While reading chapter five of Crookes, one thing really resonated with me and reminded

me of some of the situations I encountered back when I used to teach. The aspects of being

ethical and moral when it comes to not just your own students, but everyone involved. I used to

teach first- and second-year university students. Students were assigned to each college right

after the first year depending on their GPA. With that in mind, teachers who taught those students

needed to be very careful when it comes to grading since every point counted considering the

competitiveness of the institution (literally). I remember many students used to ask for extra

points or extra credit, but I always rejected those requests. It is, in my opinion, unethical and

immoral to give extra points simply for being my students. Simply because that will not only

affect their placement, but the placement of everyone else in that year. Being morally correct and

very ethical when it comes to grading can be very stressful in such situations. Educators always

want to help their students, but we cannot do that in a way that might harm them, or other people

in the process.

As for Gebhard & Oprandy, I really liked it when the authors stated that the closer our

personality is in the classroom to who we are outside of the classroom, the more genuine the

whole process becomes. I totally agree and follow that personally. As my peers have seen

throughout the past couple of years of presentations and teaching demos, I always include many

aspects of my personality. A bit of goofiness and comedy can never harm a classroom. In my

opinion, it only makes the class more enjoyable and welcoming. As we learned, the more

motivated/interested the students are, the more learning they eventually achieve, and I totally

agree with that.

 While reading the required chapters from the Molina book, one thing really caught my

attention. The idea of English as a global language. Considering this a very common information

that almost everyone has about English (and not only in our field), but it can also be a double-

edged sword in some scenarios. In our context as educators, the fact that English is a global

language can be a great motivation trigger to our students. We can emphasize on the fact that

once they master English, they could arguably use it almost everywhere around the world.

However, some of the concerns shared is that since it is a global language, and a good

number of countries now consider it one of the official languages instead of a foreign one,

changes to English can happen rapidly and differently depending on where we look. While I do

not agree that there should be only one way to speak or use a language, I cannot deny that this

rapid change might affect everyone involved since cultural aspects will be included when using

the language in different places. With that in mind, we cannot say that the change is negative,

since the evolution of English might also be a very positive one.

As for Crookes, the book mentioned the teacher portfolio and its uses. I could not let that

slide since we are supposed to create our own by the end of the semester. The author mentioned

why and how the portfolio can be helpful to teachers. We can use it when we apply for jobs since

we can actually show our potential employer what we can offer and do instead of simply stating

it. I believe it is one of the more creative ways of showing what we did and will be able to do for

the institution we are applying for and would definitely give us the upper hand (in my opinion)

since not many are using it, so it can show that we can be a bit more creative than the other job

“hunters”.