When one
begins another year, usually feels one can start anew. It´s like beginning a
new relationship or moving to a different house. Do you remember establishing a
new friendship or moving to your present home? Doesn´t one try to enhance
oneself or embellish one´s new place?
What about
beginning a new relationship with that teacher we carry inside? What would you
need to enamor that educator? What about brightening ourselves up?
Probably, what
we will do is trying to enhance what we already possess or are. As an
alternative, we would dare to do new things in order to have more chance of
becoming interesting enough to captivate that teacher. Thus, we need to
identify the qualities that should be beautified or try new deeds.
We know
that first impressions are the ones that may open opportunities or, adversely,
narrow our chances down to zero. So, let´s start with the most important: your
business card. What is it? It is quite difficult to choose, but I will venture
an attempt and make a list with the minimum to embellish our qualities. You can consider it to decide what to study in summer.
1. Language: It should be like the
irresistible song of a mermaid.
In order to
achieve that, we need to reinforce at least pronunciation and grammar. There
are always pronunciation, advanced grammar or conversation courses that could
be useful to help you accomplish that goal. Even better, we could take a
preparation course to take an international exam and obtain a certification of a
higher level. If you are well organized, you could always study on your own.
There are so many free websites and apps that could serve like a dream. Just
type the exam you want to take and there will be thousands of entries from
which to choose. Furthermore, having a higher certification will give us many
more opportunities to get a job and even better to choose the job we want. A
higher certification also means a better salary or the possibility of exploring
new areas, courses and so on.
2. Methodology: It should be connected
to the idea of innovation
Answer
this: How much of what we do or use in our classes is truly ours? Have we been
copying or adapting materials? Have we incorporated new tools, technological
tools for instance? Who can innovate?
Innovation
means change, and that could be drastic or progressive. But, how is it done? I
would say that the only way to have new ideas is by exposing ourselves to new
knowledge and, most importantly, by daring to try new things in class. We need
to leave our comfort zone and gently move to a routine laboratory experiment.
Our classes should be that space that creates new types of engagement,
experience, and commitment.
We do not
need to invent the gunpowder, just use our imagination!
Another way
to picture innovation is to think of it as an ability to combine existing
resources. Thus, we need to learn about those resources. We need to nourish
creativity by permeating it with reading.
We need to
set goals if we want to feel we´re moving forward and even better to feel that
it is worthwhile to spend the time we´ve got on whatever we decide to do. You do not need to set out to make
far-reaching change, just start with the simplest.
We just
need a single butterfly to change everything. Do you remember the following
saying? “When a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world it can
cause a hurricane in another part of the globe.” (Author unknown). Then, merely dare to begin
FLAPPING!!
What about sharing your ideas about this topic?
What do we need to "upgrade" ourselves? Is it necessary to make structural changes?
What do we need to "upgrade" ourselves? Is it necessary to make structural changes?
BIODATA
M.A. in Cognition, Learning and Development from PUCP, B.A. in Education with a major in English Teaching. Ms. Vila is currently Pedagogic Advisor and Member of the Research Team at Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad del Pacífico and Academic Director of International Contacts (test training & foreign applications advisory). She is official Examiner for several University of Cambridge tests, freelance consultant with Universidad ESAN, experienced speaker on diverse English teaching issues for prestigious institutions, and senior international examinations trainer (GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS).
