Personal narratives: Second part

A critical incident report: A troublesome situation

Some years ago, when I was studying for being a teacher of English, I had to go through a very difficult situation. This happened one day, when I was preparing my practices in an impoverished school in the suburbs of my city where my partners and I went to observe groups of students, take notes and ask some questions to the teacher in charge of them. It was known for us that those children who attended that educational institution used to be very violent and aggressive with their fellows as well as their teachers. Besides, they stayed at school from very early in the morning up to the last hours in the afternoon, so they had to spend all day long there and be fed up by the assistants, since they lived far away so as to go and return home many times a day. Those young learners had English as a curricular subject from the first year of schooling. However, most of them disliked the idea of learning this foreign language. What is more, the teacher in charge of delivering this subject had told us that the groups behaved so badly that most of the times it was impossible for her to work with them.

The first two weeks before starting my practices, I went there to observe a 6^th year class formed by students between 10-11 years old. The purpose of my visit was to gather information about the learners’ previous knowledge, needs, interests and weaknesses, so as to plan the topics and activities for my specialty. At the very beginning of the class, the students engaged with the topic introduced by the teacher which was related to “People’s daily lives”, but in a few minutes the class became a disaster. One of the boys stood up and started to throw pencils and other objects to the rest of the students, who then became involved in this problematic situation. Things made worse when the headmistress came in the classroom as the teacher was shouting in a fury without being able to control children and calm them down. Fortunately, the superior, taking profit of her experience, sorted out this situation by showing herself determined as well as by letting the group understand that those attitudes were going to change after all. After witnessing that event, I went home thinking about what a great challenge that group would be for me.

During the following days, I was able to analyze my notes, prepare materials and plan the lessons.  I had a clear image that engaging the students and keeping them relaxed would be a success for the development of my classes. When the hopeful day came, I felt so anxious and enthusiastic about the idea of being in front of that group of learners, that I brought the best of me so as to create a strong rapport and a wonderful classroom atmosphere. Although their level of English was very rudimentary, they took part in every task presented with eagerness and sympathy. Whenever they seemed to become bored or exhausted, a game or an ice-breaker activity was introduced to make them feel relaxed and interested with the aim of the class. None of them misbehaved or even disturbed the positive mood which each of us had been able to achieve that day. As a result, that troublesome situation which I had to experience those previous days, allowed me to analyze and reflect about my teaching practices as well as being able to understand that those young children, who came to school with their problems and sufferings, wanted to be felt valuable and their actions taken into account.