matter should have the effect not only of teaching something to the individual, but it should also teach him or her its practical usage and it should also transform the person, at least in some type of way.

            Teaching Adult Writers in Different Contexts was a very challenging class from the get-go. First, I was taking it at a time where other responsibilities were pulling me away from it, in that, at first, I could not find the time to study or to complete homework in a timely fashion.  However, there was so much at stake that somehow I was able to pull through.  I was able to learn the teaching and/or learning concepts, such as those Richard Orem elaborates on, associated with teaching English to adults both in regular settings such as college, as well as in settings such as jails or at libraries.  I also read Field Work, perhaps the first text book I have ever read in which one can hear the voice of the writer.  This to me was completely fascinating.  I was able to read how the authors of Field Work teach how to learn about other’s cultures, and subcultures for that matter, in a voice so relax that at times it was just hilarious, like their article about the “Nacirema” people. 

            Now, the research project of this class which carried the most weight with respect to grades, was one whose completion I was not happy with.  I was just wondering why on earth I had to go observe some random teacher and then report on it. However, I did everything the project entailed: I reached out to the site managers to be allowed to observe the class; I went three times to the site, two of which were to just observe and take notes; then I proceeded to write my report. 

            The interesting part about the research was not completing it, but the fact that, as a future English teacher with no teaching experience, I began my research without having any idea whatsoever of what I was going to discover or how what I discover was going to make me change my perspective of teaching, to say the least.  So I embarked into the short, nonetheless arduous journey of learning by observing without even knowing what was there for me.  And I did so resenting the professor for having us do something that, at first glance did not have any meaning.  I was out for a surprise. 

             I learned, during my observations of the site and also in my own classroom, the amount of good energy involved in teaching; that he or she who teaches does it really out of love for the vocation and not for the pay,  for teachers are, in their vast majority, part-time employees with no benefits.  I also learned to give myself time to see the importance and use of completing certain tasks, for there is a lesson to be learned behind every assigned homework. But the one learning experience that really mesmerized me was observing teaching done in a setting different than a college’s.  It is not that I had not seen teaching done in other contexts. In the past, I had the opportunity to learn in settings less formal than college.  However, observing teaching from the other side of the spectrum, and not as a student, is a complete different enterprise.

Indeed, while completing my research project students shared some personal issues with me that could have or were hindering their learning.  And I have to admit that I was completely moved to see how, in spite of the hardships some students were going through, they too were pulling through, not only by attending classes, but also by participating in class and showing a great level of engagement. 

A few things would have happened, had I not completed my research project.  First, I would have not known how teaching Basic English truly entails.  I would have not seen that teaching does not only involve standing in front of a class and transmitting what one knows to his or her students.  That teaching does not only require possessing a set of skills, but it is also about understanding your students’ cultures, quotidian issues in general to be able to help them better with the subject matter.