¡Hola a todos!
This portfolio is completed as a graduation requirement for the Michigan State University (MSU) Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching (MAFLT) program, but, beyond fulfilling a requirement, it is an effective way to document my journey through MAFLT, showcase my learning process with specific products I created during the courses, and give you insights on my current beliefs as a Spanish teacher and the academic and professional trail I have followed to get where I am today.
I don't see the portfolio and my graduation as the end of my journey through education or foreign language teaching. In fact, it is a process that never ends. Thus, consider this portfolio as only one stage of my evolution as a learner and a teacher. Here you will find my teaching philosophy, documentation of my teaching experience and language proficiency, along with a lesson plan I redesigned to infuse it with technology, an assessment tool I created as a Spanish progress test with answer key and rubric, and an intercultural activity I adapted to suit my current Spanish 4 classes. You will also find writings where I reflect on my experiential module project and overall experience in the program.
Home
Teaching Philosophy
Experience
Language Proficiency
Teaching Samples
Materials Design
In 2015, after months of searching for a fully online masters degree program at a university with excellent credentials, I landed on the MAFLT program's website and I knew that this was the program for me as soon as I finished reading the curriculum. There is absolutely no doubt that I made the right choice. I must say, though, that I started very nervous and with a little self-doubt about my academic learning skills to tackle this project because all my education had happened in my home country (Colombia) and this was my first attempt to complete graduate studies in the United States, entirely in English, and after several years of having completed my bachelor's and being off the rhythm that academic studies demand. I thought my skills were "rusty" for the challenge and importance of the task ahead. However, I realized that I was not the only student in the program in that situation, that the courses were designed to bring the best performance out of students, and that I counted on my classmates’ input and on the expert guidance of highly qualified professors, which gave me a lot confidence on the education I was receiving and the performance I could offer.
The courses and the professors behind each course, combined with my own effort, significantly improved my understanding of teaching and learning Spanish through the IB program and in general, the linguistic and intercultural process my students go through, the reasoning behind my pedagogical decisions, and the impact they have on my students. All because I had the chance to see my teaching practice through the light of the knowledge acquired in the different MAFLT courses.
My teaching is no longer the same because of the MAFLT program. I am now much more aware of the kind of technology I use in class, how I present it, and how to engage my students in learning and using Spanish through the use of tech tools thanks to the teaching with technology course (one of my favorites). Besides, when I create an assessment tool, I no longer see it as a simple task that needs to be easy to grade for me. I understand the complexity of the assessment in terms of its reliability to measure my students’ skills and performance. In order for a test to be reliable it needs to have wide sampling of the constructs I want to test, including items with various levels of difficulty that will make evident how low or high students can perform.
Even some of my ideas shifted or were clarified after taking certain courses, like the idea that errors only indicate where students are having difficulties learning, denoting a negative aspect of behavior in language learning that must not be tolerated or at least avoided for the most part. I now see that errors or mistakes do not need to have a negative reference. They are an indication of the effort the student is making to make sense of the new language they are learning and use it, an attempt to construct meaning. Also, I have to say that the teaching culture in FLT course blew my mind personally and professionally. It opened and expanded my cultural views from different interesting angles: my identity, my community in Colombia and in the United States, most importantly, my role as a language teacher. I have always believed that it is crucial for language and culture to be tightly connected in the classroom, that they cannot be taught or learned in isolation. But after this course, I now think carefully if I am teaching culture just for students to know information about the target culture or if I am indeed helping them to become intercultural people and preparing them for intercultural interactions.
With the incredible amount of knowledge I gained and skills I developed during MAFLT, I am certain that I am a better Spanish teacher than before I joined the program and I plan, in fact I have already started, to integrate that knowledge and skills in my teaching so that my students can do and be better at communicating in Spanish and interacting with people from different cultures. I am aware that there is much growth for me to experience but MAFLT has already contributed a great deal to that growth.