A teacher must start from somewhere... right?

From this experiment, it can be concluded that language -even onomatopoeic sounds- is arbitrary. The word ‘shhk’ was the one where most people related it with shushing, perhaps due to the similarity with the ´shh´ sound. However, as I thought of the word, I initially thought of it as a scissor cutting paper. The second word, initially thought of as resembling the sound of one of the drums in a drum set, was interpreted by people in the most diverse way. The ‘tchkk’ word seemed to be related to liking people for some reason when I mostly relate it with the sound of a door closing or locking. The last two onomatopoeias are real words from different languages, but curiously, people had the most trouble with them as I had to insist they try to relate them with something multiple times. I suppose that the ‘weird’ letter combination -and my inability to correctly pronounce the word- might have caused four out of the five subjects to be unable to relate something to it.

Overall, I think the main problem with at least four out of my five subjects was that they seemed to not consider these as onomatopoeic sounds -even when I clarified it in the beginning and in the end, asking them if they would like to change any of their responses-. I think they just thought of a word they knew and related it to that if they could not immediately associate the word with a sound.

I also tried to ask a bigger sample, however, most people could only relate one or two words with something, and the rest ‘didn’t know what that is and can’t think of anything.’

This assignment was issued by Professor Christian Cristoful during the first year, in the Linguistics I course, in fact, it was among the first assignments we had to submit. It was complleted over the course of a weekend, as I had to interview different people as evidenced in the image above. I have selected this assignment due to the fact that it was the first time we had put theory into practice, and in fact, when Professor Cristoful had stated “The eighth feature of language is arbitrariness, and this includes onomatopoeic sounds” I was sceptical at first, even after all the examples he had provided. I had a theory that people who spoke the same language would be able to perceive onomatopoeic sounds similarly. It was through the hands-on experience that I was proved wrong, and I could have a more in-depth analysis and internalisation of what was covered in class.

This assignment was issued by Professor Cynthia Rolón during the second year, in the Pedagogy course. This video was selected due to the fact that this was one of the first videos on which Tania, Daniela and myself worked on a video, unbeknown to us, this would be just one of many others in the future due to the switch to virtual classes. In this video, in particular, I put a lot of effort into designing and executing the setting and wardrobe of the animated characters in the video. Moreover, editing the footage and inserting the audio while also keeping selected portions of the original audio was a challenge for me, since it was the first time I was editing a video in this way. Thus, this took more time than initially planned, totalling in 5 hours of work, divided as follows. An hour to review and summarise sources and turning it into a script, an hour of Animal Crossing: New Horizons to gather and assemble all the necessary materials, prompts, wallpaper, and wardrobes for the character sin the video, and another hour to record the video and transfer it to a computer for further editing. Additionally, it took two hours of editing to add the transitions, integrate and synchronize the sound and videos, and polish the work.

This video went through three stages of editing, which at the moment, seemed endless, but looking back, it gave me all the necessary video editing skills that helped me to this day. However, it was also a lesson on adapting material, since we summarised our findings, prepared a script and edited the audio recordings, videos, and transitions, as well as added credits at the end. Nevertheless, despite the flaws of the video itself, I would like to display it to not only evidence the effort, but also the progress and growth in the technological aspect as well, since part of being a teacher is the ability to prepare your own materials and adapt them to the needs of students.

This assignment was issued by Professor Carolina Ortíz during the third year, in the Teaching Practice I course. This video was selected due to the fact that this was a cause I am very passionate about and put an incredible amount of effort in order to be able to properly transmit that into the video, In this video, in particular, I put a lot of effort into designing and executing the setting and wardrobe of the animated characters in the video. Moreover, editing the footage and inserting the audio while also keeping selected portions of the original audio was a challenge for me, since it was the first time I was editing a video in this way.

This video went through three stages of editing, which at the moment, seemed endless, but looking back, it gave me all the necessary video editing skills that helped me to this day. However, it was also a lesson on adapting material, since we summarised our findings, prepared a script and edited the audio recordings, videos, and transitions, as well as added credits at the end. Nevertheless, despite the flaws of the video itself, I would like to display it to not only evidence the effort, but also the progress and growth in the technological aspect as well, since part of being a teacher is the ability to prepare your own materials and adapt them to the needs of students.

This assignment was issued by Professor Carolina Ortíz during the third year, in the Teaching Practice I course. This assignment was selected due to the fact that this was the turning point for me, as after this teaching experience I had started thinking about teaching myself instead of a requirement to graduate. Before this, I did not like nor want anything to do with teaching, I was intimidated by it and all the repercussions it had, but with the guidance of the teacher, I was able to overcome my insecurities and get considerable constructive criticism I still use today.

I think that with this experience, I have actually found out that I might consider teaching in the future, though it served to make me realise I would like to start with small groups of adults to start off and maybe build up some confidence to experiment with bigger groups and other age groups. I think it was a positive experience overall, as, despite my initial reluctance to go into the teaching world, it is not as bad as I had thought.

The expert teacher was very understanding of the position I was in and was very nice to have accepted me to observe and teach their students despite being behind in the curriculum. That is why they provided the content they wanted me to cover, and that had actually helped when it came to planning the classes I was supposed to carry out. I think that because the students were adults, and it was a mainly conversational class, I was able to provide adequate timing for the different activities, which is what I had struggled with in the past.

Regarding the feedback received from the expert teacher, I believe they were delivered in a very clear manner, that did not show judgement for any initial mistakes, but instead focused on what points could be improved upon. This manner of feedback delivery was very encouraging and it provided enough information to improve both my performance and confidence levels for the second practice. For example, during the first class, the teacher had to interfere to try to explain a concept to a student, however, after the class ended, the teacher explained what kind of examples worked best to guide that particular student. By the next class, I knew what kind of examples and prompts to get this particular student to get to the right answer.

Some of the suggestions I was unable to correct I think are very important when it comes to teaching, such as raising my voice and moving around the classroom. I think this had more to do with the nerves I was feeling at the moment and the fact that I naturally tend to be very static and talk at a lower volume. However, I will try to correct this if I ever get to teach again.

I believe that this experience was positive overall. I was able to improve in some aspects and have others which I still have to work on. Moreover, I was able to realise that I might consider teaching in the future based on this experience. I also delimited what age group and group size I feel most comfortable teaching.

This assignment was issued by Professor Valentina Canese during the fourth year, in the Curriculum I course. This video was selected due to the fact that the research done to produce it helped me understand the concept of curriculum as it would be dealt with in the course, but also all the different influences on not only teaching, but curricula as well. I worked hard on not only summarising the information, presenting it to the target audience in an easily identifiable way, but also in the aesthetic aspect, which I decided to start improving at the beginning of 2022. The effort put into this assignment is easily noticed when considering the amount of time it took to finish: an hour to review the sources and two to organise and create the mindmap using and adapting resources provided by the Canva website.

This assignment was issued by Professor Valentina Canese during the fourth year, in the Curriculum I course. This video was completed over the course of three hours: half a hour to review the sources, an hour to prepare the visual aid, half an hour to record the video, and an hour to edit it. This video was selected due to the fact that the research done to produce it helped me define my Teaching Philosophy, since at the end of the previous course,as I started crafting my teaching philosophy, I was undecided of whether my goals and ideals aligned best with Realism or Pragmatism, and through the research done for this assignment, I opted for Realism. Moreover, Daniela Solís and I worked hard on not only summarising the information, presenting it to the target audience, but also in the aesthetic aspect, which I decided to start improving at the beginning of 2022.