My name is Francisco Garriga, though I usually go by my middle name; Miguel. I’m 28 years old and a native of Saint Louis, MO. I have been teaching English as a Second Language for the last two years and plan to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. While a master’s degree is not often required for my line of work, after returning home from my first contract in China I knew that I wanted to continue teaching, but that I also had to continue my education. I decided to take classes at first on a personal development level, though I hope to get accepted to the online MaEd program offered by MSU.
I come from a large family. I have three older sisters each of whom have two children and one has a third (I just found out yesterday) on the way! I like spending most of my free time with friends, whether that’s playing hockey or disc golf, going to Cardinals games, or just hanging out playing board games. If I’m not with friends then I’m with family, playing with my nieces and nephew or helping cook for our weekly family dinner. I also occasionally do open mic nights at local comedy clubs and bars as a part time hobby. My biggest hobby, though, is traveling, and this is also how I first fell in love with teaching.
Initially it started as a way to pay for traveling around China but I quickly fell in love with the children I was teaching at the time. I found myself spending less time planning my next weekend destination and more time planning my next lessons. I decided I wanted to make a career of this, but while a master’s degree is often not required in overseas positions I knew for my students’ sake I should continue my own personal development and get a master’s degree. Currently I have a Bachelor in English from University of Missouri Saint Louis as well as a TEFL/TESL certification.
Teaching in China was certainly a unique experience. I taught classes to all ages and skill levels, though I mostly taught K-12 ages with only a handful of adult classes or 1-1 tutoring. I also did not teach in a public school, but in a for profit language school. I would see my classes once a week for two hours, which unfortunately did not leave a lot of time to focus on reading and writing skills. Mostly the parents just wanted their children to have extra speaking practice and to have someone check over what the schools were teaching, as their textbooks were often rife with mistakes. The public schools focused very much on rote memorization and repetition, and as such most of my students were able to read at appropriate grade levels. Comprehension, however, remained a difficulty, so a student could get by just fine in public school as long as they could pronounce the words, but when it came to taking Western assessments like the TOEFL/IELTS or the SAT/ACT many students struggled. I quickly found that I did not have the necessary skills to really help my students progress. As a result, I feel that reading and writing instruction are my weakest areas and where I chose to direct my focus, as I am currently also taking TE 848.
I hope to become a more proficient teacher in this course as I have already become very familiar with speaking and listening instruction. I also hope to pull from the multitude of experienced teachers that I’ve seen in this class so far in the bios. I found that other teachers are often a better resource than textbooks when it comes to facing specific problems in the classroom, and I hope that through reading through everyone’s stories and experiences I can learn how to handle many situations. I hope to be able to bring a different and unique perspective myself to the discussion. Finally, I hope to be in Costa Rica teaching again before the end of this course!
