Marco Flavio Solano 3rd semester student LeDLI UJED

1. I am an English teacher and… I am perfect
Written by: Marco F. Solano
Teaching is not just having a teacher explaining a topic in front of the classroom but is something
that we need to take seriously enough to comprehend that we cannot be the teachers that we want
but we need to be the teachers that our students need and so, there are different approaches and
theories that we need to take into consideration when teaching. When we teach, we need to
consider all theories, approaches and paradigms and we also need to consider that every student
is different and so, the way in which they learn is as well.
In the classroom, we teachers need to consider that the motivation, the way in which our students
learn as well as the environment that surrounds them becomes crucial in the process of acquiring a
second language. The mention topics were the ones that we included in our play called “Screaming
silence” as we found very relevant the fact of how bulling can affect the learning process as well as
how important is the fact of evolving our teaching methodologies.
Students don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”
― Jim Henson, It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider
“Screaming silence” portrays the situation of a traditionalist teacher who is not willing to change her
teaching method because it “has worked for her” as well as the hate that she feels for a specific
student as she considers that he knows more than her because he is American and that hate
causes that the student loathes his English class.
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
― Albert Einstein
The main situation that we discussed in our play was the problem that the English teacher had, as
she idealized herself as the “perfect” teacher, with no mistakes, dramatically obdurate and she
along with the classmates bulled Waldo because of the fact of him being fluent on the language.
Throughout the whole play as well, we saw that the teacher was truly traditional in her teaching
style, she was explaining the grammar using BEHAVIORISM, she only gave the topic, explained it
and waited for the students to use it correctly, which means that she was waiting for them to
respond to the stimuli she gave them, without processing the information.
Marco F. Solano
Escuela de Lenguas UJED
1

2. According to Station (1960) defines as traditional teaching the fact of transmitting from the
notebook of the teacher to the notebook of the student without passing the minds of either, and we
have learnt that doing that is not the most suitable way to do it as we need to engage our students
to the topic, have them feel interested about it, have them think as well as understand that there is
a way to explain topics for every age because their maturity and mental age are different in every
stage.
“When you study great teachers... you will learn much more from their caring
and hard work than from their style.” ― William Glasser
During the play, the teacher alleged that she was not going to change her method because it had
been working for her and she even demeaned her student by saying she was not going to change
it just because of a “gringo”. When we study that problematic we can see that the teacher was not
approachable and she was not giving enough stimuli to the students, she was not motivating her
students and she was not taking into consideration the students‟ multiple intelligences, their
learning styles and the learning strategies as the students were not processing the information
received.
The “teacher is always right” paradigm is something that we need to get rid of because it does not
reflect the reality of teaching nor learning, when we teach, we need to consider our students, if they
are young or adult learners; they way in which they learn (their learning styles), the activities that
help them understand the information and solve problems (their learning strategies) and their
multiples intelligences (According to Howard Gardner there are 8 ½ different intelligences) so that
when we teach, we reach the goal that we were looking for.
In the play, we referred to Pienemann‟s „teach what is teachable‟ because we concluded that in
order for the teacher to be more efficient in her job, she must teach topics when the students are
ready for them and we also concluded that she must change her methodology, stop using
behaviorism and better start using cognitivism as well as constructivism; two methods that in the
final video we saw she started using; students participating in class, processing the information and
discriminating that information; memorizing but understanding the topic as well as building their
own knowledge.
Marco F. Solano
Escuela de Lenguas UJED
2

3. At the end of the play, the teacher was giving more motivation to the student (more extrinsic
motivation); and the teacher understood that evolving is part of the life of a teacher.
We need to consider that for the students to learn, we have to comprehend them, we have to
support them and we have to encourage them by using different teaching strategies such as
games.
Another topic that we also consider when creating the play was bullying, because lately it is
happening a lot, and not just student to student but teacher to student as well and so, we decided
to present it as well because when a student is being bulled, his performance decreases because
when a student is at an age like Waldo‟s age (15 years), they always look for acceptance and any
problem that they have, even the slightest problem, becomes a world for them and by not
supporting him, we can see that the adolescent can suffer changes in his mood like in the play and
start closing their feeling to themselves and stop communicating with other people (interpersonal
intelligence)
Teenagers are still into the process of developing themselves and they need a lot of support
because they tend to copy the people that they like and so that is why we need to set the example
to them, start being motivated and then motivate them; they enjoy having fun and that is the reason
of why we chose a comedy to portray such important and common situation so that they can feel
comfortable talking about the topic and they can also get ideas of how to deal with those problems
if they ever face them.
For the aforementioned reasons, there is no doubt that we teacher have a responsibility to rise a
generation of successful people and in order to do it, we need to start paying attention to how we
teach, start analyzing our students to spot any problem that might face and be more than just
teachers but living examples and to do that, we need to understand them,, give them enough
extrinsic motivation by extolling those areas in which they are good as well as show those areas of
opportunity and if we do that accurately, that motivation later on will become intrinsic.
We need to teach them that is relevant to them, to have more student-based classes, use new
technologies because they help and enhance the process of learning and we need to evolve our
teaching strategies, stop using get it right from the begging methods but change them for more
appropriate methods.
Marco F. Solano
Escuela de Lenguas UJED
3