Teaching Philosoph
26/07/2014 18:35
Foreign Languages__________________________
Once a student of mine said to me: “If every teacher had a smile like yours during the classes, we would come to school more willingly”. I answered with a smile, but he did not know that that was the response to many questions. I think a student should feel at ease during the learning process, so that his participation could be more active and productive. The teacher behavior has an important role in that. Our temperament, in fact, can be an obstacle, or more, a barrier to learning. When a teacher understands the importance of this in its role, the process of knowing will be facilitated.
I see and treat the students in my classes as human beings, with their characteristics, their diverse backgrounds, and their varying abilities and previous knowledge. But respect must be mutual. Many times I have been told by my students: “I can’t. I never will”. My concern for students is that they may become aware of their potentiality. This is the turning point of learning, before any teaching theory and strategy. When a student is self-confident he has an edge over the others. In addition to this, the student must have confidence in himself, but also in his teacher. That is essential.
I believe that a foreign language teacher should not use only one teaching strategy, but should make his own the various theories, and be able to apply them and combine them in a convenient way according to each case, both with regard to the specific topic to be learned, and the previous skills of the students.
Voice___________________________________
I think a Voice teacher is far different from other teachers. I have taught singing for 7 years, and during this few time, I realized that the task of a teacher is not just to build a voice, but to pull an existing voice out of a person. When I get certain good sounds I say to my pupils, “That’s your real voice”. It is a voice living in that person but that has to be born like a baby, and grow up. That’s the interesting of teaching voice! It is a new discovery every day, that involves the student as well as the teacher. The relationship between the Voice teacher and his pupil must be of an extreme mutual trust. Harshness might prevent the student to learn, so mutual respect is essential.
My teaching philosophy is oriented towards getting people to think. It seems obvious – it dates back to Montaigne -, but students must learn to think. Our nature leads us to the way that seems easier, that is the storage of many notions, instead to learn and to create opinions and thoughts of their own.
Finally, I think that teaching and learning must be a self-imposed challenge that each of the counterpart should take. That’s the fun in teaching!