Bobby Maffei

TEAC 451R
Learner Autobiography

 Red= Autobiography #2
 Green- Autobiography #3 (Fall 2010)

Growing up, education was a large part of my life. Both of my parents are teachers in my

town, and, because of this, my education was always a high priority in my family. Currently, my

father is a physical education teacher at my former high school. In addition to this, he is also the

head football coach, another position in which I would consider him to fulfill the role of a

teacher. My mother currently teaches 7th grade American History at one of our town’s middle

schools. In addition to this, she has also taught at the 2nd grade, 6th grade, and 8th grade levels

while also serving as a cheerleading and field hockey coach. Due to my parent’s professions, I

think it is easy to say that education would be a driving force in my life.

I made up my mind that I was going to become a teacher while I was in 8th grade. Even

though I currently strive to be a Spanish teacher at the high school level, this was not always the

case. My first passion in education was actually American History, more specifically the

American Civil War. Since my mother is a U.S. History teacher, many of my vacations were

centered around important historical cities in the United States. While being dragged around to

what I thought would be boring vacation areas, I found out that history was actually one of the

most intriguing things to me. My passion for the Civil War began when I visited Gettysburg,

Pennsylvania. While this rural Pennsylvania town was the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil

War, it is also where my mom attended college; so naturally, I was forced to tag along for her
class reunions. While visiting Gettysburg, my mom took me on tours of the battlefields and

showed me that history could in fact be fun.

In addition to my newfound passion for American History, I also had some great teachers

in middle school that made me want to follow their examples and become a teacher as well.

These teachers that I had were charismatic, thus, it seemed like students were drawn to them.

They had such a positive influence on me that I wanted to be like them. The specific moment in

which I knew that I was born to be a teacher was in 8th grade in my U.S. History class (go

figure). At one point in the class, each student was required to teach the class about one topic

that dealt with the American Civil War (once again, go figure). While presenting my topic of

Civil War prison camps, I felt so comfortable in front of the class that I just knew this is where I

belonged. In fact, at a department meeting, my history teacher at the time actually told my mom

that I was a natural and was going to be a great teacher.

It wasn’t until high school, however, that I realized that teaching Spanish was actually the

right job for me. Through out my four years of taking Spanish in high school, I was fortunate

enough to have had four excellent teachers that stimulated my interest in the subject area. All

four of these teachers had different styles in the classroom, but they were all still effective at

teaching me the Spanish Language.

Starting with conjugating verbs in 7th grade, the easiest way for me to master a topic in

Spanish class was through repetition. By having a lot of repetitions in topics such as conjugating

verbs or spelling vocabulary words, I was able to successfully establish a solid base of

knowledge of the Spanish language. This is similar to the Intensive Grammar Translation

method of teaching foreign languages. This method was developed by Ploz, and there was a
heavy emphasis placed on grammar and translating from L2 to L1. While the class was not

solely taught in this manner, the heavy emphasis on grammar was very effective for me since I

usually learn best in a well-structured environment. An example of how my teachers used to

repetition teach me is by having me conjugate multiple –ar verbs in the present tense. My 7th

grade Spanish teacher had our class do this so that we became comfortable with the different

verb endings in the present tense. Through out my practicum, I had the opportunity to teach

various grammar lessons to my practicum students. One specific example that I recall is

teaching my students how to use the preterit tense for –er/-ir verbs. I initially made the students

learn the rules of the preterit tense through discovery learning. At the beginning of the lesson, a

pair of students needed to read a short paragraph that utilized the preterit tense. With the help of

their partner, the students were able to formulate their own grammar rules for –er/-ir verbs in the

preterit. By doing this, I was forcing my students to engage in higher-level thinking. After the

students developed their own rules, I then taught the rules explicitly to the entire class to make

sure they had formed the correct rules. Once I was finished doing this, the students then played a

dice game which called for them to practice using preterit tense. This dice game provided the

students with a lot of repetition that I felt would aid their retention of the new material. This is

one way I was able to effectively apply the theories of Ploz in my practicum class. Another

example of how my teachers used repetition in order to effectively teach my class was by having

the class write a sentence using all of the vocabulary words that we learned in the chapter. We

did this so that we learned the meaning of the vocabulary words and how to properly use them in

sentences. Another method that my teachers used to help me learn Spanish was to have

conversation partners. My junior year in high school, my Spanish teacher would start the class

by giving the students a series of questions that the conversation partners would need to discuss
while only speaking in Spanish. He did this so that all of the students became more comfortable

and fluent while speaking Spanish. The practice conversation topics that we were given at the

beginning of class were usually over subjects that were going on at our school. An example of a

conversation topic would be, “¿Tienes planes este fin de semana? ¿Asistirás el partido de

fútbol? ¿Piensas que Trumbull ganará?” Also, my teacher did this in order to prepare our class

for oral exams where we would be graded on fluency and use of vocabulary from the chapters

we covered. The idea of having conversation partners in a foreign language classroom is a great

asset. According to Swain’s Output Theory, students need to be given opportunities to produce

output. In addition to this, the opportunities fro output must be meaningful, purposeful, and

motivational. This can be applied to teaching in a certain, real life context. By forcing output

from students, they can develop automaticity in the target language. Also, by having

conversation partners, the students will also be forced to negotiate meaning with each other.

Through out the semester in my practicum class, my students participated in numerous dialogs.

These dialogs were performed in order to practice the use of newly learned vocabulary and

grammar. In addition to this, the dialogs that my students presented allowed them to practice

spoken output of the Spanish language. This is one of the major forces behind Swain’s Output

theory. One of the dialogs that my students presented this semester was a skit between a tourist

and a travel agent. The student who played the role of the tourist needed to book a vacation

while the student who played the travel agent needed to provide advice to the tourist. By having

the students complete this dialog, they were able to practice using newly learned vocabulary in

addition to having the opportunity for spoken output. By presenting numerous dialogs through

out the semester, it was amazing to see the improvement made by the students and the

confidence that they showed while speaking.

 In addition to these teaching methods, I also found it beneficial when the classroom

environment in my Spanish class was enjoyable. My freshman year, I consider myself lucky to

have been in Señor Mata’s Spanish class. While all us freshman were new to Trumbull High

School, I had known Señor Mata since I was born because he was the offensive and defensive

line coach on my dad’s coaching staff. Even though I had previously known Coach Mata before

I started high school, many of the other students in my class were also drawn to his teaching

style. Señor Mata was successful in making the classroom environment extremely fun to be a

part of. In order to practice our vocabulary, we would often play a game in which he threw a

tennis ball to the students. If a student caught the ball, he would say a word in English, and the

student would need to say the corresponding vocabulary word in Spanish. If the student did this

successfully, they would have an opportunity to throw the ball at pictures drawn on the

chalkboard in order to earn points for their team. At the end of the game, the team with the most

points would earn five extra credit points on the next quiz. This motivated all of the students to

go home and study the vocabulary that we were learning at the time. This extra effort that

students put into study Spanish resulted in higher grades on tests and quizzes. I truly feel that

Señor Mata was an effective teacher because he was successful in creating a positive and fun

classroom environment in which his students were highly motivated to learn the Spanish

language. Having a classroom environment such as Sr. Mata’s is crucial for education. By

having an enjoyable classroom environment, this lowers the affective filter amongst students.

When the affective filter in the classroom is lowered, then maximal learning can occur. During

the semester in my practicum class, I feel that I was able to establish a positive and caring

classroom environment. In order to do this, I always tried to be upbeat while teaching. By being

energetic, I was able to show my students that I was passionate about the Spanish language.
Some of the strategies that I used to reach out to my students were changing the intonations of

my voice and using different hand and facial gestures. In addition to this, I also tried to establish

a personal relationship with each of the students in the class. By the end of the semester, I feel

that I got to know each of the students in my practicum class extremely well. One way that I was

able to do this was by talking to the students about any sports or other school activities they

participated in. This is one way that a teacher can attempt to establish a relationship with their

students. By doing this, it shows students that the teacher genuinely cares about them. This is

another critical component in creating a positive classroom environment and a low affective

filter.

Even though I had some great experiences with Spanish throughout my education, I have

still not had the opportunity to study abroad. While I have not had the traditional study abroad

experience, I have still had multiple experiences where I was forced to use my knowledge of

Spanish. During the summer before my senior year in high school, my family and I went on a

cruise for a vacation. While on this cruise, there were a group of girls that were celebrating their

quinceañera. Since this group had such a limited knowledge of the English language, I was

forced to use my Spanish in order to communicate with them. At first I tried to translate from

English to Spanish what I was trying to say, however, by the end of the week I was able to

‘think’ in Spanish. This helped me to become more fluent while I was talking with some of the

girls because I was no longer trying to translate between the Spanish and English in my head.

While my experience only lasted a week, I feel that it really helped me to become more

proficient while using Spanish. I think that the reason for this is because I was submerged in the

Spanish language and using English was not an option. My weeklong experience on the cruise

forced me to use my Spanish all the time and not rely on English.
 Throughout my various experiences with learning Spanish, I have acquired certain beliefs

about learning and teaching the language. First, I truly believe that learning Spanish is a

necessity in the United States today. Spanish is the fastest growing foreign language in our

country and at some point or another, every person will encounter a situation where knowledge

of this language is necessary. Because of this, I feel that there should be a priority placed on

learning the Spanish language while in school. Learning this language will help students prepare

themselves for a situation in which the use of Spanish is necessary. In addition to this, having

the ability to speak the Spanish language is important in many different fields of employment. If

a priority is not placed on learning the language beginning in middle school or high school, then

students will have to make up a lot of ground once they reach college. Since learning the

Spanish language should be a priority for students, having the best Spanish teachers available

should also be a priority in school systems. In order for students to become effective speakers of

the Spanish language, then we must have competent Spanish teachers that are able to connect to

and educate students. I developed these beliefs on learning and teaching Spanish following my

junior year in high school. At this time, I had recently been on a cruise where I needed to speak

Spanish in order to communicate with kids my age. In addition to this, I had just finished

Spanish class with my favorite high school teacher. This teacher was a native of Mexico and

was able to connect with all of his students. I feel that he was successfully able to build personal

connections with his students because of his use of humor and his involvement in the high

school. This shows how having a low affective filter in the classroom can benefit students. By

having a low affective filter, maximal learning can occur. As stated above, I feel that I was able

to successfully build many positive relationships with the students in my practicum class this

semester. I feel that establishing these connections with my students this semester was vital to
them taking me seriously as a teacher. During his classes, my Spanish teacher would make a

point to tell our class of the importance of learning the Spanish language due to its rapid growth

in the United States.

I feel that there are many essential components that factor into being an effective teacher.

Over the course of my education, the most effective teacher that I had was my junior year

Spanish teacher. Throughout high school, Señor Sevilla was that had a positive influence on me.

I feel that he was an effective teacher for multiple reasons. One reason that he was such a

positive influence on my education, along with many other students, was due to his ability to

establish a personal connection with all his students. Like I previously stated, Señor Sevilla was

heavily involved in my high school. Since he was one of the coaches for the girls’ soccer team,

I feel that this made him able to connect with those students that were involved in sports. He

realized the time commitment that it took to be successful both in the classroom and on the

playing field. Señor Sevilla would often ask the students who were involved in athletics how

they were doing and how the team was. In addition to this, it was obvious that Señor Sevilla

genuinely cared about the well being of his students. He was the type of person who was able to

have a conversation with anyone and had the ability to brighten up a student’s day through his

strong sense of humor. I feel Señor Sevilla’s ability to establish a personal connection with his

students made him an effective teacher because I am a firm believer that teachers need to strive

to connect with their students. By establishing a connection with a student, the teacher is able to

gain the trust of that student. Once the teacher has earned the trust of their student, I feel that

student is now able more willing to learn in the classroom.

While Señor Sevilla was effective because he was able to connect with his students, I also

feel that his teaching methods also made him effective while teaching Spanish. In his classroom,
Señor Sevilla would make his students practice speaking Spanish daily at the beginning of the

period. I felt that this was extremely important because this method directly resulted in the

improvement of every student’s speech. In addition to this, we were only allowed to speak in the

target language during class. This style of teaching can be related to the beliefs of Krashen.

While teaching a foreign language, Krashen felt that students should be taught in the zone of

(i+1). This is the zone that is just above the students’ master level. He believed that if students

were taught with the idea of (i+1) in mind that a maximal amount of learning could occur. Señor

Sevilla’s Spanish class would follow Krashen’s input theory since only the target language was

used. As juniors in high school, there is no possible way that the students knew the meaning of

each and every word. This means that the lessons would be taught at a level slightly above our

comprehension. However, by teaching within a context, students were able to understand what

was being taught during the lesson. Clearly there are many different factors that contribute to

being an effective teacher.

While I have had many positive experiences in education, I have also had a few

ineffective teachers. The most ineffective teacher that I had was during my freshman year

(college) U.S. History class. Even though U.S. history used to be a favorite subject of mine, this

teacher killed my enjoyment of the class. One of the major reasons that I feel that this teacher

was ineffective is because, as a student, I felt disconnected from the classroom. The teacher was

unable to successfully establish a personal connection with me and even came across as ignorant.

Due to my teacher’s attitude, I was not actively engaged in the lectures and would often find

myself wanting to leave the class. This was due to a high affective filter in the classroom. When

there is a high affective filter in a classroom, students tend to feel more anxious and nervous.

This is extremely detrimental to the learning process. In addition to this, I also feel that the
teacher’s methods were ineffective. In order to teach his class, he would only use PowerPoint

slides. PowerPoint is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom. Usually when

technology is present in a classroom environment, students are more engaged. While teaching

this past semester, I always tried to incorporate technology into my lessons. During a lesson that

I taught comparing the similarities and differences in travel in the United States, Costa Rica, and

Chile, I was able to use an overhead projector. While the overhead projector may seem like a

primitive source of technology today, I was able to see its positive effects in my lesson. At one

point in the lesson, I placed a blank Venn diagram on the overhead projector comparing and

contrasting Costa Rica and Chile. I then called on one of the students to come up to the overhead

and share one of their responses. After the students realized that they would be able to write on

the overhead transparency, almost all of the class raised their hand in order to volunteer their

answers. This shows that technology can play a major role in the motivation of students in the

classroom. In addition to this, I also used a PowerPoint presentation in order to teach students

travel vocabulary. This presentation provided students with both a visual (picture of vocabulary

word) and the spelling of the word. Upon seeing the picture, I would then say the new

vocabulary work and have the students repeat it. By doing this, I was able to provide students

with three different methods of input for learning new vocabulary (visual, oral, aural). While

PowerPoint can be a great way to teach a class, I also feel that other technological sources could

have been used in addition to this. Possible sources include film covering the subject that he was

teaching or even bringing in guest speakers that have knowledge of the subject. Clearly, this

teacher was ineffective and hurt my ability to gain knowledge in the subject of American

History.
 Having had many positive and negative experiences in my education, I feel like I can

successfully draw from them in order to become a successful Spanish teacher at the Secondary

level. After just one semester in my foreign language methods class, I can honestly say that I

have grown as a student (and future educator). During this class, we explored various ways to

teach foreign language to students. Some of my favorite teaching methods include aspects from

Total Physical Response and the Dartmouth Intensive Language Model. One of the reasons why

I loved using TPR in my microteaching activities is because it is very engaging for students.

With TPR, students are required to perform actions associated with terms in L2. This type of

teaching method is extremely beneficial for students because they remember 90% of what they

physically do. Clearly, with TPR there would be a high retention rate of information amongst

students. In addition to TPR, I really like aspects of the Dartmouth Intensive Language Model.

In the Dartmouth method, the teacher presents real life situation to the students in the target

language. While the teacher presents real life situations to the class, he simply points randomly

to the students when a response is desired. This is the aspect of the Dartmouth Method that I

liked the most because it keeps the students engaged in the class.

Another aspect of teaching foreign language that I bought into this semester was teaching

lessons with in a context. During the semester, we were forced to create lessons where the

students would be able to ‘do something’ with the knowledge that they had acquired. Honestly, I

must say that I was not a believer in this type of thinking at the beginning of the semester.

During my career as a foreign language student, I was taught grammar through the heavy use of

conjugation charts. Although I felt that this method was effective, I now realize just how

disengaging it is for most students. Simply learning a verb conjugation is pretty boring. One

way that I decided to combat the use of conjugation charts was by using discovery learning. An
example of this would be my lesson on using –er/-ir verbs in the preterit tense by having students

make their own grammar rules. This type of activity is much more engaging than memorizing

conjugation charts since it forces students to use higher-level thinking. In addition to this, by

creating their own grammar rules, students will be able to retain the new information at a more

efficient level. By teaching a lesson within a real life context can be highly motivating for

students. When teaching with a context in mind, students will be able to do something with the

language that they had just acquired. An example of one of my lesson objectives from this

semester was, “By the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe the actions required to

perform some of their favorite activities”. This was the lesson objective for my grammar lesson

in which I taught the progressive tense in the first-person singular form. After completing my

lesson, students would now be able to describe their favorite activities. This is clearly must more

fun than just learning the process for forming the progressive tense. Another example of

teaching within a context would be the preterit lesson that I taught this semester in my practicum

class. The contextualized lesson objective that I taught this lesson was, “By the end of the

lesson, students will be able to say what they did last year”. As you can see, this objective is

very specific and informs students what they will be able to do after completing the lesson. It is

evident that I have taken a lot away from my semester in this methods class and that I now have

many different tools that I can utilize in my own classroom sometime in the very near future.