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.

3. What are the differences between Teaching Approach, Teaching Method,Teaching Technique, and Teaching Strategies?

Sometimes we get confused with the terms “approach”, “method”, “technique”, and “strategy” in language teaching. Well, let´s try to make some understanding about them.

Approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught.

Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach. An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural. Within one approach, there can be many methods.

Technique is a very specific, concrete stratagem or trick designed to accomplish an immediate objective. It is an implementation which actually takes place in a classroom. It is a particular trick, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Technique must be consistent with a method and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.

Strategy is the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal. A strategy is a style of thinking; a conscious and deliberate process; an intensive implementation system; the art of ensuring future success.

Thus we can conclude that approach is translated into method that contains technique, and this technique into strategies.

2. Self-fulfillment

How can we help our students reach their potential to the fullest?

“Self fulfillment is defined as the ability to make yourself happy and complete through your own efforts.”

Self-fulfillment is the most important purpose of education. As teachers, we want our students to be successful. We teachers must squeeze our students’ potential, and must help them succeed little by little. Sometimes students think they do not have potentials at all, and our job consists on making our students discover their abilities and talents.

Everybody is good at something, so they are not the exception. Great teachers really believe in their students and in their potential. We need to challenge our students to do their best in activities such as homework assignments, group works, and exams among others. Teaching can be view as holistic. The simplest acts of teaching and the well-chosen words of a teacher constitute spiritual action. The message is that we as teachers can attain these lofty goals if we have the will to seek them.

“A concern for issues that affect the human spirit is an integral part of a teachers’ calling” Teachers with courage to believe they can connect to the transcendent can realize goals beyond the academic and even the social. “Teachers who contribute to encouraging students to desire lives of fulfillment meet a most worthy teaching goal” We can help our students to reach their potentials by believing in them. We, teachers, need to be “transformers”.

Transformational teaching is a higher standard for teachers, and it places more demands on learners’ potential. We must help our students to identify their personal strengths, to identify their areas of personal interests, to identify how they learn best; moreover, we need to help them to set academic goals incorporating their strengths, interests, learning style and personal ability. We need to teach them the skills they need to achieve their goals: organization, planning, study skills, self-discipline, etc.

We as teachers should consider spiritual goals as an integral part of teaching and learning because motivation and hope are part of the spiritual goal dimension. “For our purposes we choose simplicity: Transformation is an illuminating change in head and heart that helps learners achieve their potential and their purpose.” Head and heart work together to animate who we are. Belief in the human spirit’s potential can include the world of how teachers think about, perceive, and relate to their students; and illumination, whether intellectual or spiritual, can include how learners feel inside as a positive response to their teachers’ belief in them. There must be trust and respect in the relationship between teacher and student. 

How can we, teachers, be a source of inspiration to our students?

We teachers can be a source of inspiration for our students by being great teachers. We have to do our best every day, and we have to be good models for our students. We need to be a good inspiration for our pupils to make tremendous changes in their lives. “WE MUST TEACH TO INSPIRE. LEARNERS NEED THE INSPIRATION OF TEACHERS TO FIND AND REACH PURPOSE IN LIFE.”

1. The Transformational Pedagogy Model

THE TRANSFORMATIONAL PEDAGOGY MODEL

Why do I want to teach?

I really want to teach because teaching is the best job in the world. I want to teach because I want to inspire my students. I do want them to feel that they are very special, and have many abilities. I want them to feel that I really believe in them and make them believe in themselves. I want them to know that they are capable to do whatever they decide. I want them to know that it is okay to make mistakes because that is how we learn, by making mistakes. I want them to know that they are not alone in the learning process, that I am with them to facilitate it.

I want to teach because I want to make a lot of changes in my students´ lives for the better. I want to teach because I want them to remember me as a great teacher that really worried not only for their learning, but also for their feelings.

Definitely I want to teach to inform, but more than that I do want to teach to inspire. Students need the therapeutic power of a transformational teacher who “touches” and transforms lives.

What does transformational pedagogy model mean for me?

A teacher using the transformational model is aware of his or her students’ feelings, so he or she can detect the changes in a student’s mood and adapt the environment in the classroom so it can be more supportive for the student and unconsciously enhance the bonds between them. There must be something inside the person that makes him or her have the desire to teach FAR BEYOND A PERSONAL GOAL.

“If we believe that teaching is a mere imparting of information, we have surely aimed too slow”. We need not only to impart information, but to care about our students´ feelings. Students´ feelings are a response to what the school or the teacher has done to satisfy or fulfill their needs as unique individuals. Teachers need to be encouraged and affirmed in their roles, in their potential of transforming lives, and in their calling to the real needs of learners. How students feel in a classroom may be, in the long view, more important than what they know. We, as teachers, need to make our students feel that we care about them, and that we are there to help them to find self-fulfillment through enriching knowledge.

“Transformational pedagogy is an act of teaching designed to change the learner academically, socially, and spiritually.”

  

Transformational pedagogy integrates teaching the whole learner, rather than attending separately to academic, social, and spiritual goals. These three goals are united. Miller (1997) says that holistic education is “based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to spiritual values such as compassion and peace”

Transformational teaching begins with the learner, and transformational learning involves deep understanding and occurs in classrooms where teachers have high expectations. Students need teachers who communicate that they believe in students and all their potential.

The transformational pedagogy model might impact positively the lives of pre-service and in-service teachers. Pre-service teachers may learn about how to treat their students when it comes to teach. In-service teachers may change the way they treat their students if they were not doing it in a good way. They must have clear that they need not only to impart information, but to care about their students´ feelings.

To wrap up, the transformational teaching model allows us to be a source of inspiration for our students as they do not want someone TO TEACH them, they want someone whom they CAN TRUST IN and LEARN FROM. Good teachers can make great sources of inspiration for their students, and good students can make teachers as the ones they ARE INSPIRED to imitate. All students need is someone to lead them through the way to success.