My mother used to say, “Little things make a big difference and to share our blessings with others it is a good start”. Certainly, being an illiterate never stopped her to volunteer in hospitals, church or towns in the middle of nowhere to give hope to those with less fortune than her. In the beginning, she used to drag me everywhere against my will, but years later, she let me make my own choices hoping than one day I would understand what she said. That day came with my first teaching experience.

While an undergraduate student at University of Zulia, I worked as a part-time chemistry teacher in a private high school located in a low-income neighborhood in Maracaibo (Venezuela). I taught the third year course with forty-two students and the fifth year course with thirty. In both classes I had students …show more content…
To establish classroom norms helped build a socially and emotionally safe space for all students and it naturally led us to respect our differences. Regarding the role I played as a teacher, I tried to adapt my teaching strategies to their background. At the end of the school year I received a positive feedback from them. I suppose they appreciated the time I spent explaining a problem until was clear when no one used to do that for them; the free twenty minutes time between the two hours of class to address any academic or social issues that concerned them; the way I emphasized communication as a tool to pursue an objective; the opportunities that I gave them to redeem their conduct when they made bad choices; the open book test that helped them to understand how to use the information they gathered from the books or the way I encouraged them to dream big and behave better with the other teachers to improve their relationship with them. On balance, it was a rewarding experience; indeed, I was a teacher for those students but I learned from them