10.What are your motives for teaching? What rewards or incentives do you get from teaching? How might your motives interfere with your ability to put the needs of your students ahead of your own?

Some people choose teaching as a profession because they love the academic environment. Other teachers simply have such a passion for their particular subject matter. During my teaching practicum I have come to realize that I love teaching. I love sharing my knowledge with my students, and that the main motivation I have to teach is my inner passion for my profession.

The biggest incentive I get from teaching is the deep appreciation I receive from my students, and the satisfaction of teaching English that is what I love. I love teaching English because I know this is going to be very useful for my students in the future. I love to feel the excitement of teaching because I see young minds coming alive in class and taking each step in their advancement along their trail to becoming a truly productive, educated individual. Furthermore, the teaching profession is a career field that offers the opportunity for self improvement and educational advancement. We teachers do not know everything. We have to remember that we are lifelong learners. For example in my teaching practicum, some students asked me the meaning of some words. Sometimes, I did not know these meanings and I looked them up in the dictionary. This is a good example of how the teaching profession offers the opportunity for self improvement.

I want to accept the challenge of educating children and teenagers and to help them become productive and important part of the society. As I want to be a great teacher, and the main motivation I have to teach is my inner passion for my profession, I want the best for my students. I want them to learn a lot. To do this, I need to be patient because I know that not all of them learn in the same way. I want to give my best because I want my students to succeed in life.

I want to put my students’ needs ahead of my own. By doing so, as a teacher I want to bring them wisdom and knowledge in spite of all the negative that today’s society may throw at young developing minds.

"No matter what the personal reasons in teaching you elevate the most, you will become successful, respected, and be remembered by your students as one of the greatest teacher they had just by following your passion of teaching."

9.What I like and do not like about working with teenagers

The word adolescence is Latin in origin, derived from the verb adolescere, which means "to grow into adulthood." Adolescence is a time of moving from the immaturity of childhood into the maturity of adulthood. There is no single event or boundary line that denotes the end of childhood or the beginning of adolescence. Rather, experts think of the passage from childhood into and through adolescence as composed of a set of transitions that unfold gradually and that touch upon many aspects of the individual's behavior, development, and relationships.  

"What I like about working with teenagers"

1.Adolescents are very energetic.

We, as teachers, can take advantage of this energy when carrying out an activity in the classroom. We can use this energy to make them participate in interesting activities to catch their attention. 

2.They like to participate.

For example, in my teaching practicum, I had a girl who was very hyperactive. Whenever I asked for volunteers to participate, she was always willing to help me. I liked that she was in that way. She made mistakes as everybody does, but that is how we learn - by making mistakes. 

3.Adolescents are very curious and spontaneous.

They just say what they think very naturally. If they have a doubt, they ask, no matter what kind of question it is.

4.They like to learn as much as possible.

They are always asking questions or the meaning of certaing words.

5.Teenagers are very creative. 

They come up with interesting ideas about certain topic during the class. These are some of the things I like about working with teenagers.

"What I do not like about working with teenagers"

1. Some teenagers are very disrespectful. 

For instance, in my teaching practicum, I had some students that were kind of disrespectful with me, but just outside the classroom. During classes they behaved really well and participated a lot. 

2.Teenagers love nasty words. 

It is pretty uncomfortable listening to them saying nasty words because we cannot say that much to them. If we say something to them, they get mad at us. Also, they will make our lives miserable as they love taking revenge. Another thing is that they can say “-I do not like that teacher because of what she told me!-, -I will not pay attention to her because I do not care about her classes!” teenagers get distracted easily. If one student starts talking, everyone does it and the classroom becomes a mess. 

3. Some teenagers are very irresponsible.

They do not care about the class and do not pay attention to what the teacher is saying. They do not do their homework assignments. 

4. The majority of adolescents are very talkative.

Teenagers are always talking, and the problem is that they do not talk about the class. They talk about many other things, but the class.

We need to take all the positive things from our students, such as energy and curiosity to help them build their knowledge.

8. What can the World Wide Web offer ESL/EFL teachers?

World Wide Web offers a variety of resources not only for ESL/EFL teachers, but also for students. World Wide Web is another way to describe the Internet. Internet has a lot of useful information for teachers. First of all, if a teacher is looking for different warm ups, ice breakers, or time fillers to carry out in the classroom, he can find many different options on the internet. Second, teachers can find many ideas to improve their classes such as teaching strategies, teaching methodology, activities, e-books, blogs, wikis, and so on.  Moreover, teachers can find an amount of different exercises for their students to improve their listening, reading, or writing skills. Teachers can involve students in technology since they are very familiar with it.

Furthermore, EFL students can take advantage of the web and learn by themselves. They can find a lot of exercises to practice their English skills. For instance, they can listen to podcasts to practice their listening skill. They can practice fill in the blank exercises, look for idiomatic expressions, phrasal verbs, new structures, vocabulary, and so forth. This blog is a clear example on how teachers can use technology to involve students into using web. While writing blog entries, students improve their writing skills.

To summarize, World Wide Web is very useful for EFL /ESL teachers since it offers a big amount of resources to get good ideas for teaching. For example, it offers e-books, blogs, wikis, activities, and so on. In the same way, it is useful for students learning a foreign language since they can find a lot of English exercises to improve their macro skills.

7. How can the standard-features word-processing programs be exploited for teaching writing skills?

The most famous word-processing program is Microsoft Word. It can be exploited for teaching writing skills. For instance, teachers can ask their students to write essays, reports, and so on in order for the students to improve their writing skills.

Word-processing programs as Microsoft Word have some features that help the students to improve their writing skills. When writing an essay in this program, students will be corrected automatically if they make punctuation or grammar mistakes.

Perhaps no other technology resource has had as great an impact on education as word processing. Not only does word processing offer high versatility and flexibility, it also is "model-free" instructional software; that is, it reflects no particular instructional approach. A teacher can use it to support any kind of directed instruction or constructivist activity. Since its value as an aid to teaching and learning is universally acknowledged, word processing has become the most commonly used software in education.It offers many general relative advantages (unique benefits over and above other methods) to teachers and students:

·Saves time — Word processing helps teachers use preparation time more efficiently by letting them modify materials instead of creating new ones. Writers can also make corrections to word processing documents more quickly than they could on a typewriter or by hand.

·Enhances document appearance — Materials created with word processing software look more polished and professional than handwritten or typed materials do. It is not surprising that students seem to like the improved appearance that word processing gives to their work. This is especially possible with the many templates that are part of the software suites today.

·Allows sharing of documents — Word processing allows materials to be shared easily among writers. Teachers can exchange lesson plans, worksheets, or other materials on disk and modify them to fit their needs. Students can also share ideas and products among themselves.

·Allows collaboration of documents — Especially since the release of Google Docs, teachers and students can now create, edit, and share documents synchronously.

6.Do you think technologies should play a central or a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning?

With the rise in educational technology, many schools are preparing teachers and students to work with several new technologies to facilitate learning and students engagement. Many of these technologies work particularly well with students, as they are familiar with current technologies and will appreciate a classroom that uses multimedia platforms.

Technology is a very necessary tool for teachers, but it plays a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning. We teachers can use technologies such as computers, audios, videos, pod-casts, and power point presentations when delivering a lesson. These are useful tools for teachers to support their classes: furthermore, students can use technology to empower their listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills in a variety of ways. They can watch videos subtitled in English, listen to music, read articles in English, and so forth. Also, they can research information about topics that they have not studied yet in class so that they can understand better or more easily when the teacher explains these topics to them.

On the other hand, Social networks such as facebook, Google plus, twitter, and so on can be very useful for teachers, and we can take advantage of them. For instance, teachers can create groups on facebook with teaching purposes. Teachers can upload important information for the students: a list of verbs, rules for the use of certain tense and so forth. Technology plays an important role when teaching. Teachers can play videos related to the topic they are teaching to deliver lessons more effectively, but it cannot be the center in second language teaching and learning since there are some much more important things. 

There will never be anything better than a teacher teaching in the conventional way. For example, blended learning is a form of education that combines face-to-face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities. According to its proponents, the strategy creates a more integrated approach for both instructors and students. We can realize that technology is pretty essensial in the teaching-learning process. However, " There must be always the presence of a teacher". 

5.What do you think is the role of research in improving our understanding of teaching?

The role of research in improving our understanding of teaching is essential, especially for those who are beginners in the field of teaching. We teachers need constantly be updated when it refers to education and the different approaches, techniques, methodologies, and strategies carried out in the classroom.

It is very important for teachers to look for information in order to come up with new ideas that can be applied in their classes.   For instance, we are just beginning our journey as teachers and sometimes we feel stressed out because we think we are not doing well. As a result, we get worried and start looking for information in order to improve our efficiency as teachers and here “research” takes place. We start reading books about teaching and getting the essential and useful information that can be put into practice in our classes.

We do research about teaching methodologies because we want our classes to be effective. Furthermore, we want our students to enjoy our classes and to get meaningful learning from them.

 As we are beginners in the field of teaching, we need to enrich our knowledge about what adolescents like and do not like about a teacher and the way she or he teaches. We need to look for suitable activities for our students. Sometimes we make activities that are enjoyable for us, but they may not be enjoyable for our students. We want to be great teachers with a lot of knowledge to share with our students in the right way, and that is why we are interested in learning about the different teaching methods. The more we know about teaching methodologies, the better our classes will be. As a result, we will be effective teachers containing effective knowledge about teaching. Also, we will be able to apply the method that works best for our students.

Definitely, researching has an essential role in improving our understanding of teaching since we can enrich our knowledge about teaching through good books or good documents online. There will always be new things to deal with, and we must be ready to face them. If we are not ready, we will always have the opportunity to research and overcome our challenges when teaching. Do not forget that “teachers are life-long learners.”

4. What experience do you have of learning a second or foreign language? How would you characterize the teacher´s teaching method? How effective did you find it?

The biggest experience I have of learning a second language took place the first time I went to the university. I was so nervous because I was going to start my major “Licenciatura en Idioma Inglés Opción Enseñanza”. It was a new world for me since I did not know that much about it. Neither did I have any knowledge about English, nor did I know any of my classmates to ask for some help. Whenever I had to attend English classes I felt pretty frustrated because I did not understand what the teacher was saying.

On the other hand, I characterize the teacher´s teaching method as excellent. Now that I have some knowledge about different methods I understand better what he did for us to get what he said in English. He carried out different methods such as THE DIRECT METHOD. He never spoke in Spanish because he wanted us to associate meaning and target language directly. In order to do this, when he introduced a new target language word or phrase, he demonstrated its meaning through the use of realia, pictures or any object in the classroom; he never translated it into the L1. When I asked him something in Spanish, he said “sorry, I do not understand what you are saying”; in that moment it was so stressful for me. Nevertheless, that was how I was learning because I had to look for the right words to convey my ideas. He also used THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE METHOD. When we did not understand a word, he made some physical movements to show us what that word meant. For example, in order for us to understand the meaning of “jump”, he performed the action. Then, we got it without translation. We got it through physical movements.

I consider that the teaching methods my Basic English teacher used were pretty effective. For example, in my case, I did not know almost anything about the language, but thanks to his way of teaching or the methods he used I learned a lot. Also, he had all the characteristics of a great teacher. He was very flexible, enthusiastic and inspired enthusiasm, inspired confidence, and the most important is that he was very patient when it came to cope with his students´ mistakes. He gave me very good bases for the next English level. That is why I find his teaching methods very effective. They worked for me.