"A teacher never stop learning"

Good morning readers! Here I come with the first post of this learning diary.

First of all, I will write some keywords, just to give some clues of what caught my attention for these past days: resources, diversity, variety, foreign and second language, and Draco. 

We started this Monday, 14th of September, with enthusiasm and, I must confess, a little fear. Our teacher, Maria Dolores began the class with the biggest of the smiles and with a dynamic I will always appreciate, giving us the chance to introduce ourselves and to know our new and unknown colleagues. I was tremendously scared, of talking in English for the first time in a long time, for meeting new people and for the start of a new state in my education life, and immersive English class. But I enjoyed, seeing everyone's faces, realizing I wasn't alone and of course, visualizing a new subject that will bring me a lot of resources, of new information and a chance to develop the best teacher I have got inside me. 

I started the next day, the 15th of September, with joy and still with a little bit of fear (this will disappear soon, I promise, I just need more confidence in myself to believe there is no big problem to talk in public in English). This day can be summarized by two big questions and a special guest. The teacher structured the class around these questions and here is my opinion about them:

• What makes a good English teacher? What do you remember about learning your first language? Is there a difference between learning your mother tongue and a foreign language?

• ESL (English as a Second Language)

• EFL (English as a Foreign Language)

• DIDACTIC IMPLICIT LEARNING: For the best acquirement of the foreign language, as a teacher, you must create routines to make understand your students how the learning process is going to be. For example, you must set the rule of not talking in Spanish in the English class, because if you use Spanish while you are teaching in English, the students might get confused and will never drop themselves to the language, because every time they don't know a word or an expression they will use Spanish instead of thinking or trying to explain their idea with other words. Also, it is important to give space and time to the student if he/she does not get to the answer. We can not tell them the answer, just give some time to think and some help, maybe, with other questions. Another key idea is to share living experiences with the class, like having a pet, a plant, etc. Something they can work on, live with, and, as a teacher, work in class with dynamics, responsibility roles, etc. 

         A good English teacher is someone who is empathic and comprehensive, who understands the individual process of learning and gives students the tools to write, talk, and express themselves. It needs to be also interactive and interesting, using topics the students associate with their lives and interests. Further, the teacher needs to appear friendly to their students, so they don't feel scared about not understanding or not being able to communicate properly.

But, I will add now some more specifications once I have read what my classmates have said. I will add that a good English teacher should be patient and passionate about what is teaching, or he/she would never be able to transmit the beauty of this language. Obviously, she/he must be motivated and with a pocket full of strategies to be able to adapt to every single learning process, among other things.

From my point of view, we acquire a second language with effort and curiosity. For me was a magical experience knowing I was learning and discovering new words that "magically" were giving me the power to communicate with others in a new way I never experienced before. On the other hand, learning your mother tongue it's like trying every day to decode the sounds your family is creating and relate to the objects or subjects they are referring to. It is more like a life gymkhana where you learn the meaning of the things that surround you and you start to compose your thoughts to express them later. Besides, there is an important characteristic in children's development that plays a protagonistic role in language acquirement, it is imitation. Since we were born, we have an imitation power that brings us the opportunity to adapt and to understand the world that is surrounding us. So, our mother tongue also is learned by imitating the sounds we hear from our near ones. 

This can be a powerful tool to learn a second language, but the process will not be the same. The mother tongue is learned by natural development and the second one needs effort and a true desire to be acquired.

I have to confess that I truly love to learn and think about these topics just by hearing our owns thoughts and classmates' ones, It is a learning process that enriches a lot. 

But this wasn't the only thing we learned that day. We have been really lucky for meeting a new classmate that will help and guide us along the course. His name is Draco and his style is much different than the one we can imagine, IT IS A DRAGON! I HAVE A DRAGON TEACHER! How cool is that?

He came up with a wonderful idea, showing us how resources can be our best friend in class to upgrade our teaching quality. He shows us how a puppet, a poster, or an octopus puzzle can create a joyful and happy dynamic to play with our students as well as keep practicing English and working on some other subjects as maths or arts and craft. He is a really smart dragon! I am hoping to see him again really soon!

After all this excitement, the next day, the 16th of September we kept the same guideline of discovering more key concepts that are going to come along the course with us. Some of them are:

The main difference between these is that ESL is a language that surrounds you in your daily life (it means, you do not only use it in class) and EFL is artificial or not use it if it's not in the class you are learning it. 

Once we had this concept in mind, we had to answer the question of what is the difference between bilingualism and bilingual education, and for this, I have a clear answer:

Bilingualism is defined by RAE as the common use of two languages in the same area o person. That says that being bilingual means you handle two languages at the same time with the same ease to talk in either of them. Therefore, bilingual education is an education system where students learn all the subjects in both languages (in the Spain case, English and Spanish) to acquire the contents, competencies, and skills of the subjects itself at the same time you acquire the foreign language to convert it as your second language. In summary, bilingual education is the vehicle to achieve bilingualism. 

And, if my opinion can be said, after having this structure in mind of how the system is structured to become bilingual, it is the time of asking ourselves if it is the best method for the purpose?

From my point of view, the answer is no, but unfortunately, I am not a politician who can change the education system, so I am going to follow my studies and researches to, in my range of possibilities, change or improve this experience of learning a second language. 

Also, I want to highlight some other ideas I caught up from this class and comes in tone with I have written down here before:

This class was completely joyful and full of interesting information, I truly enjoyed it! Can you see it? 

I hope, you, mystery reader, enjoyed as much as I did and find my words and thoughts interesting. I will see you next week with more information, reflections, and beautiful stuff! Take care!