I feel that the most significant factor of all effective teaching is the instructor's apparent enthusiasm in class. I also believe that teachers should have high expectations of their students and set ambitious but not unreasonable goals. I have found that students tend to live up or down to their teachers' expectations of them. Teachers must also be models of their own expectations of their students. If, for example, an instructor demands that students be prepared for class and meet deadlines, he must himself be a model of preparedness and timeliness, always returning student work with comments as soon as possible. Furthermore, I believe that students are the most reliable judges of effective teaching. We teachers should poll them often and seriously consider their opinions.

Teaching is one of my arts. In my approach to teaching I not only want my students to learn the factual material but also to experience excitement and enthusiasm about learning Spanish as a whole. I believe that teaching a language is a living entity with many components. By that I mean, language, history, politics, business, art, music, cuisine, and fashion. I am a natural teacher.I am never more alive than when I am teaching no matter how I feel; so for me, teaching is its own reward.

Before anyone really learns, one must want to learn; one must find joy in the process of learning. Of course, for a young adult this means more than merely having fun. It means welcoming intellectual and emotional challenges, working harder, and surpassing themselves. It means understanding how what we do in class relates to life outside class. This, then, is the philosophical core of my teaching. Over the years I have constantly been reassessing both the content and teaching approaches to make it interesting and facilitate student learning. I do this mainly by paying close attention to students evaluations and observation of student’s understanding of the material.

Establishing a relaxed class atmosphere, where students feel challenged, not intimidated, is my first priority. On the first day of class I tell them that I am available twenty four hours by E-mail and they can stop by my office at any time. I believe that if students feel comfortable talking to me in general, then they are more likely to ask for help with specific academic concerns. Students consistently express appreciation for my accessibility both in the office and over the phone.

I have found that the more I expect of students, the more they enjoy the class. As I design a course, I select material that students enjoy because it forces them to re-assess their values and beliefs. By orchestrating a coherent assignments, I enable student to perceive a natural evolution of ideas and skills as they build on what they have learned. I provide enough material to challenge them but also I want students to have ample time to read and think about the assignments before coming to class.
 

Teacher/Student and Student/ Student Interaction

I believe in active learning. For that purpose, I structure the classes around small-and large-group activities. This requires more judicious planning than lecturing would, I (and my students) much prefer it to their passively listening to my explanations. I see myself primarily as a facilitator, providing questions that lead students to discoveries of their own knowledge. I urge them to open a discussion and then insist that they listen and respond to one another without expecting me to agree or disagree about their questions and comments. I encourage them to take risks, and I assure them that all opinions are valid if they can defend them. Working in small groups of their choice, students quickly grow comfortable with one another and eventually voice their firm opinions freely to the other groups.

Feedback and Evaluation

To accommodate different learning styles, I provide various formats for students to demonstrate what they know: essay, quizzes, journals, formal papers, drafts, presentations, oral interviews and recitations. I also give the students extensive feedback on each assignment, whether formal or informal, written or oral. When writing my comments, I always address the student as a writer/thinker and fellow human being. So that the students invest more than mere academic interest in the course, I connect scholarly concerns with what I know about them. For example, I knew that one of my students had spent the summer in Costa Rica. Then he gave a presentation about street Spanish in Costa Rica. Finally, to assure the students and myself that they have mastered the concepts in a course, I give them comprehensive examinations.

Operationalization of Teaching Philosophy in the Classroom

I teach two to three courses at the undergraduate level. Span21(Introduction to Literature), Span23A (Honors Beginning Conversation), Span2X (Intensive first year Spanish). Since my approach to teaching each course is somewhat different, I will discuss them separately.

When teaching Introduction to Spanish Literature course, the first obstacle that I encountered are the fear of Spanish poetry and its terminology, narrative and theater and the attitude that Spanish literature is only accessible to those that have mastered the language. However, some students already have been exposed to a wide range of materials--including art, music, film, historical documents, etc.--feel confident that they know the key issues of a given period genre. The purpose of this course is to recognize literary components and enjoy how it is related to art, music and history. Therefore, the major goals of my literary classes are to dispel fears and myths about Spanish literature and replace them with excitement and enthusiasm, and for the students to both understand and enjoy literature as one of the keystones of any society.

In order to accomplish these goals, each class in my literature course follows a similar format. The first part of each class is in the form of a close dialogue on the class poem, novel or play. This dialogue provides a great low stress atmosphere that promotes a complete analysis of terms, themes, character’s psychological traits and development, socio-political influences, etc.

I believe that a short lecture is appropriate for literature courses even when there is a small number of students in the class because the students must learn certain factual material that does not appear in their texts. The literary text is the central example to show the connections that literature has to art and history. In my classes I incorporate examples from music, art, film, newspapers, etc. I have found that my personal experience in the arts is a great asset when teaching literary courses since it is easier to obtain relevant and meaningful examples. I can interlace Cervantes with Murillo and Velazquez, Zorrilla’s Don Juan with Byron’s and Don Giovanni, Lorca with Picasso and Dalí, etc. The out-of-class assignments allow the students to be creative. The results of their creations can be surprising when I read about refreshing perspectives of the same literary piece.

This format appears to be effective as evidenced by students comments. I knew that I had reached them when a student said: "Because the instructor was always enthusiastic about the class, it made class a lot more interesting for me. I have never really enjoyed literature classes until now" (1997). This comment reassured me why I love teaching.

The second course that I teach is Beginning Conversation. It provides the students with an opportunity to practice and improve their Spanish communicative skills. Span 23A is an honors course and is directed towards students who excel in their studies.