Autobiography

My name is Jonathan Zabala Muñoz, and I will tell you the most relevant aspects about my life.

XXI years ago I was born in Bogotá. My mother, Maria Esther Muñoz, and my Father Albeiro Zabala were absolutely happy because of my arrival. I was surrounded by a really warm family environment. When I was two years old, we moved to Huila, but my father remained there in the Capital city.

Most of my life I grew up with my mother, and my little brother who was born when I was just five years old. We were a small family, but leaded by the bravest, and the strongest woman I know, my mother. She always wanted me to study and to be a professional. As a kid I imagined myself as a doctor, as a singer, and as an international businessman. However, as the time went by I noticed I would not be able to accomplish my childhood dreams. My voice was not that beautiful to be a singer so I dismissed it, and to be a businessman it was really boring to me. Being a doctor was the most appealing to me. Nevertheless, I wanted to learn languages, and it was absolutely clear to me. 

When I graduated from my high school, my dream to be a doctor faded away. I could not afford it, and my father was going through a real tough economic situation. Thus I decided to study something that I could afford, and I could take advantage of. I started my major in an English Language Teaching Education Program at Universidad Surcolombiana. I had never considered myself as a teacher, and I never expected to be in that path, but it would be worth it to learn another language.

Despite the fact that I have had some teaching influences, I could not imagine myself teaching a class. I was very impatient, but according to many people I was in the right track because of my kindness, and charisma.  During my high school I did not like English, or that was what I thought, later I discover that it was my teachers’ fault. She was absolutely boring, and the classes were not dynamic, it was only a translation process in every single lesson. It was noticeable I had some aptitudes to languages and I received many prizes because of that, nonetheless, when my previous teacher was fired, and  a new one arrived, I realized I was good at speaking English, and it was kind of easy for me, I was motivated, so I kept on learning by songs, and watching a lot of series in English.

In second semester, I received a call from a friend who asked me to teach a class. I said yes, but I was so scared that I hesitated it a lot. I was very young, I was 17 years old, and I had never taught a class. I think in some extent I was dared, but totally freaked out. The first class I taught was memorable, I was nervous, but I controlled myself in order to seem calmed. My students called me teacher, and it melted me. They were kids and they were very cute. An advantage I have is that I look older than I am. My beard has a good effect on my age, and I think they really take me as a teacher, not as a student.

From that moment on, I tried to never say my real age. I let them guess and figure out about it. I think I have tried to apply all the theory that I have learnt from my classes at the university in my lessons, and they have partially worked. It is required to adapt it to our context, and maybe to mix some of those theories in order to get a good teaching- learning process.

Sometimes I felt like crying, and not doing anything. Being a teacher produces a big load of stress. Our mind is sometimes too tired that is even worse that being physically exhausted. I really admire all my teachers, and all the teachers around the world. They are the ones who shape our minds, and give us many tools to be implemented in the future. Being a teacher is synonym of braveness, courage, intelligence, and a lot of patience.

Currently, I work as a teacher, and I really like my job. I am not sure if I want to continue doing it for the rest of my life because there is another major waiting for me, but meanwhile I am pleased to be a teacher, and I do it as good as I can.

Metaphor

Teaching is a tough job that implies being strong, not only physically, but mentally. Being a teacher is one of the most remarkable professions since it is the one who shapes the others. Therefore, it is easy to associate teachers with a pencil. That because a pencil is really useful to write things, but if you notice it has an eraser, it is to delete those little mistakes that are made during the process of writing. Similar to what a teacher does. A teacher gives their knowledge that in this case could be the lead, and with every stroke it becomes smaller. A teacher shares his knowledge, as a part of himself for us to build us up. The eraser is to change the students’ mistakes. Teachers are the one who modify our behavior and make us go to the right path.

Let’s be the pencil in our teaching- learning process. The future professionals depend on us. 

Journal entry IX

On July 12^th, the eleventh class was taught. The topics I was expected to teach were adverbs and adjectives. At the very start I did not have any idea what to plan, but as I have noticed all along the classes that they love competing. I prepared an activity in groups, and they were going to work as a team.

At the beginning of the class I took them some lyrics of a very famous song. They had to listen to the song, and then fill in the gaps. Additionally, they had to order a paragraph which was mixed in order to make it a little challenging. That was one of my favorite songs, it was the reason why I took it for them to listen.

Then, I just made my students talk about their hometowns. They had to describe it, and talk about the positive and also the negative situations around some specific topics. They were divided into 5 groups of 3 people. Every group had a topic to discus, it could be: Driving, people style, food, celebrations… This activity aimed at making them use their languages to describe real situations, and to give opinions.

As a second part of the activity, every group had to select one leader who was in charge of going to the other groups in order to spread the word about what they had been talked. The activity was called The World Café, and it seemed everyone enjoyed it. In the way I see it, when the communicative activities are kind of contextualized it is easy for students to get motivated, and to have a good time which is absolutely ideal.

I really feel the class was good, even though there were some issues when giving instructions. Maybe it was my fault they did not get what to do at the start, but I just found another way to make myself understood. I have learned a lot of my students, and I am pretty sure they have leant from me.

Journal entry VIII

On June 21^st, the tenth class was taught. This time the class was about comparatives and superlatives. I planned all the activities and my advisor just checked them in order to give me some feedback on them. As usual he advised me to continue with the communicative activities, and every time to make them more meaningful.

That Friday when the lesson was taught, I greeted all of them, and I just made them talk to the person next to them about how life was at school and how it is at University. They were very talkative, and it was noticeable they wanted to talk a lot about the topic. When they were done, I just played a video that summarized all what they had talked of. Life at university changes drastically, and that was exactly what I wanted them to compare.

As they really liked the topic I made them talk in pairs. They had to something similar to what they did at the very start, but then there were some categories’ for them to focus on, such as: Love, free time, social life, friends, money… It was easy for them to use all along the conversation some comparative forms. When they had some questions I just stopped for a moment the activity and I gave them a general feedback about how the correspondent grammar rules work. That activity was shared later and everyone had very similar answers.

Finally, it was carried out a communicative activity in order for them to practice the superlative form. That was very fun. They were standing up, and talking to different partners. They were supposed to administer a survey. They had to find “The Most” from the classroom, the most intelligent, the cutest, the laziest… That activity was at the start aimed to make them talk, and to have a good time. They really liked it, and they were absolutely attentive.

That was a very good class. I felt very comfortable and I was glad because the mood of the class was positive all the time. Maybe in future lessons I could take care of the organization of the classroom, perhaps there were some issues with the space, but I guess it was masked right away by the lot of fun they were having.

Jounal Entry VII

On June 14^th, the ninth class was taught. This time the class was about future. I planned all the activities and my advisor just checked them in order to give some feedback on them. As usual he advised me to continue with the communicative activities, and every time to make them more meaningful.

That Friday when the lesson was taught, I started with a warm greeting among them. They had to greet the person next to them. Right after that, they had to ask them about the future and what they think it will be like. It was aimed at introducing the topic and the activities in a very smooth way. When they were done I just played a video to relate it with what they have talked before. The video was about the technology in 2050, and they liked it a lot.

Next, I just numbered them in order to make them work in groups. Then I gave them some questions to discuss. They were expected to talk about plans so the questions were focused on that. I went around them in case they had some questions or doubts about the usage of the structures. They were absolutely focused on the activity. I always use the strategy of associating the topics with some aspects of their lives. As I know a little about their lives, and many other things so I can include part of the information I know in order for them to feel identified.

Finally we started an activity to talk about predictions for the future. As it is very exciting I made them read their hands, and they had to continue working in pairs. To have a very close example I took one of my students’ hand and I did the exercise with her as a way of modeling.

I also included some categories in order for them to be guided. The activity was very fun, and they really enjoyed it. They were surprised and smiling because of the terrible predictions made by their classmates, but anyway they had a great time.

I keep working on controlling time because I know that is one of my weaknesses, and I always try every time harder to make my lessons meaningful, and unforgettable for my students.