Tuesday, 20 March 2007

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to my colleague Claudia Ceraso, who has not only inspired me but also dedicated her time to sharing her knowledge about technical stuff and common sense stuff and legal stuff and and.

When I started teaching adults (the beginnings of time) the most fashionable book was Kernel Lessons by Robert O’Neill. By that time he visited Argentina and I attended his lecture at Colegio Lasalle. I do not remember his words, but I remember this: that day I learnt my second really true methodology lesson –teaching is about sharing. Thanks.

The first true lesson came from my methodology teacher (I do not remember her name right now, but I will). She would always tell us that if you finished your class exhausted, something had gone wrong; the students had to be exhausted because learning was about making an effort. Thanks.

I would also like to thank my mother, who has always backed me, even when she was absolutely against my decisions.

2 comments:

Claudia Ceraso said...

Dear Gabriela,

Each day I am more convinced that teaching is all about learning.

As a teacher, I have always been moved ahead by the need to share. Remember the dinner we had in your house last January? I perfectly remember when you were asked how you started your blog and you answered that suddenly you were correcting your students' writings and thought: 'How come I am the only one reading this?' And I felt echoes of my own voice in yours.

Somehow, even before blogs, I've always wanted to reach far. I always thought that the highest point in my career would be to teach teachers one day. Not out of a need to see a bit of myself in others, but rather to set people into autonomous learning mode.

I have found in Whitman the finest expression of my inner thoughts about the definition of success in my profession:

"I am the teacher of athletes,
He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own,
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher."


I am most grateful for your words in this post. Yet, I am far deeply honoured to read how accurately you have captured the essence of blogging, learning, and sharing it all with your students.

I am sure you will take me further and look forward to it!

Wishing you all best,

Claudia
ELT Notes

Gabriela Sellart said...

Setting people into autonomous learning mode is a hard aim to get. Our society is organized to develop highly dependant persons. There seems to be a kind of fear for the scope of autonomous minds in general. The spread of a wider breast is too often regarded as a threat. Far away in time, Whitman noted before Lacan the need to kill the teacher/parents to become a “subject”, in short, an autonomous human being.