My autobiography

My teaching identity: an unexpected but knowledgeable journey.

Mauro Gustavo Suarez

I have to confess that to be a teacher was never an option for me as kid or a teenager. Back in the days as a regular kid my former professional dream was to be a soccer player because that was the activity I did and like the most with my friends from my neighbor. At that time education was not a central part of my life but playing sports and video games. Besides, at that time teachers, from my kid point of view, were boring and too strict.

When I entered my secondary studies, as a teenager many ideological, personal and leisure things changed. As far as I remembered, internet and technology in general were evolving really fast and their impact on every society was huge. This overwhelming process pushed me to learn some English in order to have some control on computers, video games and technology in general. From that time I understood that English was going to be an important issue in my personal and professional life. I remembered that the English teachers in high school were used to work with the audio-lingual method and a lot of translation or grammar exercises were done in those lessons. Anyway, I liked English because then I could read or listen to some music in English with some degree of understanding and that really pleased me. However, my perception on teachers’ profession was still the same. From that time, when I was closed to finish high school I have a very vivid moment where I said to myself that I would never be a teacher because throughout my complete high school education I witnessed how difficult to be a teacher was.

Then, after getting my high school degree I was deciding what to do next in my educational life. I wanted to study system engineering but I could not do it at once because of money, so I needed to wait a complete year. Because of that I decided to study foreign languages at Surcolombiana University. But once again I did it just for the language not for being a teacher because I was waiting to apply for another program I really wanted.

However, through the different courses I took in this undergraduate program at Surcolombiana University, a new perception of what being a teacher came to me. From that point I could understand that being a teacher was more than teach a specific subject. This profession opened my eyes to complete new panorama of our society and gives me tools for understanding social issues which affects who we are and how education could help us for solving this problem. After understanding that to be a teacher was something valuable the only thing left was to face a group of students and survive. Those lessons were really difficult to me but I discovered that practice makes perfect. In this way I could gain some confidence for being a teacher.

After getting my degree as an English teacher in 2009 I worked in private school where I learned a lot because I had to prove my ability as an English teacher all the time but I realized that this school could not fill my professional aspirations. That is why I decided to change the school I worked and I went to a public school which gave a lot of good experiences as a teacher and as a human being because in this context, from my personal point of view, you do not only have to care about teaching English but dive into some social problems which affect these students and prove you as a professional.   

Finally, after getting back these short memories of my academic life, I think that to be a real teacher requires more knowledge, abilities and motivation than any other profession. However, these situations teach you more than any particular lesson. That is why after reflecting on this process now I recognize that being a teacher represents a lot of difficulties but at the same time gives the opportunity to grow as a human being through the reflection you are forced to do every single day from place of work.