Meet the Teacher: Manuel J. Malia

Hello! My name is Manuel. I am a native of Spain. I have taught all levels of Spanish for 25 years in the United States. I have a BA in English, a MA in Spanish language and literature, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics. I am here to share both my experience and knowledge with you. Hopefully, I can inspire you and be of help with your teaching as well. This is my story.

Passive Learning in Public School

Right after finishing college in Spain, I went to New York City, where I started teaching in a public high school in Lower Manhattan. Years later, I ended up in an Ivy League university. After that, I moved back to Spain. So let's start from the beginning. I began my Spanish teaching career in a public high school. At that point, I only knew how to mimic the way I had been taught English. It was a traditional, not very communicatively-oriented approach. There was a strong emphasis on grammar, followed by some drills and a bit of practice at the end. Students were mainly passive listeners until I would ask a question or tell them to do something. It did not take too long for me to realize that I was not inspiring my students in any way. It was a hard pill to swallow, and initially I was not sure what to do about it.

Luckily, with a bit of asking other colleagues, receiving feedback after being observed and going to some events, I started getting some ideas that I could implement in the classroom. I needed to be more creative with my activities. I began exploring with music and fun activities. We had no textbooks at the time, so I had freedom to create some materials. It was more time consuming, but now I realize that it was also more liberating. Textbooks are boring if you use them too much.

One More Chance at Teaching

Two years later, I left that high school and said that I would quit teaching. My inexperience, my lack of training, and the sense that I had failed to be an effective teacher led me to that decision. Once summer was over, I found a position in a very small private school in Long Island. I decided to take on a new challenge. I would give my budding teaching experience another chance. This time I was only teaching middle school. I quickly learned that middle schoolers need shorter activities than high schoolers. Also, this tiny school was in a very wealthy area, whereas my former public school was in a low-income area. While I was learning how to teach, I was also learning about the different demographics of the US. After one year, I had enough of getting up at 5 in the morning to catch two trains to make it to that little school. One very nice teacher asked me why didn't I leave Brooklyn and move near the school. I quickly realized that I was not giving up a life that I loved in Brooklyn to move out to the suburbs.

Teaching is Getting Better

Once I had private school on my resume, another one called. This one was a wealthy and very liberal one in Brooklyn. Here, I was teaching high school mostly, and a bit of middle school. I already knew that I could not plan the same for all grades. I finally was observed and given a bit of feedback. I kept trying new activities, games, ways to structure my class, etc.,but I still felt that I did not have much control over the classroom atmosphere. I actually did, I just did not know it.

Something was missing, I kept thinking, even after several years of teaching under my belt. Gradually, I realized that I was not comfortable and fully secure in front of my students, and probably, that was having an effect on them. I worried about keeping control of the classroom, therefore I was not being myself. I think I was trying to be all the former traditional teachers I had in the past, so I decided to let them go, and slowly be myself. I had been longing for a teaching environment where I could have fun with my students while learning and getting the work done. I realized that I wanted to use humor because I like being funny and making people laugh, but at the same time, I had to be careful because teaching is no joke, haha, pun intended.

I Still Need to Learn

Ok, so as I found myself more and more comfortable, now in another private school, being funny (not a clown) and respecting my students without losing the goal of the lesson, it became more and more clear that students enjoyed coming to class. I started hearing that they felt comfortable, and that coming to my class was something to look forward to. As opposed to: ugh, our next class is with Mr. or Ms. so and so. I never thought I was the best teacher, but I started appreciating the fact that my students enjoyed being in my class.

After a few years of teaching in private schools, between the teaching load and the extra curricular activities they squeezed out of me, I was done teaching high school. But I still wanted to teach more and get better. So, I started my PhD studies teaching graduate students and taking graduate courses. Here, I began to realize, to a big extent from my own experience as a graduate student, that if you like your professor (or teacher), you have less stress during your learning process. I really enjoyed most of my graduate classes because I was lucky to have very competent professors who were really nice people at the same time. I really wanted to be that kind of language instructor. For me, that meant that I had to work both on myself and on my lesson planning skills. As the years went on, I found myself more and more comfortable being my funny self in the classroom. I clearly saw how I could set the tone right away, and the positive impact of me setting the tone from day one.

All I Have Learned has Come Together

During this journey, I kept on learning new tricks, I kept reading articles and theories, and taking classes. By now, I was teaching in an Ivy League university. I really believe that when it all came together, me and my students were having a good old time together in class. I kept them involved, relaxed and laughing. They kept me involved, relaxed and laughing as well. So, what does all this mean? For me, it means that it takes time to discover who you are as a teacher, so you need to be patient. But once you get there, you will know because your students are engaged and motivated. They are eager to participate without fear of making mistakes. I would also say, enjoy your teaching journey. You will be more and more creative designing activities for your students, and the energy in the classroom will be positive and dynamic. This way you will feel comfortable, and you will feel you own what and how you teach. That is a great place to be for both you and your students. You will also see that in that comfortable and nurturing environment it is not only you who gets to blossom, it is also the students. For me, witnessing the growth of my students taking risks in the classroom, doing well in my class, and planning on taking higher level Spanish classes is actually the best part and the real success, because it goes beyond learning a language. In many cases it goes beyond their own country, because they end up studying abroad.