The five years I have spent as an instructor of Spanish and Literature at the University of Miami has provided me with the great opportunity of testing out different teaching strategies and become a very effective instructor. My experience thus far has taught me that teaching is also defined by learning. Every time I step into a class, I am continuously gaging what is working and what is not working in the classroom. I gage how students are responding to certain course materials, such as a Spanish short story, and how well they are able to make meaningful engagements with this material through the activities I have designed for the class. As such, I consider my teaching style and approach as continuously evolving, finding novel ways to more effectively facilitate students' capacity to reach the core objectives set forth by the course as well as their own personal objectives.
Out of this teaching model, I have developed my current teaching philosophy, which begins with the question: What is at stake for students seeking to immerse themselves in the worlds of Spanish-speaking cultures? The answer is "a lot." I understand that propelling students' choice of learning Spanish is the desire to cross over into cultural realities different than their own, learn about these other cultures, and be able to competently communicate with the language used by these cultures. That desire to me is very inspiring. I consider my primary job as an instructor to be the sturdy bridge that helps students connect to the Spanish-speaking societies they are seeking to know, and help them get to know them intimately through works that reflect the complexity of those cultures.
My pedagogic approach to teaching private individuals is the same. I gage, assess, and draw out a tailored plan that includes a certain skill-set that needs to be mastered by each individual student for his or her personal goals to be met. When it comes to teaching Spanish, my goals are to further individuals' written and verbal fluency in Spanish. When it comes to teaching literature, I focus on helping my students develop acute critical thinking through the material we cover. This form of teaching is very demanding but also very rewarding. It gives me great pleasure to know that my students recognize that this approach lends great results, and to see their enthusiasm about putting in the work to get those benefits.