Final Reflection

When I first started the major to become an English teacher, my original idea was to share the knowledge and background in the language I had. Deep within myself, I felt an obligation to share the language I was raised with in my childhood and bring the possibility of my students experiencing the language the way I had learned it. Although my original intention and mentality has not changed I feel that during these 4 years I have been at the University I have changed many perspectives and added other beliefs and perspectives I previously didn't have.

There are many positive things a person can take from teaching, personally speaking, teaching can have a tremendous impact in the lives of our students and can shape our students in many different ways. This has become more even during the course of "Fundamentos III" and the documents we have discussed in class. A very positive learning that I have achieved in this course is the meaning of what a teacher should strive towards being and what a teacher should really be. What a teacher should be is being an educator who brings upon himself positive change in his own life and the lives of his/her students. An educator is the one that promotes change and advancement in his/her students in order to bring social justice, equality and make students better members of society. Many teachers nowadays see teaching as a transmitting of knowledge and don't go beyond this, these teachers don't reflect upon their teaching and the impact they will have in their students future lives. Because of this, educators are the perfect example of transformative intellectuals, persons who teach meaningful learning experiences and ones who make their students better human beings.

I believe that educators are just more than the ones who shares their knowledge, he/she is the individual who pledges to look out and make of his students promoters of change in society, an educator doesn't discriminate or has preference for a particular student, what he/she does is to promote the students inner power to make the world a better place. This is the reason I believe that if you can change 1 of your students lives for the better you accomplished something very important in life, this is not saying that we should now try to change all of our students to become better persons. Many of the difficulties teachers have are the dispositions that are established by schools, parents, society and ourselves, this doesn't mean dispositions are bad, this just means that as teachers we must use dispositions to channel them in a way that our students will benefit from them. From previous experiences of watching other teachers/educators there are many aspects or tips you take into your own teaching experience, as my cooperating teacher told me one day "I don't really care about failing a student or not, what I look forward to is to make my students the best possible citizens in society, maybe this way Colombia can become a better place". As the saying goes "A teacher is an educator, a parent, a doctor, psychologist, a supervisor and so on", this basically encloses the importance of an educator as the model for students to follow. 

In conclusion, educators are what all teachers should stride towards becoming and should become the promoters of change in our students lives, there is no better way to achieve positive change in society than teaching in a meaningful way and making of our students better members of society and the world as a whole.