December  17, 2020

Episode : Interview with Catalina Villalba

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00:00:00 - Hello Catalina, how are you?

00:00:04 - Hi Manola, very well, thank you for asking.

00:00:08 - Today, I would like to do an interview about your time as a teacher.

00:00:14 - I know that right now, you don't practice it, but the question is the same point in about this period, experience and anecdotes.

00:00:25 - So, let's begin with a short introduction about yourself.

00:00:34 - Great, so my name is Catalina Vigelba, I am 29.

00:00:39 - I've studied languages for a little while, I taught a little, and then I went back to school and I'm currently studying psychology.

00:00:50 - Great. Now, which was your first experience as a teacher?

00:00:58 - My first formal experience as a teacher was back in 2016 when I joined the Release Military Academy program.

00:01:08 - And I had my own group and everything.

00:01:12 - But before that I had tutored some kids and friends and friends of friends and yes I had experience before but my first formal experience was back in 2015.

00:01:31 - What methods or strategies did you use to teach?

00:01:37 - I am a true believer that you learn something when you enjoy it, so my favorite method is to play.

00:01:48 - To play a lot.

00:01:49 - The only rule we had in the classroom was to always speak in English and then whatever.

00:01:59 - We played some games, I went to play a bunch of shows and we had to describe them, but also we had some penalties it should get it wrong and so we ended up dancing and thinking and yeah all sorts of things as long as we were having fun and speaking English.

00:02:23 - Which type of student did you have in the classroom?

00:02:27 - As I told you before, I was teaching in the military academy, so the majority of my students were cadets.

00:02:39 - Cadets are people who are going into the military career.

00:02:46 - So they were very young, but let's say it works as a university.

00:02:51 - So they were about your age, maybe, and yeah, I also had some officer's groups, so I had to teach some captains and some colonels as well.

00:03:05 - Wow, would you tell an experience about that?

00:03:11 - Sure, I remember this one time I went to Tullimayda, which is the military base in and I had to teach about so many different things that I hadn't taught before like guns and parts of the guns and how to clean the guns in English and how to describe a process in English and also first aid and the processes and the parts of a first aid kit in English and also well you kept the idea. I also had to teach them the cadences which are the songs that they sing in the morning with their jogging and I had to go jogging with them so that was very cool and also very exhausting but it was great. How do you assess your student?

where you are flexible or a strict teacher?

00:04:18 - Well, I was really strict during class and with the class activities, which didn't have like a really high score and I did that, so I wouldn't have to be so strict at the end.

00:04:36 - So yeah, I was really strict with the class activities, but then in the exams I didn't even have to.

00:04:43 - And that was really great because sometimes we would swap groups with other teachers, put it into a system and to be more objective in the grades we gave them.

00:04:53 - So that was really cool.

00:04:55 - My students were always doing great, we did this during class, I was really strict.

00:05:00 - But also, and that's important to know the fact that a teacher is not as flexible class you would want them to be. It doesn't really mean that you cannot have fun and enjoy the process.

00:05:16 - We would have fun in every single class. And if we loved any way ahead of time, I would consider that class a success. But also, I was really strict while doing that. I would have to repeat every praised every word they pronounced incorrectly and but as a result they would perform outstandingly at the end of the exam in the final exam.

00:05:50 - Do you like to read? Do you motivate reading in a student?

00:05:56 - Oh yes, reading is one of my favorite things. I really enjoy it. I think you learn a lot of vocabulary just by reading. I don't know, some people like it. I don't like it that much. But those apps, like the ones that teach you only vocabulary are context. I don't that's that useful. You end up with a bunch of words that you don't know how to use, but if you read them in a book, that would help you a lot to understand how to use the word, what context is it used in, even if it's formal or informal, and you can catch a lot of aspects of the word.

00:06:47 - So of course I wanted to bring my students, it was also not optional, it was mandatory for us to read a book, at least a book during the semester. And then I created a whole activity out of it, so we had a book club on Fridays and we could have the class, not in the classroom, but maybe in a park or something like that inside the school of course. But

00:07:14 - But yeah, so we could have it outside and have a picnic or something and just discuss the book, discuss the chapter we had read and also predict what was going to happen next.

00:07:30 - According to your opinion, how important is participation in class?

00:07:37 - In my opinion, participation is crucial. It's one of the most important things that you have in class. And I know sometimes students don't like to participate because, let's face it, it's not comfortable. We don't like to make mistakes. But in order to achieve real progress, have to get out of your comfort zone and yes try it make mistakes and you'll see you will learn a lot you cannot learn as much from other people's mistakes you learn from your own mistakes and only by participating you really you really understand what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. So it is really important.

00:08:36 - That is great. What motivated you to change your profession?

00:08:43 - Well, one of my favorite things about being a teacher is that you get to know your students.

00:08:48 - You get to know their motivation, their lives, their problems.

00:08:52 - Um, so yeah, I really liked it and I really liked being able to touch stories at a different level.

00:09:02 - Like to help them solve the problems, help them through the thinking process.

00:09:09 - I wouldn't give them the answer to anything because well, it was not my job.

00:09:14 - But um, but I liked it that they could trust me and tell me things.

and I could help them see those things from a different perspective and it got me thinking that I wanted to help people to help more people and from a different angle. Okay, finally, would you like to be a teacher again? Oh yeah, sure.

in a heartbeat. I actually loved my time as a teacher, but let's hope psychology works out for me. Okay, Catalina, that's all. Thank you very much for your disposition to answer the question. It was very nice to talk to you and know about your experience. Bye. No, thank you, Manuela, for having me and I'll talk to you later.

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