THE HIDDEN WHOLENESS: PARADOX IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Palmer writes that we are trained to “think the world apart,”dissecting it into either-ors, but we need to learn to “think the world together,” embracing opposites and appreciating paradoxes.The principle of paradox can guide us in thinking about classroom dynamics—and in designing a teaching and learning space that can hold the community of truth. 

In what ways have you experienced “suffering” as a student teacher? Has your suffering had any redemptive quality to it; that is, has it made you heart larger? What would help you deepen the redemptive quality of the suffering your experience in your work?

In my experience as a teacher, I experienced few "suffering" as a student teacher if so can be called because all the teachers have bad experiences in their classroom not all the time but when we have bad experience. We don't have to be negative, we have to think that we can learn and we can overcome a bad experience. I think that one of the bad experience. It was, one day I went to the school, I prepared all and when I started the class, I say "hello, good afternoon" and they didn't pay attention, It was like I was not there and I talked and talked and they don't care, I think, it was difficult but in that moment I thought that I had to do something so I stopped to talk and right away, I turned to see them and they left to talk and laugh. After I talked with them and I asked them what the problem and what I could do for that they pay attention in class and we talked and together, we resolved the situation. I think all the bad experiences have a solution and we can not say that it is a suffering because always we're going to have difficulties when we are teaching and I think that I as a teacher, I have to be strong and able to resolve all the situations and  with our mind and our heart have to work together for have a good resolve in each bad experience.

Name some of your key gifts or strengths as a teacher. Now name a struggle or difficulty you commonly have in teaching. How do you understand the relation between your profile of giftedness and the kind of trouble you typically get into in the classroom?

some of my strengths as a teacher are: I am creative person with my material because when I am teaching, I like to call the attention of the students, another It is, I am a friendly teacher with my students because sometimes my students don't understand something and I like to explain to them. and one of my difficulty, it is that when I am writing in the board I don't write well and sometimes I change some words by other or sometimes I write the letter "a" in one word and I have to put other letter, so it is difficult sometime for me, I have to be care when I am writing.

giftedness, it is when some students are very smart and their minds are often go ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and social-emotional functions can develop unevenly but in the classroom, it is possible that we have some students with an excellent intelligent and they cannot demonstrated good levels of achievement due to the bad circumstances like the bad environment in the class, the poverty, discrimination due to motivational or emotional problems and sometime when the teacher don't have the enough capacity to teach gifted children.

In our class, we have different minds and some of our students are very intelligent and others have a normal intelligence and sometimes as teachers, we have problems in our class with gifted children because they often learn quickly as a result they soon get bored and they are easily distracted and they pay attention in other thing that captures their attention, so  there are children who demonstrate high performance, or who have the potential to do so, and that we have a responsibility to provide optimal educational experiences to fully develop talents in as many children as possible, for the benefit of the individual and the community.

Describe a moment in teaching when things went so well you knew you were “born to teach” and compare it to a moment in which things went so poorly you wished you had never been born! Name the gifts that made this good moment possible—not the techniques you used or the moves you made, but your qualities.

I remember one day that I had to go to the school, that day, I prepared a wonderful game for my students and I was ready for give my class, and it was a wonderful class because It was the first day that I felt the security and the trust in the classroom because I could handle the classroom and the students learned and they worked in their activities and if I asked them something of the class, they answered me so in that moment I thought that there was a possibility and I could teach and I had the potential to teach but when I began the teaching practice I have some problems for to maintain the control into the classroom. Some students didn't stop to talk. It was difficult for me because I was a shy person and I didn't speak loudly, so the students didn't pay attention but one day one, I got tired of that they didn't not respect anything  when I was talking.

It was frustrating for me, but I thought that I had to be positive and I had to find some solution for to resolve the problem so I talked with the teacher and she gave me some advice for to maintain the control in the class, but I never lost the hope for to improve my weaknesses in the teaching.

Palmer discusses six paradoxes of pedagogical design. Choose one to focus on. Share examples of teaching environments you have experienced where this paradox is honored. Have you ever been in a classroom where only half of the paradox was honored while the other half was ignored? Describe what that classroom was like.

I choose the space should invite the voice of the individual and the voice of the group because one experience that happened when I began the teaching practice, it was that some students didn't like to participate in the class and I wanted that the students tried to speak English and when the students don't try to speak during the class, they don't learn to express their ideas.

Other experience, it was that some students were very shy to speak and some case they didn't want to participate in the activities. So that as a teacher, I had to find some solution for the students could participate in the class and then they could express their ideas, emotions and their questions.

I remember that one teacher likes to talk and talk and he didn't like that the students gave their opinion and when he talked and when he asked us something, we had to answer him, so we didn't have the opportunity to express our ideas and the class was boring. In that case, we could not develop our skill to speak English. The teacher had to change his methodologies to teach because the most important, it is that our students have a good learning.

What questions are you living at this stage of your life—from “How can I get up in the morning? To “How can I become a good teacher? Are the questions you are now living the ones you want to live? If not, what questions would you like to be living? How might you hold these questions at the center of your attention?

Now that I am study I always ask me "How can I become a good teacher?" I always think in this question because I do not want to be a bad teacher, I want to be the best I know that It is difficult for me but I is not impossible be the best teacher in English. I don't want that my students learn English only by learn, I want that my students understand and enjoy the English and that it is an important tool their life and another question it is that "How can I improve every day?" because I don't want to be the same teacher every day I want to improve every day, I want to be at the forefront, thus I will can help my students and they will learn more and more every day because the teaching will change and the teacher will need to change, too.

A CULTURE OF FEAR: EDUCATION AND THE DISCONNECTED LIFE

What are some of your fears in the classroom? How have you dealt with them? What have you learned about yourself and about fear as a result?

well,if I met someone and I don't know who the person,I am a shy person and it is one of my fears, but when I am teaching some of my fears are my mistakes in the class like the pronunciation, if the students ask me the meaning of the words and I don't know what is the meaning, or if the nerves betray me in class but I dealt with them because I love to teach and I began to think what I can do to better my fears so before to start the class, I prepare all the information and I do my lesson plan, then I study all and I practice the pronunciation and I study all the words or the questions that the students can ask me and before I leave of my house, I shout and then I go to the school and as a result I am quiet and sure of myself and all goes well but the best, It is that we have to be careful and  we always have to prepare all before each class.

Palmer writes, “Good teaching is an act of hospitality toward the young, and hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest”

Añadir leyenda

the teachers can be hospitable to students when they are prepared and give an effort for each class. Also, the teachers should give them all the tools that they need. And so, students can increase their knowledge in each class when the teachers give a good teaching, it is a gift for each students.
During a class, we have to be prepared and we have to give the best of us, we have to be a support them and if they need and ask some thing or they don't understand something, we have to help them because It is the way where the students can benefit of it.
As a teachers, we always want that our students have the best teaching but there are some teachers that they don't give a good teaching and they don't prepare. But they don't think that the most affected are them because if they don't give a good class and they don't help to the students. So the teachers don't do an act of hospitality with the students. It is like that the teachers don't give a good teaching. in this case the teachers fail and the students don't pay attention and they don't learn enough.
Not only the students have a benefit when the teachers practice hospitality with the students because the most benefit are for the teachers and they can have good environment in the class, the teachers have a good result of each students and as a result, the teachers can be proud to the good knowledge that the students can acquire during the class.

 What caused you to confront that fear? What helped you get loose from it? What were the results? What did you learn?

One of my fear was to be alone all the time, when I was a child, I remember that my parents had to worked all the day and my grandmothers could not look after me, my fathers didn't have enough money for to pay a babysitter and I am an only child, for that reason I could not play with brothers or sisters, it was kind of boring, so I had to stay alone all the time and I felt fear all the time but I always thought that I had to be strong because God expected more of me and my parents too, so I had to be positive and I had to have a good attitude all the time for overcome all.

Evelyn Fox Keller says of Nobel Prize—winner Barbara McClintock that her knowing came from “the highest form of love, love that allows for intimacy without the annihilation of difference”.

we can love the education but we have to be careful with the obsession in the education, we can love teaching in each class but with limit because our knowledges are the heart in the education but we need a balance into our teaching. We cannot be disconnected of the world because we need to have a relationship with the human. As teachers, we like to have the control in each class but we might abandon our illusion of control and enter a partnership with the otherness of the world.

we can teach our students that the knowledges are important in our live and they have to love the education because the love takes away fear and co-creation replaces control but also It is important that we have a connection with the world. It is a way of knowing that can help us reclaim the capacity for connectedness on which good teaching depends.

A personal statement trying to express what is at the heart of my life as a future teacher.  Considering the following questions: 

Why do I want to become a teacher? What do I stand for as a student teacher?  What do I want my legacy as a teacher to be? What can I do to keep track of myself, to “remember” my own heart? When did you first realize that you wanted to be a teacher? What were the circumstances of this realization? How close are you to those feelings today?
 

I want to become a teacher because I like to teach when I am teaching in the classroom, I feel happy. I feel a beautiful emotion and I want that my students learn a lot, I want that they understand and feel comfortable in the class. I love to teach English, I think that teaching is the best way for to learn, teaching is the way where the students can be good persons and in the future, they will be good professionals.

I am a guide to students, I am a tutor, I help them to build their knowledge and I give them all the tool for to learn English but I think that all the teachers are as a second father or mother where not only teach knowledge but they also, we help them with some advice for to resolve some typical problems in their life. We help students to stay motivated so that they want to learn for themselves, so that one day, they will become professional persons.

I want that my legacy teaches to the students that they not only have to study for to take a good job, but also, how far the studies can improve their lives, and how the knowledge that they acquired can help them in the future.

I can do a letter where I can write why I want to teach, why I like to teach, why I choose to be a teacher and Why my students are the most important when I am teaching in the classroom and I can put the letter in the mirror and when I get up every day, I will remember why I should not lose me out sight of myself and also to "remember" my own heart.

I realized when I gave the first class, I remember that I was nervous and I thought that the class could be a disaster, I prepared all that I needed, but I felt that it wasn't enough, I remember that the teacher introduced me and then I started the class when I saw all the students, that paid attention in all the class and I saw their face and I said I loved to teach, I felt that I had a wonderful feeling in my heart, I was happy and I knew that I had to be best for me and for my students and now, I'm study more and more every day because I love to teach and I want to give them the best of me.

 I remember when I began to study in the university, I didn't know what I wanted and I only choose English teacher, over time, I thought what I really wanted because I knew that I was not good in English and I didn't have good memory for to remember all but I never gave up all it, I fought and I'm still struggling everyday because now I know that I love English and I love teach. It is no easy for me but I like it so much and it is a challenge that I will win for me and when I began in the university my feeling was different and Now I know that I want to teach every day, I want to involve me with the students, I want to learn of each students, I want to teach, I know that it's so hard but the rewards are big.

Palmer writes: “ My ability to connect with my students and to connect them with the subject, depends less on the methods I use than on the degree to which I know and trust my selfhood—and I am willing to make it available and vulnerable in the service of learning”. What does it mean to rely on your selfhood rather than methods? 

It means that methods are the way how we can teach, it's a tool but the teachers have to rely on your selfhood and they have to be able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves and their subjects and their students so that students can be able to connect and understand the topic that they are studying.

A good teacher is always weaving the fabrics that join them with students and the subjects. And the heart is always the loom; it is teacher's capacity that has the responsibility to capture the attention of the students and where the students can understand that's what the teacher wants to teach them. A good teacher teaches with courage and enthusiasm and during the class, the students can see the teacher's ability and It is likely that they feel comfortable and they can say “the teacher is a good teacher".

Reflect about my earliest encounters with teaching. If you are drawn to teaching, when did you first feel drawn to it? What was it that drew you? What within you was evoked by teaching—its values, its methods, the way it names and frames reality? What does the nature of teaching reveal about who you are? If you aren’t, share a story about one of your favorite teachers. What do you recall most vividly about that teacher? What was his / her relation to the subject taught? What was the ethos of his/ her classroom?

when I started, I didn't have an idea how amazing It was to teach, when I was a child I used to play to be a teacher but I never thought that I will be a teacher. Teach drew me because I feel a passion for to teach and I want to teach. I want that students learn and improve their knowledge with the tool that I am going to give them when I was a teenager. I never was the best or the worst students in the class. I always was an students that always was in the middle, but I remember that my teachers gave us a lot of advise because they wanted that we could be successful in our life my teachers told me that I had to be responsible with all in my life and that I had to be respectful with me and with the older person. I had good teacher in my life and all of them gave me good advise but I remember the teacher Delia and I was 9 years old and she was a good teacher because she was responsible, dynamics and explain well all when she teach.

I remember that I want to be like her. She was as a model for me and then when I grew up. I met the teacher Nora, I was 14 years old and I remember that she was intelligent and she is intelligent, she is beautiful.

she taught me a lot of things when I was a teenager, she taught me that we have to be creative in our work and that we need to study every day and she explained us very well all our classes because it was not difficult to understand it and it was the moment where English was a challenge for me. And all that my teachers taught me they made me the person who I am today. A person that have dreams and the desire to improve every day because I have hope, I am a person with morals values and with a passion to teach.

Jane Tompkins discovered that her goal as a teacher had been to put on “performance,” thus distancing herself from students and subject. (pp.28-29). Do you identify with her self-criticism? If so, do you share Tompkins’s diagnosis of fear as the driving force behind this distancing? In what ways other than “performance” do teachers set themselves apart?

I am not identify with her self-criticism because I always think that I can do so that students can learn more each day I know that I don't have the enough experiences for to teach well but I know that I improve every day. I learn from my mistakes and I try not to commit it again.

But it is possible that in one moment, we lose ourselves and we don't see the needs or the help that students hope of their teacher. It is possible that the teacher think that their appearance like a good or perfect teacher is the best in the world, but it doesn't matter because the students hope a class where they can learn something new every day and our performance as a teacher, it is not only for ourselves. We don't have to be selfish because the most important when we are teaching are our students, and our performance as good teacher is to our students.