About me...
My name is Jonas Lawrence Cockson. I am a student of the College of Education at the University of South Alabama (both the main campus in Mobile and the Baldwin County campus). My declared major is in Secondary English Education. Once I have received my bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama, I plan to attend the University of Southern Mississippi ( in Hattiesburg, Miss.) to work toward a master's degree in TESOL (teaching English as a second language). My ultimate goal is to teach the English to students residing in a Third World nation -- such as Africa. I feel that the need for global education far surpasses the desire to teach within one's homeland. I also feel that by teaching in a Third World country, I will have the ability to expose and immerse myself in cultures other than my own -- thereby giving me the ability to see and convey information, ideas, and practices from a different perspective, rather than a singular one (especially to students from a different cultural background than my own). With this in mind, I feel that the profession I have chosen for myself is a perfect fit for my abilities and motivations.
My name is Jonas Lawrence Cockson. I am a student of the College of Education at the University of South Alabama (both the main campus in Mobile and the Baldwin County campus). My declared major is in Secondary English Education. Once I have received my bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama, I plan to attend the University of Southern Mississippi ( in Hattiesburg, Miss.) to work toward a master's degree in TESOL (teaching English as a second language). My ultimate goal is to teach the English to students residing in a Third World nation -- such as Africa. I feel that the need for global education far surpasses the desire to teach within one's homeland. I also feel that by teaching in a Third World country, I will have the ability to expose and immerse myself in cultures other than my own -- thereby giving me the ability to see and convey information, ideas, and practices from a different perspective, rather than a singular one (especially to students from a different cultural background than my own). With this in mind, I feel that the profession I have chosen for myself is a perfect fit for my abilities and motivations.
Different Cultures: A Teacher and a Student
Perhaps the most beneficial and unique part of teaching in another nation (one that is culturally different from one's home country) is the duality of the roles set upon the educator. More specifically, I feel that a teacher should not only exercise his or her acquired qualifications and the requisite fundamentals the job, but I believe that teachers also should be students of their surroundings (learning about their students, living conditions, economic conditions and their nation's government, among others). In this way, teachers can achieve better communication and interaction with students of cultures different from that of the educator's. After all, students are more apt to accept lessons that they can apply to their own ways of life - rather than relate to ones that have little impact on or importance to their academic, cultural or social progress. In short, teachers can apply this oftentimes overlooked/ignored principle by becoming more familiar with the cultural background of the students. In this way, the teacher becomes the student -- and is able to earn the respect and attention/focus of not only students and parents, but also the community, which is representative of acceptance by a collective culture.