1.    Write personal statement trying to express what is at the heart of your life as a future teacher.

What is at the heart of my life as a teacher? That´s a question that make me think about my desires, goals, motives and feelings. Sometimes it is not always easy to identify what is at our heart, the person that we are inside, our identity i.e. who we are, so if we want to be a teacher we should do it regularly.

When I began to study this career, to be honest I didn´t really know why I wanted to become a teacher, because at that time, I was inexpert and younger than I am now, but everything changed when I began to know more about teaching, and also when I began to do my teaching practicums at school. I realized that I like to teach, because when I teach, I feel good. Although sometimes is challenging to face different situations within the classroom, but I think that if you like to do something and you strive to achieve it, we can be successful. I personally want to become a teacher, because I think that to be a teacher is not a well pay job, but you feel satisfaction when your students tell you that they learnt something new, something that maybe can be useful in their lives. Also I can share what I know with others, though at the same time it is a great responsibility, because you can´t teach things are not true or inaccurate. That´s why I think teaching is a serious commitment that should not take for granted. I want my legacy as a teacher be a good one, because I do not want to be remember as the mediocre teacher or the boring one. Instead I think that I have to do things well since the beginning and keep myself on track not lose motivation because I want always remember my heart as the author says. To do that we can be always innovating, and also think about the legacy that left in us our former teachers if it was good one, we should take advantage of that and imitate those good things. Also the book mentions about mentors, we should take always their advice into account and improve what we are not doing well in that way we can remember our heart. Moreover, we have to meditate always on who we are and keep our identity and integrity.

 2. What does it mean to rely on your selfhood rather than methods?

To rely on our selfhood is to trust in who we are that is our identity. To trust or rely on what we are able to do that is our integrity. To know our identity  means to know all the forces that constitutes our life those things that make us who we are. Once we know who we are, we can form our integrity. Integrity is the kind of person we are, what we feel fit with us and what doesn´t fit.

When we rely on our selfhood rather than methods that means that we don´t depend on something that is written in a book or what a method says to face or solve everyday problems. When we know and trust our selfhood we connect ourselves with the subject and at the same time, we connect our students as the author says.

I think when that teachers become monotonous and use only a specific method all the time, they are like machines or robots that are program to do things automatically without taking into account students feeling and needs. When problems arise when dealings with students they don´t know what to do, because they have not developed their selfhood. They don´t think beyond the matter, because they rely more on method.

The situation is different when we rely on our selfhood rather than methods, because we help our students to connect with the subject by thinking in their needs.  We make classes interesting for our students, because we combine the technical aspects with what is at our heart i.e. we feel a genuine interest in them. I believe than if we rely on our selfhood teaching will be better and our students will be connected with us.

3.  Reflect on your earliest encounters with teaching.

I expressed previously that I like teaching, I first feel drew to it, when I began to do my teaching practicums I felt that I liked teaching I felt that I  was good at teaching not perfect, but I felt satisfaction to share with others what I know.

The specific thing that drew me to teaching was to think about each student as individual. To think in their future that maybe something that I teach can be useful for them. I think that inspire me

Something that I really like on my career is that we learn a variety of methods that empower our teaching. Also we are prepared in different aspects of professional development those things make us like teaching day by day.

I don´t have a favorite teacher, because I think about all the good teachers I had have and I think in their good qualities, so that I might put those qualities into practice in my own teaching. That´s why I am not focus in one specific teacher.

4. Jane Tompkins discovered that her goal as a teacher had been to put on ´´performance´´ thus distancing herself from students and subjects.do you identify with her self-criticism? If so, do you share Tompkins´s diagnosis of fear as the driving force behind this distancing? In what ways other than performance do teachers set themselves apart?

Well, put  ourselves on performance, it  is like be a fake and mediocre actor who is worry more about his outward appearance rather than learn his scripts and do his best to make a good performance. Sometimes teachers are like that kind of actor, they are more worry about what their students think about them if they are smart or if they are knowledgeable or not. That kind of teachers only make a performance in the classroom, but they don´t feel anything at all.

I agree with Tompkins when she says that teachers put on performance because of fear. That´s true because that kind of teachers don´t rely on their selfhood or identity, so they don´t enjoy teaching, because for them teaching is not part of their life i.e. is not the heart of their life. So as a result they set apart and distant themselves from their students, because they lack the courage to teach.