Teachers know that the best thing about teaching is learning. So, we talked to five educators, to find out what their best learning experiences were after they started teaching.
We have been celebrating the experiences of educators, and how their classroom environment develops through learning. Students themselves learn subject content and material, but they also learn how to socialize and develop cognitive skills. Of course, teachers need to study before their lessons, but they can learn much more by exchanging with their students. With that in mind, we talked to five educators and partners in order to find out what their best learning experiences have been since they started teaching.
1. Learning how to unlearn, by Michele Schmitz
Michele Schmitz is an Educational Consultant, who has worked on developing and managing innovative educational projects for over twenty years. She also founded the EducaMente Project: Socioemotional Education for Education Professionals.
“I’m addicted to learning. Learning to me is just like breath, a continuous resource of life. My best learning experience was about learning how to unlearn. I could learn that “Michele” can be much more different today than the one from yesterday, and she has the right to come up with her own ideas and change her opinions. This is freeing and calming.
We are not a kind of empty box that can be filled up with pieces of information; we are unique humans in an infinite process of individual and collective development, and when we decide to be involved in this process, it makes us kinder, easygoing and tremendously satisfying educators.”
Michele’s tips:
“Pay close attention to the development of your socioemotional skills, because they are the ones that will offer an infrastructure, making you feel satisfied with your profession (and life!). In fact, when one really gets him or herself into the process, as 21st Century educators have, there is a huge number of possibilities to create a better world. Two “golden points” I will highlight are:
- Recognize and act as the responsible one for your own process
- Open up your mind in order to accept and develop your own potential and vulnerabilities. The culture of the perfect background of a teacher must end because it does not exist at all.
Educators, as all human beings, have feelings, and they directly interfere in the educational process. It is impossible to think that an educator would be capable of promoting, and working with socioemotional skills development with his/her students without developing those skills in himself/herself. It is essential to be aware of yourself in all of your actions, by avoiding getting trapped in the dangerous “autopilot mode” or in the “Zombie mode”.
2. Remembering what it’s like to be a student, by Eduardo Valladares
Eduardo Valladares is a student trainer, speaker, and teacher. He is in charge of a Methodology of Socioemotional Studies and Skills Course called Guia do Estudo Perfeito at Descomplica. He has spoken at TEDx UERJ (2016) and SXSWEdu (2017) defending the theory that autonomy transforms a student in to a better learner.
“I have learned that one only understands what empathy is after teaching. Understand the students’ universe, put yourself in their own situation, go back into their History and remember that learning is a mutual (sharing) task, it is a collaborative exercise, and it is an agreement as well.
I do remember that I began to act with more passion and learned that it is extremely important to teach our students to be more vulnerable. I use an analogy that says: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The same way, getting students to school when they do not want to learn, is an extremely tough task. It is necessary to fight for a school that enchants these students, which makes it a more pleasurable and happy place.
I like the writer called Brene Brown a lot. In her book Daring Greatly, there is a sentence which reads: ‘Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection’.”
Eduardo’s tips:
“There is something I would like to say to teachers that are initiating their careers: enchant your students. Believe that teaching can make the difference in a student’s life – but they have to desire it.
Treat your student as equal ones. Invite them to build up the class with you, and implement the Flipped Classroom. This way, they will see themselves as an author of something and not just part of an audience. Every time I went into a classroom, I used to ask myself: How can this topic make these students different today. I don’t regret how hard I’ve worked to make the subject and my strategies more appealing. I would do it all again, studying even more.”
3. The classroom itself teaches everyone in there, by Giselle Santos
Giselle Santos is a Google Innovator and Innovation Coordinator at Cultura Inglesa S/A. She works in an extremely dynamic and exponential domain, and is knowledgeable about new innovations around the world.
“Almost everything I have learned so far, was working in a classroom. We never stop learning. The thing I enjoy most about my job is, even if innovation seems to link only to machines, my focus will always be on people and in the relationship I have with them through education. The way people interact with innovation, imagination, desires and needs, is what really makes me want to be in this field.”
Giselle’s tips:
“My practical tip is really simple, but essential: Do not miss the opportunity to listen to, learn and circulate ideas among teachers and students. There is no more space for a passive and static education where only one person holds all the knowledge. The classroom evolution is in our hands.”
4. One learns empathy only through practice, by Fernando Aiello
Fernado Gonçalves Aiello Sprovieri graduated in Mechanical Engineering, but found his passion in the classroom. He also has his own English teaching YouTube channel, Inglês de Bolso.
“I have learned how to have much more empathy! I have learned how to deal with feelings of perceiving a student’s difficulties. Sometimes, things that appear obvious to us, are a nightmare to students. Therefore, I believe that empathy is something one can learn through practices, rather than from books.
I learned many technical skills when I started giving classes. I remember I used to have problems with some basic English words, considering I have learned many things by myself. Moreover, when I had an opportunity to go to a school, they used to consider me at the intermediate level of proficiency. Starting teaching was crucial to improving my skills in using the language. I have also learned how to communicate in different ways with different people. The way one talks with teenagers, for example, is different from the way one talks to an adult. I am the same Fernando, just adapting myself to the students.”
Fernando’s tips:
“If I do have any advice, it is: be transparent with your students. That counts a lot. Don’t try to place yourself above them in terms of level, just because you believe you have “more knowledge”. Design your class structure in a way that allows your students to trust in you.
If you do not know something, just say ‘I don’t know it’. It might seem obvious, but many people try to masquerade when they don’t know, and being sincere shows the human side of the person in charge of a classroom. After that, study what you don’t know, and share the answer with the students. Finally, have an interest in the students. Listen to them. Question them. One ALWAYS has something to learn from them!”
5. Only practice teaches theory, by Valéria França
Valéria França has been teaching for 30 years. She has a Pedagogy and History degree from Cambridge University and a Doctors in Applied Linguistics. Currently, she is in charge of development the training of all teachers at Cultura Inglesa Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Espirito Santo, Goiania and Rio Grande do Sul.
“I have learned a lot with my professors at college about how to deal with students’ behavior. I have learned that even when one feels insecure, he/she can show confidence by his/her attitude. I have also learned about motivation and engagement, and how they connect with the activities I choose to do with the students. There were many theory learning processes, but it was only when I was inside the classroom, working with everyday situations, I realized how to offer this to students every day.
Planning is crucial to developing these processes, and we need to understand students as individuals, and adapt things in order to make learning a success. This is something you learn with students, in the context of the classroom. In my opinion, this is the biggest challenge we have.”
Valéria’s tips:
“My tip to any new teacher is that you always learn by listening to your colleagues’ experiences. These will inspire you during challenging moments in the classroom. I do believe sharing with colleagues is very important. It gives a sense of belonging, and it can offer wonderful insights on how to deal with many different situations.”
Watch this video to hear different teachers’ experiences of their first class and how they have developed by learning from their students:
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