Reflection On wl561 Biography

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Reflection on WL 561 biography
Reading my biography was interesting because we don’t always get to reflect on what got
us to where we are today. Reading it I realize that there are several things in my background that
have greatly influenced myself as a teacher. One of those being my first bilingual job. This is
what I realized there was a gap between the French we learn in school and the French we use in
the real world. This is something I have always told my students and I have tried to give them
vocabulary and practice that accurately represents language in the real world as opposed to the
textbook. I spent many years learning French in school, I took the occasional trip and had to use
certain vocabulary words in hotels or transportation but one thing my background has taught me
was that school does not and cannot adequately prepare you to use French.
As a teacher, I often tell my students that what they do in the classroom gives them the
tools, but they need to go out there and make and effort to really learn the language if they want
to become fluent. I encourage my students to watch French films, listen to podcasts, join French
groups in their video games to speak with real French people because these are excellent
opportunities outside of studying or living abroad. I noted in my biography that I like to add
personal anecdotes and I still do. The other day I found a presentation I wrote for my 5th grade
French class about my pet bird. It was riddled with spelling and grammar errors but overall it
could be understood. I brought it in to show my students because I like to let them know that I
was not always able to speak fluent French. I started at the beginning just like them and therefore
I believe that they are all capable of learning French.
One thing I noticed I wrote in my biography was that it is important to take time for
yourself to avoid burning out. I realize I wrote this and I’m sure it sounded good in theory, but
this is something I have not been great about doing. There are days when I wish I had a regular
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9-5 job where I didn’t feel like I was constantly working. I wrote this two and half years ago and
I feel like since then, I have definitely gotten more burned out. I have had more responsibilities
added to my plate and the days that I contemplate leaving the profession become more often.
Oddly enough, I never think about leaving teaching while I am in the classroom. No matter how
crazy the students are, how much I have to chase them to finish work or put effort into their word
or how many grey hairs they give me, I love teaching. It’s all the other stuff that makes teaching
exhausting and I’m not sure I fully realized that when I wrote this biography. I knew that I had a
lot on my plate but I don’t think I knew what was making my life so unbalanced.
In conclusion, the assignment of writing a biography that covers our language learning
journey was very useful. It is easy to forget the road that got us to where we are today and the
obstacles, we had to overcome to get there. I was a first-generation university student, I worked
pretty much constantly from the time I was 15 years old while going to school, sometimes
multiple jobs. Grammar did not come easily to me, and I had to work, and still have to, to
remember complex grammatical concepts. I have come a long way from where I started and over
the years of teaching, I have become more secure in my grammatical knowledge as well as
knowledge of the francophone world because even when I am not in school, I am constantly
learning. Being a teacher has given me the opportunity to be a lifelong learner both by keeping
up with an ever changing and evolving language and by constantly staying updated with the best
language learning standards and pedagogy. This is an assignment I will keep and cherish and
those days when I think that teaching might just be too much stress and work, I can read it and
remember how much work I have put in to get to this point. It can also serve as a reminder that
sometimes you need to focus on balancing work and life and say no to hosting an extracurricular
or chaperoning a dance if it will cause undue stress.

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Reflection on WL 561 biography

I believe that they are all capable of learning French.

or chaperoning a dance if it will cause undue stress.

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