Autobiography

Hans Humberto Oviedo Gómez

Reflective Teaching Course

M. A. Edgar Alirio Insuasty

Neiva, September 30^th, 2015

My Professional Autobiography

I would like to start my writing by saying my mother and my nearest aunty are teachers. These two important people in my life have marked and shaped the conception I had about teaching and about being one of them. Since my very beginning years I was learning from excellent teachers who taught me not only knowledge, but also experiences and values. When I was around 4 years old I started my First Grade and one of the things my mother was proud about was that I was really good at reading and writing. Then when I was in Third Grade I was the best in my course and I was promoted from 3^rd to 4^th grade. The curious thing in this fast advance, was the fact that I did an English Exam to be promoted, I did it and I approved it! :) this was one of my first direct contacts with English.

Throughout the past of the years my mother and I realized the importance of taking some extra classes. But, what kind of extra activities should I have to do? Well, I learnt many things from different fields. I was attending piano, guitar and trumpet classes in terms of music. I used to do some familiar presentations and public ones in the schools where I studied. I was the musician in the family every Christmas. Regarding sports, I was also attending soccer classes and I had the opportunity to travel around the country with my team many times. I also learnt how to play chess, I was really good at this strategic game, fortunately I got a gold medal in Florencia and a bronze one in the departmental games. Meanwhile, I was also attending to different courses to improve my English. Something that marked my childhood was that my aunty Zonia was an English teacher, in vacations she used to teach all our family some basic knowledge about this interesting language. During these years in which I was a student I realized the importance of teachers, but good teachers, to determine successful learners.

Then I was moved to a private school where I finished my Elementary studies. I graduated from 11^th grade at Colegio Domingo Savio, this school was specialized in English. I remember, during the afternoons I used to go to the school with the people who had weaknesses to improved, but in my case I went to learn about more topics because I thought in the mornings English classes were not enough.

When I was 14 years old I graduated from high-school. I wanted to study in Bogota, but as I was too young my mother thought it was better for me to stay here. I studied “Licenciatura en Inglés” and “Administración de Empresas”. In 2011 I graduated from both careers and I continued with a specialization named “Especialización en Gerencia Estratégica de Mercadeo” (2012).

At the beginning I did not want to be a teacher but opportunities were coming one by one and I started to love this profession. As fast as I finished my careers I entered to work to the university, Universidad de la Amazonia, in the Idioms Center. I had the opportunity to teach Basic English Courses to university students about to graduate and who needed to have an English course certification. I started thinking about this profession seriously, I liked the way I taught and I liked the comments my students made upon my way of teaching. In this sense I started to be in the track of English Teaching rather than Business Management. Then, I started to work at some schools and finally as an English teacher for the Language Teaching Program at this university.

These experiences, since my childhood, have given me the support to say I love this profession and I want to continue working in this field. Teaching is the best way to build human beings, and that is my principal desire and proposal in my life. I want to contribute in at least a small portion of a better future for this and the coming childhoods.