How do people learn? People learn from watching, doing, and listening. They learn from examples, and repetition. Understanding is necessary on the part of the teacher of the students’ needs as well. People learn from doing the whole and the part. The teacher is the guide to learning, and the student’s role is to follow, and to help with their peers. The teacher and the student make the classroom what it is. It is a partnership: the instructor has what the student needs though, so it not necessarily an equal partnership.

As the instructor, it is my role in the classroom to facilitate the learning of the students. It is my job to get the students doing language: speaking, writing, and listening. I need to them understand how they can improve. I can build the framework for the students, but it is the students’ job to finish up the construction of their language. I guide the students through the doing, and through the practicing in the classroom. I discover the mistakes, and correct them. I must create the environment the students can do the English language in comfort and security. As the guide, I connect the students from where they are to where they want to get to.

The goals I have for my students are them to attain their goals. All I can do is be the facilitator of their learning. I connect them from the listening to the speaking , from the reading to the writing. It is about the whole and the part of language. I want to help my students in strengthening their weaknesses, and reinforcing their strengths. I want them to work efficiently.

I teach they way I do because of my background. All that I do, I do in a good and kind way, because goodness and kindness are something rare these days. I teach in a holistic manner, because of my background. The whole is comprised of the part, and all the parts create a whole. Events in this world move in cycles, from strength to weakness, and from weakness to strength. The parts of the whole are respect, relevance, reciprocation, and responsibility. From the beginning, it is respect that is needed in the classroom. From the students to the teacher, and from the teacher to the students. I must teach ESL students English. The work I put into the classroom should be returned by the students. However, reciprocity does not work without respect. The responsibility of the teacher, and the responsibility of the students are both focused on the work in the class, and out of it. Everything is interconnected, sometimes in unseen and unfathomable ways.

Implementing these ideas in the class will take short lectures, clear examples, and practice. The students’ comprehension is my duty. I build on this pattern. I change it up through a variety of activities. I monitor progress. I keep ahead of the students. I guide the students to their goals through this. I will know if all this is working by continually monitoring the students. The students too should come to know their own progress, and should be able to respond accurately how they are doing. It is about mutuality. In the class, the teacher and the students decide on the goals early. The students’ level is determined early. Goals are worked toward one step at a time. If setback occur, then the lessons must be re-framed.

As a teacher, I also need to keep growing. I do it through being good and kind; through respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility; and through the mutuality I have with my students: they growth is my growth, and my growth will be theirs.