Teaching Philosophy

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

THERESA R. BAGINSKI

I believe that learning a language is like looking through a window and seeing the world. Those who speak a language other than their native tongue have access to a world that millions of others will never be able to fully appreciate. That world is filled with rich differences and similarities that once understood add to our capacity to connect and communicate with the greater humanity. Language gives us the ability to become part of a community that transcends our native culture and leads to personal transformation and lifelong fulfillment.

This is why I began teaching Spanish 24 years ago and why I continue to teach it today.

    Teaching is not a job for me, it is a calling. I approach each course with a desire to make it interesting and enriching for my students. To accomplish this I commit to personal professional growth, global awareness, and a deliberate openness to change. This approach has prepared me for the philosophical and pedagogical shifts that we have experienced over the past two decades in the realm of language education. It has also inspired me to continue researching and experimenting with new approaches, activities, connections, and technologies in the classroom.  

    My objective is to inspire and motivate students in such a way that they are curious and want to have the skills to talk to and understand people from the Spanish-speaking world.  To accomplish this goal I strive to create a classroom that allows for risk-taking, exudes patience, applauds the slightest evidence of progress, insists on not quitting, encourages support, and welcomes student feedback. I have come to accept that not all or even most students will go on to major in Spanish, but while they are in my classroom I want them to feel my energy and passion and leave having grown in their abilities with the language and understanding of the people who speak it.

    My teaching today is very different than that of ten years ago. I have adopted a belief that my primary objective is for students to communicate in Spanish. I don’t obsess over the correctness of each sentence they write or the phrases that they speak. Rather I look and listen for the message and celebrate when they convey meaningful and comprehensible thoughts and ideas. My students know that our primary focus is for them to be able to open the door to a relationship with a Spanish-speaker. They understand that this requires cultural understanding and language skills and our energy is centered on accomplishing this goal.

   This philosophical belief has propelled me along a journey of innovation. I am now employing technologies as part of the teaching learning process that I once rejected. I am integrating tools that afford students the opportunity to experiment, explore, and practice in a way that is authentic. I am sending students out into the community to experience and learn independently and I am connecting us to classrooms in other countries in support of cross-cultural understanding. I will continue to monitor their experiences and adjust as needed, but my desire will remain constant ‘to

help students develop the confidence, knowledge, and skills to be open to a world that is unfamiliar to them’.