HI THERE, I’M HALEY

It's no secret that learning a language is a discipline of love and patience. My classroom philosophy is based heavily on my experience as a learner and current research around the world. As educators, we must remain curious and remember how it feels to swim in the discomfort of learning a new language, especially in a world of overstimulation that demands immediate results. Over the past five or six years, I've been diving deep into the psychological pedagogy of play, community, and slowing down--three major factors that are integral to growth and help take the edge off of being outside your comfort zone. Any success that I've had in learning languages myself has been thanks to the teachers who have played with me, laughed with me, presented me with huge challenges, and stood with me through the struggle. I've had to work hard and be extremely patient to feel confident in my non-native languages. Languages live with you and grow with you--so it's easy for me to say that after learning a new language, I've left feeling like a new person. 

 

Languages create new lenses through which to see the world, change the way that the brain interprets information, encourage cross-cultural investigations and representations, and most importantly bring people together. As a student of languages, these reasons encourage me to push myself to be content outside of my comfort zone and to challenge my Western perspective. As a teacher, my goal is to demonstrate the value of learning a new language to show how exciting the future can be with more multilingual and multicultural interactions. I'm also passionate about challenging the way that formal education has existed to produce cookie-cutter students. We learn from one another and we all learn differently. We all have something to say through the way we create, which could be expressed through art, sports, writing, jokes, how we treat others, or how we solve problems. We can learn so much outside of the four classroom walls.

 

When you're around the right people, you feel empowered to use your knowledge to make positive change, which could be simply making someone's day a bit brighter. You aren't afraid to make mistakes, because there is no shame in a positive learning environment. Failing can encourage curiosity and eventually help you gain confidence in yourself. I like to align myself with the idea of learning with a group of students instead of creating a competitive atmosphere where the teacher is always right and students are fighting for the teacher's approval. Every student, regardless of their age, has valuable experience to contribute to the classroom environment and should be respected as a fully autonomous being, capable of critical thinking, and valued for their creativity. The teacher shouldn't just lecture through their unique perspective or mold students into people who resemble themselves. Instead, the teacher should create an atmosphere in which students are excited to interact with the course material, feel inspired to investigate outside of the classroom, and create their own opinions about the world.

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“Teachers are the guardians of spaces that allow students to breathe and be curious and explore the world and be who they are without suffocation. Students deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can exhale.” - Brené Brown​

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Objectives:

My goal as a teacher is to create engaging lessons and course materials that encourage fit learner characteristics, lead to positive feelings, and promote relevant learning, as outlined by Brian Tomlinson (2001). I believe that the teacher plays a large part in creating a positive atmosphere that makes students feel safe and excited to come to class.

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Goal 1: Encourage Fit Learner Characteristics

• prepare learners to acquire points being taught

• vary in learning styles

• vary in affective attitudes

• may utilize a silent period at the beginning of instruction

• stimulate right and left-brain activities

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Goal 2: Lead to Positive Feelings

• achieve impact

• help learners to feel at ease

• help learners to develop confidence

• require and facilitate learner self-investment

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Goal 3: Promote Relevant Learning

• be perceived as relevant and useful

• expose learners to authentic language

• draw attention to linguistic features of input

• provide opportunities to use the L2 in communicative tasks

• take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed

• do not rely on controlled practice

• provide opportunities for outcome feedback

 

My most natural strengths are in creating materials that vary in learning styles, stimulate right and left-brain activities, help learners develop confidence, require and facilitate learner self-investment, be perceived as relevant and useful, and expose learners to authentic language. Understanding this, I  constantly submit my materials for evaluation by students and peers to capitalize on my strengths and focus on improving my materials.

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Methods:

When entering a new teaching position, running a needs analysis for both the students and myself as the instructor is the first thing that I do. Understanding the personal and collective needs and learning styles of the students is critical to me as I believe every course should offer each student the best opportunity to grow through the inclusion of personalized materials and teaching strategies. The needs of the students change frequently and should be tailored accordingly. While familiarity and routines can be useful to language learners, the classroom should not be a static environment. 

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I would describe my teaching style as highly creative, communicative/expressive, interactive, and task-driven. I am passionate about taking the more structured side of language learning, such as grammar skills, and creating engaging supplemental activities that encourage students to look at the topic from a variety of perspectives. As a language learner myself, I understand how frustrating it can be to learn a concept without understanding the "why?" behind it or the contexts in which the concept will appear. I never want the students to feel like they are completing an activity that is useless to them so I am highly communicative about the goals of each activity. Creating authentic interactions with the material excites me and I believe that tools like technology and corpora can also prove to be great assets.

 

I like to structure the classes to encourage high levels of communication between the students, regardless of their language level. Speaking is one of the fundamental skills that requires and provides a great deal of confidence. To be comfortable using the target language outside of the classroom, I believe in using the classroom as the practice zone and practicing as much as possible. Each course will demand different teaching strategies from the instructor as the atmosphere will change with each group of new students. This excites me as I feel there is always room for improvement to be a well-rounded and adaptable teacher.

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Evaluation:

In my opinion, there is no perfect teaching material so materials development should always be a continuous process. It is critical to evaluate lesson plans and teaching materials so that they are as closely aligned as possible with the needs of the student, teacher, and educational institution. I rely on self-evaluation, student evaluation, and external evaluation from both educators and non-educators to help craft materials that get better and better. There is always room to grow.