One thing about this chapter (Ch. 5) that really stuck with me is the concept of becoming an expert in something and then struggling to teach it, as was conveyed with the illustration of the girl, Mary. As Tovani reminds us, students are going to be learning things for the first time, things that have become oh so familiar to us, their teachers. It can be frustrating and difficult to learn something for the first time, and we are quick to forget how valuable that struggle of learning truly is. There is no moving forward in learning without some struggle, and oftentimes, the greater the struggle the greater the revelation, discovery, and "enlightenment", if I may.
I wrestled with this when I first considered becoming a Spanish teacher. I felt uneasy teaching a language that was so much a part of a culture that was not my own, even though I had spoken Spanish from a young age in a school setting. I have come to understand that to some extent, I will never have the benefit of teaching Spanish in the context of my "own" culture, and that means I must draw and rely heavily on true native speakers to be ambassadors for their culture in my classroom. I want to model having humble relationships with native speakers in which I am eager to learn from them. However, as I have started teaching, these initially uneasy thoughts have been put to rest as I see the ways that I as a non-native speaker of Spanish can relate to the struggle that kids experience as they learn it for the first time. Granted, I have to stretch myself to learn to explain why we say certain things the way we do because I have grown so accustomed to just saying it without really knowing why, but I have a different perspective on the process than a native speaker. Not only have I walked through the learning process, but I very much still am, and not being a native speaker gives me freedom to readily admit to my students that I don't know everything and that there is much I have yet to learn. Like them, I too forget the meaning of a word, and have struggled to grasp certain grammatical tenses. I get to model this (hopefully with humility) to them, and my hope is that it causes them to be more eager and more humble learners.
I wrestled with this when I first considered becoming a Spanish teacher. I felt uneasy teaching a language that was so much a part of a culture that was not my own, even though I had spoken Spanish from a young age in a school setting. I have come to understand that to some extent, I will never have the benefit of teaching Spanish in the context of my "own" culture, and that means I must draw and rely heavily on true native speakers to be ambassadors for their culture in my classroom. I want to model having humble relationships with native speakers in which I am eager to learn from them. However, as I have started teaching, these initially uneasy thoughts have been put to rest as I see the ways that I as a non-native speaker of Spanish can relate to the struggle that kids experience as they learn it for the first time. Granted, I have to stretch myself to learn to explain why we say certain things the way we do because I have grown so accustomed to just saying it without really knowing why, but I have a different perspective on the process than a native speaker. Not only have I walked through the learning process, but I very much still am, and not being a native speaker gives me freedom to readily admit to my students that I don't know everything and that there is much I have yet to learn. Like them, I too forget the meaning of a word, and have struggled to grasp certain grammatical tenses. I get to model this (hopefully with humility) to them, and my hope is that it causes them to be more eager and more humble learners.
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