Becoming transformative intellectuals.

Why is it important for teachers to become transformative intellectuals? Are all teachers willing to become so? Well, certainly there are many personal and social factors that should be taken into consideration to answer those previous questions.
From what I perceive, commitment and optimism towards the teaching profession are two essential elements in the process of becoming transformative intellectuals. Being committed educators will assuredly lead to students who feel committed to their learning experience. Teachers should be capable of engendering enthusiasm for any task or educational project. But in order to achieve such an ability they should primarily believe in their own and in their students' competence to fulfil any set goal. And this has inevitably to do with optimism. Whenever you believe that something can be possible in spite of the apparent difficulties, you are being an optimist. I truly think that teachers with an upbeat view are more able to succeed in their teaching aims and are even more able to increase those aims as time passes by.
According to Larry Cuban, Trasformative educators should have as primordial aims "the creation and implementation of forms of knowledge that are relevant to the student's specific contexts and to construct curricula and syllabi around their own and their students' needs, wants and situations. Such a task, he adds, makes it imperative for them to maximize sociopolitical awareness among their learners using conciousness raising, problem-posing activities". This makes reference to the necessity that teachers become well-informed practitioners not only in relevant social and political matters but also in effective ways to catch their students' attention provoking a feeling of curiosity and a need to look at those matters with a critical eye.
Finally, for teachers to become transformative practitioners, it is essential that they become "concerned with the affective dimension of human beings". This side of the teaching task cannot be neglected due to the inevitable fact that students are human beings with emotional and affective needs and they expect that the teacher satisfy those needs in any possible way. They many times may do things that might seem irrational and this is mainly becuase of their natural thirst for attention and affection. This aspect of transformative teaching should not be left aside, though it certainly may make the teaching task even more demanding.
Maybe this is time to ask ourselves what type of teacher we would like to become? And how can we prepare ourselves to face the different challenges of everyday teaching? Again, optimism seems to me the clue for more promising and satisfactory teaching results.

Teachers as reflective practitioners

I was recently thinking on the possible obstacles teachers will have to overcome in their attempt to become reflective practitioners. And the first thing that came to my mind is the fact that teachers are human beings with vices and virtues that might limit their capacity as reflective educators. I believe that not all of us are trained to examine carefully our actions and also to be aware of others' ways of behaving. Besides most of us carry so many things in our minds and have so many responsiblities that we tend to act instinctively in many occasions.And here arises unavoidably one of the main barriers for becoming reflective teachers: "Time". Teachers run out of time. Tasks increase but the day still has 24 hours. However, learning to organize ourselves should be an indispensable prerequisite for reflective teaching. As teachers we should devote time to train our reflective capacities and that may eventually lead to numerous advantages. I'm almost sure that our teaching task will become much more satisfactory for ourselves and for our students in the sense that we will become aware of the teaching context and of the students' particular needs. Awareness is inevitably accompanied by a determination to change aspects that were considered inappropriate. Awareness is the first step towards improvement and transformation.

Strawberry cultivated Yoghurt!

There is one word that has called my attention ever since I have memory. This word is "cultivated". The sole experience of naming it cheers me up!
All I recollect from my childhood is that mum used to buy me a kind of cultivated pot of milk or yoghurt. I don't really know if that exists but well, I remember it was delicious and nurturing! Maybe from that moment on I started liking the word. The truth is that today, Saturday 18th April 2009, I was reading an article called "conceptualizing teaching acts" by Larry Cuban and I found my word there. It says that transformative teachers should be dedicated to the cultivation of situated participants promoting student discussion in class by situating the class in the words, concerns and experience of the students. So I decided to look this word -cultivated- up. Longman dictionary provided me with three definitions, from which I will pick two.

1 someone who is cultivated is intelligent and knows a lot about music, art, literature etc.
2 cultivated land is land that is used for growing crops or plants.

Now I find out why I like this word so much!! I would like my students to become cultivated persons and to grow solidly in the grounds they happen to be settled. I hope to serve such a purpose efficiently but always heartily!

"What kind of teacher I would like to become"

As a student, I have had different kinds of teachers. Some have been very demanding while others more relaxed, some others enthusiastic while the unenthusiastic ones were not at all absent. However, the ones who have produced a deeper impact on my trajectory as a student are the more demanding ones. I believe that the bulk of teachers I've had belong to that group. Here, I can not avoid referring to my first teacher at primary school. She had a daunting appearance that made me feel less confident and afraid. This, together with the fact that when you are a child everything seems bigger and greater, made her a true nightmare in this period of my life. I felt I couldn't express myself freely or make any mistakes. Mistakes were seen as unforgivable sins. This educator produced in me a long-lasting effect; she made of me a truly self-demanding student to such an extent that this attitude wouldn't let me enjoy my learning experiences completely. Some time passed till I could recover from the unpleasant concept of learning I had acquired. The later presence of kind enthusiastic teachers greatly contributed to that end.
Well, fortunately, not all teachers have had a daunting effect on me! As I said before, the positive influence of some helped me a lot. I could rebuild my concepts of the teacher's figure throughout time to the point of wanting to become a teacher myself. I can say that what I once could have evaluated as a negative experience, nowadays has turned out to be more positive than negative. I've realized how I definitely wouldn't like to behave as a teacher and, at the same time, I've learned to value and appreciate the good qualities of other teachers. In a few words, I could contrast different teaching images and reach to my own conclusions.
As a teacher of English, I've already gained some experience and though it was for scarcely 3 years, I consider it was varied and enriching. I've had the opportunity of working at all levels and in a private school as well as in an English Academy and a Kindergarten. From those trainings, I could observe different traits in me as a teacher. Mainly, I like having my plannings at hand but it's clear that I give big importance to whatever might pop up at each particular moment. I like reacting spontaneously to different situations in class and providing with sufficient time for each student to express him/herself freely and comfortably. However, I tend to perceive their intentions and from what I read in their tones of voice and gestures, I make my personal judgments. I also consider myself a clown teacher that enjoys taking the role of a student in some occasions. I like to mix up with students and let them be the teacher some times. I tend to play with them and negotiate. I want them to feel comfortable keeping in mind that there are certain set limits that should be respected by all for the well-being of the whole class. I try to explain myself as clearly as I can and keep my word in whatever I promise.
I am convinced that there is not a definite kind of teacher I would like to become. Instead, I see myself as an open and flexible educator whose ultimate purpose is to improve the quality of her teaching and the academic as well as attitudinal performance of her students.

"Why teach"

The reasons why I decided to become a teacher are numerous and, amazingly, I keep on discovering more as time passes by.
As regards my own personality, there are many traits in it that are clear indicators of a teaching profession. On the one hand, I love children! They provoke unique sensations in me. They fill me with joy and I feel fully alive with their sole presence. On the other hand, I experience the constant need of communicating what I think and how I feel about things in life. But not only that. I see that I am continually open to what the other communicates and that I like to reflect upon the real message the other wants to transmit. I consider each person that I happen to meet as a necessary piece in the puzzle of my life. In that sense, students become enriching beings that make meaningful my every day existence and provide me with enormous contributions in the discovery of my own identity.
There are also certain social aspects that led me to choose the teaching profession. It is essential for society that citizens are well-educated and well-prepared to face new challenges. And when I say challenges, I'm not only referring to technological or scientific challenges but also to attitudinal challenges. Citizens need to be taught to respect the other, to take care of nature, to be clean and organized, to value what they already have and fight for what they still haven't, to believe themselves capable of fulfilling their dreams in life, to have faith in their own abilities and never lose hope. In this respect, teachers can become powerful social agents promoting the development of strong personalities and instilling essential values in their students.