Opportunities

I always remember an excellent teacher at High school who used to say that in the process of teaching and learning, the teacher needed to be open and ready to give opportunities to their students otherwise, it will be hard for them to get the respect from the students.
During these last two years I had the opportunity to start training to become a teacher in the near future. I had students at eighth and ninth year and next year I will be teaching training in the Polimodal level. I also was working in a Catholic school as a pasante, helping a little girl who has difficulties at learning as she suffers from deficit of attention among others problems. The thing is that I was working together with the teacher of that class who was Miss Josefina, and who helped me a lot. It gave me the opportunity to practice with her class giving me suggestions and tips for the next classes I was going to give. I felt nervous but confident at the same time.
The little girl I was working with is beautiful. Her name is Paulina and the first time we met, she asked me why I was going to be only with her and not with the rest of the girls, and I said “I chose working with you because you seem to be special”, and she smiled at me.
At the beginning it was very hard to catch her attention as she did not know whom to follow, her teacher or me. The thing is that with the passing of time she started to improve in English. Having many difficulties in producing pieces of writing in her mother tongue, her psychologist suggested me to encourage the child to work with the basic contents in the second language and she seemed to enjoy doing the exercises I prepared for her.
Now that exams are over, this little child could overcome different situations, for instance, she can now produce sentences in English and she managed to pass the oral exams (which was a huge burden for her at the beginning). Through games and draws, she learnt colours, numbers and other lexical items that where necessary for her to learn to pass the subject. However, I have to say that the most important for me was that she has learnt something from me. To be honest, there were times in which I wished to run away as I didn’t know how to help her. I knew she needed me, but I didn’t know what to do. I felt weak and unable to deal with those difficulties, but Miss Josefina and some friends of mine (who are future teachers too) made me realize I could do something for this kid and thank God the results were excellent.
When I started this entry, I remembered what my favourite teacher used to say and I think he’s right. Opportunities should be given for everyone. It’s a good way to show that you as teacher or you as student can do something to learn. In my case, I am extremely pleased to have had a teacher like Miss Josefina to help me during the last three months and in the case Paulina, the last time I saw her, she shown thankful for having the opportunity to learn something it was very difficult for her at the beginning.