Reflecting on Kuma's "Maximizing Learning Opportunities"

          B. Kumaravadivelu has a lot of good insight on how to best create conditions in which students can learn the most.  Learning is primarily controlled by the individual learner however it is the teacher's responsibility to provide as many opportunities for learning as possible. Those opportunities must vary in all aspects due to the fact that every student is unique and has different learning styles, abilities, interests, etc that affect his/her learning.  Therefore, both teachers and students play a huge role in classroom education.
          Kuma also talked about how, as teachers, we cannot be held back  by our personal agendas, teaching materials, or syllabus specifications. I am glad he spoke of these limitations because I have seen teachers struggle with these factors and I worry that I might as well in the near future. I tend to get really nervous speaking in front of people, especially when I am instructing the group or informing them of something. I think my main fear is that I will be asked a question that I will not know the answer to. I do not want to tell someone the wrong information and I do not want to appear incompetent. Knowing this about myself, I can see it being difficult for me to stray away from a detailed lesson plan I created when perhaps I need to do so in order to better get a point across or when my students take me on an unexpected detour. I need to take Kuma's advice now and ingrain it in my head that teachers "cannot become prisoners of their own agenda."
          Another point that Kuma touched on was how textbooks should act as source-books rather than just course-books. As I am preparing for student teaching in the spring and then for teaching as a career, I am overwhelmed with the idea of not only lesson planning but creating an entire course. How am I suppose to know what a Spanish level II class needs to learn during the course of an entire year? I have asked teachers this question before and most reply by telling me to find a good textbook to base my course on. I guess this is a good base for starting off, but I now realize how important it will be for me to find other sources, activities, information, etc to best interact with my students and maximize their learning opportunities.