Task Accomplished... November 09th, 2011.!!!

Heyyyy everyone today I am so excited because I just taught the last class of my teaching practicum.  It feels so nice to know that I finally accomplished the challenge I considered so difficult at the beginning.  I always tried to give my best, and I am proud to look back and say that the result was better than I expected (I mean for a person who does not want to be a teacher hahaha Just kidding… You know what I´m talking about).

To start I want to say that I videotaped this class, so I felt kind of nervous at the beginning but later on I just got relax. I started the class the class by greeting the students and explaining to them the contents for the class: “Going to” and “Stative and Dynamic verbs”. When I told the students that it was my last class with them, they told me that they did not want me to leave because they had liked my previous classes. Their words made me feel so pleasant because I knew they were sincere.

For the warm-up activity I pasted some pictures on the board and I divided the students into three teams. Then, I explained to them that I was going to describe a situation; after I finished describing, they had to associate one picture with that situation and run to the board to pick up the picture and say a sentence. For example one situation said: Mark is going to London, but he doesn´t have money to buy gas. The picture related with that contained a bus on it, so the student who picked up the picture said: Mark is going to take the bus. This activity was nice because students had a great time as they practiced the target structure.

Later on, I asked the students to complete a similar exercise that was on their handouts, but this time they will do it in the written way instead of orally. I helped the students with their doubts by the time I was monitoring them, and at the end we checked the answers together.

After that activity, I pasted some charts on the board to explain the use of Stative and Dynamic Verbs. Luckily, the students got the idea easily, and just to emphasize the topic I asked them to provide orally some examples for the two cases.

To finish the class, I asked the students to form three teams because we were going to play Hangman; they were so excited when I mentioned the name of the game. For the game I used some verbs instead simple words. I started the game asking the first group one letter, and then the second group continued and so on, until one group guessed the verb. The students liked so much the game that they didn´t want to stop, but my time was already finished. They asked me to teach them the two hours but my tutor teacher did not allow me to do it…

At the end, I felt so satisfied because I could notice that I had developed a great relationship with the students, and in my opinion it was the best thing of everything.  

Almost the last one... Octuber 27th, 2011.

Today I taught the second class of the last period, and I’m so exited because I’m about to finish; just one class left.

I started this class with a warm-up activity called “Crazy chain story”. It consisted on making the students stand up and form a circle. I started the activity by inventing the beginning for the story, and then I asked one student to continue. She had to continue inventing part of the story, but the challenging matter was that she had to include into his narration a verb I had provided; for example: I provided the verb “open” and the student had to create at least one sentence using that verb in the past form; a sentence like: “And suddenly I opened the door.” And the activity continued until all the students had participated. 

This activity in particular was so useful because the target structure of the class was the correct use of the present perfect and the simple past. I really liked the activity because students were inventing some crazy and funny stories at the time they were having a good time and practicing the target structure.

Later on, I verbally explained the main use of the present perfect and simple past. During that I was providing a piece of paper containing a reading with some blanks in which the students had to use verbs either in present perfect or simple past. I asked the students to read the paragraph once and look for new vocabulary. When the students finished reading, I asked them to fill in the blanks, and fortunately they did it very well. The last step for this activity was to make the students read aloud in order to check their answers and pronunciation.

Some minutes later, I asked the students to work into two groups because I was going to play a song. I provided to the two teams some words that were part of the song´s lyrics, and I asked them to pick the words up as soon as they listened to them while the song was playing. After this, I asked the students to underline the sentences in which the singer used simple past and present perfect. The song I used was “Have you ever seen the rain?” and students really liked it because at the end they wanted to sing it.

For the last activity, I just provide some extra practice in which they had to form sentences using the two target structures; for that purpose I wrote some verbs on the board. I could not finish this activity because was over by that time, so I stopped teaching and my tutor teacher finished it… At the end I was satisfied because I got a good grade. 

Teaching with terrible weather conditions… October 12th, 2011

Today I taught the first class of the last period, and it was kind of interesting. When I woke up in the morning I did not want to go to the university because it was raining a lot, and I thought that the classes had been suspended, but they were not… So sad for me  L but anyway I got up, took a shower and got ready for the class.

I arrived at 07:05 in the classroom; some students were already there, but my tutor teacher was not. She arrived some minutes later, and I took advantage of that time to set up all the things I needed for the class.

I started the class by introducing myself to the students; fortunately almost all of them knew me already. I started the class with 15 students even though they were 23 in total.  

For the first activity (Warm-up activity) I asked the students to stand up and form a circle because we’re about to play a game named: “How good is your memory?” I started the activity by saying my name and something I could do, and then I threw a little ball to one student. That student had to repeat my name and my ability and then continue with her own. The other students had to remember the names and abilities of the previous students and repeat all of them by the time they got the ball. When one student did not remember one name or ability he/she had to sit down and the game started over again. I liked this activity because I could learn the students´ names as they were practicing the target structure which in this case was the different uses of can and some other English modals.

The second thing I did was to paste on the wall some charts containing the uses of can. I explained the grammar part of this modal, I provided some examples and finally I asked the students to work on an exercise that was on their handouts.

Later on, I continued explaining the use of “Have to and Don´t have to”. When I finished explaining and providing some examples, I ask the students to form two teams.  I provided some sentence strips for each group for them to form five sentences per group. Students did it very well as they got the idea easily.

The last modal I was supposed to teach was: “Should”. Once again I used some charts to explain the use and meaning of it. When I finished explaining, I gave to each student a piece of paper containing an exercise for the correct use of should. The last thing I did was to check students´ answers with the whole class.

When I finished, I stayed in the classroom to receive my feedback. At the end I received a nice feedback and a good grade, Thanks God…

Finally, second period is accomplished… September 21st, 2011.

Hello people! Let me tell you that this week was terrible for me because I had to perform too many things in the same week, but I am so happy because at the end I did everything successfully.

My last class was kind of difficult because teachers did not have the lesson plan for unit five, so my tutor teacher lend me his book for me to plan the class. He told me to start teaching unit five from the textbook, and at the beginning I had some problems because I did not know where to start since unit 5 had many topics. Finally, I decided to start talking about sports and some vocabulary related to it; later on I focused my class in explaining the grammar part for the correct use of “How + Adjective/Adverb”.

For the warm-up activity I provided some questions in a sheet of paper, and I asked the students to form a circle with the desks. What they had to do was to through up the ball and ask a question to one classmate. The questions were formulated with the grammar structure and the vocabulary was focused in sports and exercising; for example: How often do you exercise? . The activity went excellent since the students could talk and participate by asking and answering questions.

After that activity, I asked the students to work on a test in their textbooks. The test was for them to check how healthy they were according to their lifestyle. The students finished very fast, and at the end some of them shared their results with the rest of the class.

Later on, I start explaining the grammar part by pasting some chats on the board containing some common questions using how + adjective / adverb; for example: How many…? How much…? How far…? How long…? How often…? Etc.

I also had pasted some charts containing the uses of those questions around the classrooms, so I asked the students to stand up and match the question with their proper use. For my fortune, students did it excellent and did not commit any mistake when matching. After that, I paired the students and asked them to provide an example per each question.

For my last activity I just asked the students to complete an exercise that was on the textbook, and when they finished my time was over....

 ...At the end I said goodbye and thanked them for being so cooperative in all my classes.

Third class of the period!!! September 14th, 2011.

Hello people! Here I am again to describe you my personal performance toward my teaching practice. This time my tutor teacher assigned me to make a review about the proper use of “Gerunds and Infinitives”.

As a warm-up activity, I divided the students in two teams and made them form sentences using some sentences strips I had provided at the beginning.  There were four sentences in total per each group; students did it very fast, and almost all the sentences were correct.  This activity was funny because students were sitting on the floor forming the sentences, and was useful for me to introduce the target structure.

Later on, I had to check a previous homework the tutor teacher had assigned in the previous class. This homework checking did not take too much time because almost all the students had already done it, so I just provided the correct answers and made them repeat some words they were mispronouncing.

My third activity was a listening.  First, I asked the students to look a table that was in their student´s book; they had to complete it with the correct form of the verbs as they were listening to the conversation. I played the conversation twice, and the students completed the whole table really fast. I guess this topic was not so challenging for them because they studied it in the basic level.

As I final activity I wrote on the board a question that said: Do you think men and women think the same way? And I asked the students to give their opinion about it. They gave a lot of good reasons to support their point of view. After the group discussion, I asked them to stand up and form two lines. One line was standing in front of the other. I provided some discussing topics about the same issue, and the students started talking about them with the person they had in front. When I clapped the students had to move to their right in order to speak with a different partner.

At the end the tutor teacher told me that he really liked this last activity because it encouraged students to speak more. Well this is all I have to say about this class. See you next week people byeee…

Second class of the second period! September 7th, 2011!

My second class with this group was excellent. I arrived some minutes earlier, and I used that time to arrange all the stuff for my class. The first thing I did was to erase the board and write down the date and the class objective.

When all my students arrived into the classroom, I started the class with a friendly greeting. I asked the students to stand up and form a circle.  I put some pieces of paper on a desk that was in the middle of the circle; I explained to the students that we were going to play the game called “hot potato” (Which in this case was the “hot porky” because I used a little stuffed porky instead of a potato hahaha). I implemented some changes in this activity because the student, who got the little porky when the music stopped, had the chance of choosing two classmates to answer his/her question.  It was a nice activity because students were willing to participate, so they talked a lot, which was the main purpose of the activity.

Later on, I introduced a reading from the textbook. It was about “Gifts”, so as a first step the students were discussing about the perfect gifts for women and men.  The second step was to tell them to read carefully and look for new vocabulary. When they finished reading, I asked them to complete some questions related to the topic. Students did it very well, and at the end I just provided the meaning of some words and made them repeat the correct pronunciation of the words.

After the reading activity, it was time for the grammar notes. I explained the grammar through a game; I divided the students into three teams, and they formed three lines in front of the board. I had pasted some frequency adverbs on the board, so I started giving some clues for the students to pick up the frequency adverb I was talking about. For example I said: It is used when something occurs the 100% of the times. So when the students heard that, they had to pick up the frequency adverb “Always”. At the end the team with more frequency adverbs won the game.

To finish my class, I explained some structures for the use of the frequency adverbs and showed to the students some flashcards, which they used to crate sentences using the target structure.

At the end I received a good feedback and grade… 

SECOND PERIOD!!!! First Class: August 31st, 2011...

Hello people here I am once again to tell you how was my first class of the second period… To start I want to say that it was a nightmare because I had to get up extremely early hahaha. 

I had some problems this week because my tutor teacher was sick, and he did not teach the day I was supposed to observe the class.  I called him in order to know what topic I had to teach, and the next day I got into the classroom without knowing my students at all. At the beginning it was difficult, but in some minutes I felt better because the students behaved in an excellent way toward my presence in the classroom.

The first thing I did was to introduce myself, and then I started with the warm-up activity. The students had to complete a table with their peers´ previous day schedule; for example, they had to ask questions such as: What were you doing yesterday at seven a.m.? What were you doing at 5 p.m.? After they finished asking, they had to complete the table and write sentences with the information their peers provided. I liked this activity because students loved it, and they were willing to participate all the time.

My second activity consisted of making students work in pairs and complete some sentences using the simple past or the past continuous. I provided the photocopies, and for my surprise, the students did it very quickly. They provided just right answers, so I moved fast to something else because that meant that they manage the topic completely.

Later on, I used some charts to explain some grammar structures for the use of Time Clauses, and when I finished, I gave each student an exercise for them to practice this grammar structure. They had some problems, but at the end they got the idea and could finish the exercise. At the end my tutor teacher told me that he really liked the grammar explanation because he never uses charts in his classes.

My final activity was a reading from the book. I implemented the PDP framework here, so as pre activity students had to complete an exercise containing the vocabulary related with the two stories. The second step was to divide the students into two teams and assign a story for each group; they had to read one story and match the vocabulary from the previous activity with the reading. After they finished reading and matching, I asked some students to switch from one team to another with the purpose of making them speak and tell their classmates about their story. The activity went well because students liked retelling the stories to their peers.

I guess it was everything I did in this class. At the end I received a good feedback, and even though this class was improvised my grade was acceptable. 

No class this week people Sorry!!! See ya next period ok...

Third class and I´m almost done with this uncomfortable period… August 11th, 2011.

This time I had the chance of teaching my third class of the period, and I would like to say that this time I enjoyed my class even though the grade was not so good.

In the previous class I had some problems with the time because I got some minutes late to the classroom, but this time was different because I got fifteen minutes early and I could perform all the activities I had planned. I was assigned to review “the countable and uncountable nouns” and to teach the use of “So and Such”. At the beginning I had a hard time because I did not know what type of activities use, but suddenly I knew what to do.

My first activity was the warm-up, and it was focused in making a brief review of countable and uncountable nouns. I pasted some pieces of paper on the board, and I divided the students into two teams. They formed two lines, and the two students in front of the lines had to run to the board to pick up the piece of paper containing the word I just said; for example: I mentioned the word “Calculator”, so the two students were fighting to pick up first the piece of paper with the word calculator on it.

When students finished picking the papers up, I told them to sit down. I wrote on one side of the board “Countable nouns” and “Uncountable nouns” in the other one, so all students had to classify the nouns of the warm-up activity into these two categories. Fortunately, students did it very well because they had already studied this topic in the basic level. As they were classifying the names, I asked them to provide examples orally using the nouns they have already classified.

After that, I divided the class into two teams again, and I asked them to name a representative per each group. This was the time for them to practice adjectives. I put some pieces of paper into a can and the first representative had to pick one and mimic the adjective that was on the paper; for example: One students picked a paper with the adjective “preppy”, so she had to make mimics until one students guess the correct adjective.

As students were playing, I was writing all the adjectives on the board. When the students finished mimicking, I asked them to sit down and I started explaining the grammatical use of “So and Such”. For this I used some charts containing the grammatical structure. When I finished explaining the grammar part, I provide some examples. After that, I asked students to write sentences on their notebooks using the adjectives on the board from the previous activity.

When students were working on the sentences, I was monitoring them and clarifying their doubts about the topic. By that time my class was up, so the teacher continued after that.

This is all I remember, thanks for reading it. See you next time.

Second class, and the bad grades continue hahaha!!! July 28th, 2011...

Hi people this is the report of my second class… let me tell you that this time I had a some troubles when preparing my class because I was not so sure about the topics I need to cover.

It was supposed that I implemented some activities from the book, but it was impossible because students have not bought it yet.  What I did was to look for some activities by my own, and I also used the lesson plan teacher Rony designed.

I have to admit that I got 3 minutes later to the classroom, but fortunately just two students were in the classroom, so I had enough time to prepare everything. When all students got into the classroom I started with the warm-up activity which was called the “tube game”.  This game is similar to the popular game of the bottle in which people kiss each other when the bottle points to them. I did not use a bottle but a tube, and that is why I invented its name. The activity consisted in making students sitting down on the floor and forming a circle. I started rolling the tube, and the first people who were pointed out had to open the tube and pick up a piece of paper that said: “Simple present tense” what they did was that one of them created a question using the simple present tense and the other person answered it; for example: One said: Do you like pizza? , and the other answered: Yes, I like to eat pizza. The pieces of paper inside the tube had all the tenses the students were supposed to review.

I really like this activity because I could notice that my students had fun, and at the same time I reached the goal of making them review the tenses they learned in the basic level.

The next step was to make the students working in pairs for the second activity. For this activity I provided a picture for one student and a set of sentences for the other one. They were asked to sit back to back and the student with the sentences has to ask his/her partner about the people in the picture. The other person helped his/her partner by describing the content of the picture, and when they got the idea about certain character in the picture, they had to form sentences using the present continuous tense. For example: one student asked: What is mark doing? Is he playing? Is he dancing?, etc.

After they have finished, I asked all of them to look the people in the picture and try to memorize their names. Students did it very well because they remembered almost all the names. I did this as an introduction for a reading about tips to remember people`s names. After that, I made students work in pairs again. I divide the reading into four pieces and I assigned a piece of it to each pair. The students read the piece of information, and later on, they came to the front to explain their part of the reading.  This in particular encouraged students to talk more. At the end I felt pleased because the activity was successful.

Later, I explained some grammar points of the use of: “Look(s) and Looks (s) like”, but unfortunately I confused the information that I wrote in the charts. When I realized about this mistake I took them off, I wrote the right information on the board, and I apologized with the students for this awkward incident.

As a final task I just provided some flashcards for the students to practice the grammar I had just taught; for example: I presented a flashcard with a nurse, and the students had to say: she LOOKS LIKE a nurse.  

At the end I did not receive a good grade, but at least I did my best and that what really matters to me. 

And the journey continues classmates… once again the challenge of teaching starts over again... First Class of the 2nd Teaching Practice!

  In this opportunity I was assigned to teach the intermediate level at 09:00 a.m., and this is what happened in my fist class of the period…

Fortunately, I got on time to the classroom; imagine that I had to teach in the new building that is almost on the soccer field hahaha, so it was kind of difficult to get there. I had time to prepare everything for the class and introduce myself to the new group of students.

When I was about to start, I received an unexpected guest into my classroom, he was my tutor teacher who wanted to observe my class. At the beginning I felt a little bit nervous because I have never had him into my classroom before, but it was not a thing I could not control.

I started my class with a warm-up activity related with family members. The activity consisted in grouping the students into two teams and making them unscramble all the names I wrote on the board.  It took just 5 or 8 minutes, but it did not go in the way I wanted because some students were not in the mood for performing it. Later on, I realized that during this activity I blocked the view for one of the teams, so it is something I need to improve for next time I use it.

After that I asked my students to create a table in which they had to classify their family members into “Female and Male”; they also had to include real information about their families. For example: Male: uncle = Pedro. I used this activity in particular to introduce the new topic which was “The meaning of names”, so after that have finished, I started asking some questions like: Do you like your name? Do you know if your name has a special meaning?. The activity was nice because in the classroom I have two students with unusual names which helped even more during the discussion about the topic.

Later, I provided a listening activity which was a conversation between two people talking about their names and they way some people like to call them instead of using their real names. This activity was a “pre” action for the reading activity I provided later.

When I gave the reading to the students, I asked them to read it and pay special attention to new vocabulary. After they finished, I explained the meaning of the new vocabulary and we started reading for the second time, but this time we read the paragraphs together. As a final task I asked students to go through the reading to identify the different tenses the reading contains; for example: People are changing. = Present progressive.

By this time my class was over. At the end I felt disappointed because I did not receive what I was expecting, but I know I did a good job and what is what real matter. Hope next time will be better!!! Ciao…

Last class of the semester!!! May 19th, 2011.

Hello people I want to tell you that I am very pleased because I finally finish my teaching practicum for this semester. It feels so great when you finish something knowing that you have given the best of you in order to accomplish all your goals.

This time I had the opportunity of videotaping my class again because I did not like the video of my previous class. I want to give special thanks to the person that helped me videotaping it. As I do not have another option I promise to you that this time I will present the video in class hehehe.

This was my class with the basic group and let me tell you that I enjoyed it because the group was always with a good attitude to participate and willing to learn new things. Also I could learn a lot from my tutor teacher throughout the suggestions she gave me.

I start my class with a warm-up, as I usually do, named: “Change places if”. This is a popular game, and it was perfect for them to practice the grammar structure and the new vocabulary because by that moment they were studying the present continuous using vocabulary related with clothes and physical appearance. In general the activity was nice, but I had a little problem with it because I did not know that my tutor teacher had used the same activity the previous day. At the beginning I felt like ashamed because I thought that the students would not like to repeat the same activities day after day, but I got surprised when they showed a nice attitude toward this situation, and at the end it was a success.

After the warm-up I tried to implement another activity for the use of the present continuous but I did not work so well. This was the bad moment of my class because in occasions I could see that my students were kind of lost and with an expression like saying: What is going on here?, but it was not a waste of time either. Almost at the end of the activity I could notice that students were using the target structure.

For the third activity I gave to the students an empty piece of paper, and I asked them to make a self description using vocabulary related with physical appearance and clothing. I gave to the students like three or four minutes to finish the descriptions, and later we played the game named: “Snowball Fight”. I really liked this activity because students had the opportunity to write and read at the same time they had a great moment.

And as a final point I just provided to them some extra practice, and they were working on it by the time I was receiving my feedback. This is everything I can remember about my last class, I hope you enjoyed reading it. SEE YOU UNTIL NEXT SEMESTER PEOPLE! 

Third class of the last period!!! May 12th, 2011.

Heyyyy people here I am once again and this time I am not delayed hehehe… Ok this is the entry for my third class of the period. Can you believe it? Just one more time teaching and the semester will be over.

Let me tell you that this time I was feeling nervous at the beginning because I was going to videotape during the whole hour. It was kind of weird because when you are videotaping yourself you feel the necessity of making all the things in a perfect way, but at the end you feel so nervous that you end making a complete mess hahaha…

In general terms I can say that my class was OK. I started with a warm-up activity as I usually do and it was so useful because I could review the previous topic and at the same time I introduce the new one.  This time I had to cover the topic “Quantifiers”, so I tried to do it in a way students do not feel confused because these kinds of topics are tricky sometimes even for teachers.

When I was explaining the grammar part I tried to interact with the students in order to ask them if they had understood the topic because sometimes they are so shy that they do not tell you that they have not understood it. When you ask questions during the grammar explanation you can make sure if your students are paying attention or not.

My class was mainly focused on explaining the quantifiers “Few, A few, Little and A little” and I brought to the class a graphic to let everything clear. I also brought some flashcards that used to make my students participate in the classroom.

After I finished with this, I gave to the students some practice, and when I realized my time was over. I guess this are the most important points of this experience. See you next time.

Second class of the last period! May 5th, 2011

Hello people this is my second entry for the last period of the teaching practicum I. first than all I want to apologize with you because I could not deliver my report on time, but I have been facing some difficult situations in my personal life. I hope you understand and as I mentioned previously I AM SO SORRY!!!!

Well let me tell you that this time I had a great time with my students because I felt more comfortable with the group. Even my tutor teacher congratulated me by the time she gave me the feedback she said that I was teaching better. I felt so proud of myself because at the beginning I thought it would be a real challenge for me teaching this group.

I started my class with a warm-up that helped students remember the previous vocabulary related with food. I asked them to make to lines in front of the board and to choose a representative per each group. I gave a marker to each representative, and then I said a food category and each group had to write as many types of food as possible; for example: I said: Greasy food and students had to write words related with that type of food, as: hamburger, pizza, french-fries, etc. it was a nice activity because it took little time and students enjoyed it a lot because they had the opportunity of walking, running, writing, etc.

After that was the time for me to teach them GRAMMAR!!! For this part I provided some charts with some clues that they order according to the topic. They did it very well because they got all the answers easily, and then I spent some minutes to explain some rules and to make them repeat everything with the purpose that they remember easily.  In the middle of the explanation I also brought some flashcards and I was asking them to apply the rules, I just had taught, using these flashcards. It was awesome because in that way I could notice that they were learning very well the target structures.

When I finish this part my time was almost up, but I still had some minutes to give them an extra practice. Students behave nicely because they were paying attention and at the end I could noticed that they learned.

I guess this is it people. Hope you enjoy reading this because next time I will have a video to show it to you hehehe well see you next time!!

Third period! First entry April 28th, 2011!

Hi people here I am again!... In this period I came back to teach in the basic level as I did in the first one. Overall, I now can say that this is a nice group of students, and my tutor teacher is so enthusiastic.

This time I got the chance of teaching the grammar part about the use of “There is” and “There are”. Well, I started my class using an activity with the purpose of brainstorming a little bit about the previous topic and in that way introduce the new one.

Overall, the activity was nice because students had a great time and my tutor liked it a lot, but as nothing is perfect, I got some problems because students did not get my directions at the first time and that made the activity takes too much time. The activity consisted on groping the students and makes them to create a chart, with the target structure, for having little presentations about it. At the end I got great result from my students, but as I mentioned previously it was so long, so my tutor teacher advised me to be careful with that kind of situations next time.

After that I started explaining about the target structure by giving some examples and trying to involve the students in the whole process.  I could notice that they understood very well because after some minutes I tested them with some exercises and their performance was excellent.

By this time my class was almost over, but I performed one more activity, and I think this was the most successful one because all my students were so eager so participate. This was a very simple activity, but I tried to make them feel as they were competing and I guess it helped a lot.

Well, I guess this is everything I remember about the class hehe… see you here next week ok byeee.

Technology of the future. How far will we get?

Heyyy people this is my video about technology...

Last entry of the second period!!! Advanced group... April 6th, 2011.

Hello people I´m sorry that I could not write soon, but I have been a little bit busy with some stuff. First than all I want to appreciate all the people who helped me out with the papers and stuff for my scholarship. Let me tell you that I´m very happy because I finally finished the process and now I´m just waiting for an answer from de Chinese embassy, but I have a good feeling about it. 

I want to appreciate all my teachers for being so understandable and patience during all this process. Let me tell you that I did not teach the week I was suppose to because I did not have time, so that is why you did not see any entry on my blog the previous week, but here I am again.

I finally taught my last class in the advanced group. I felt sad because these guys are very nice and I really enjoyed sharing with them some moments of this period. The class was about vocabulary related with law, and I tried to make it different so I provided some activities that helped me to reach my goal. In the first activity I made them run and have a little bit fun. In the second one, they had to think and share their ideas because I provided some questions in order to make a debate about what is fair and unfair talking about law. It was a nice activity because I could feel that they were eager to participate and share ideas, opinions and thoughts.

Late on, I explained some grammar points of the topic “Paraphrasing” and fortunately students got the point so fast that they had no problems in developing the next activity which consisted on paraphrase a short paragraph. After they finished, they shared their ideas with the rest of the people and was then when my class was over.

I felt so satisfied for being able to accomplish my challenge of teaching the advanced group, and at the end I enjoyed it because I knew that I gave my best in every moment. The teacher and the students were so kind that the only thing I can say to them is: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, IT WAS A PLEASURE TO WORK WITH YOU!!!

Well people this is all for this entry… See you after vacations. Love you guys and wish you happy vacations…

Enjoy them very much...

 see ya!!!

Third class of the period!!! March 24th, 2011.

Hey people once again I´m here to share with you my teaching experiences. The first thing I want to do this time is to thank my classmates for making such a great work with the lesson plan of this unit. It was so useful and helped me a lot by the time of preparing my class.  

Let me tell you that today I had an excellent class because I could feel that my students enjoy my class. I started with a warm-up activity that was perfect to introduce the topic I was going to teach: “Technology and Gadgets.” To perform this activity, students were running and walking around the classroom, and by the time I touched one of them s/he had 10 seconds to say the name of an innovating gadget many people use nowadays; for example: Cell phones, computers, etc.  I guess this was one of the parts I liked the most because I could introduce the topic in a way they had fun. Students were willing to participate, and at the end they did not feel bored at all. The warm-up activity took 10 minutes of my class, but it helped me to get my students attention.

For the next activity I grouped my students into four groups, and I provided each group with a piece of paper containing specific information about a gadget that was really innovating. The purpose of this was to make them think about the technological advances of these modern times and share ideas with the whole class. Students did an excellent job, and when they finish discussing I asked them to make a circle with the desks. We made a round-table discussion about how technology has developed and improved humans´ lives. This part was meaningful because all students were willing to participate because it is a topic really interesting for them.

When I finished with the round-table discussion, I knew it was time for doing something different in order to make them feel pleasant. I divided the class into two groups and I asked them to choose a representative for each group, and for the rest of the people in the groups I provided one dice. For this activity the representatives had to draw the gadgets on the board, and the rest of the people had to guess the name of it as quickly as possible, but the group which guessed first did not get a point as usually; instead they had the opportunity of rolling the dice and get the points randomly. My tutor told me that she liked the way I decided to assign the points because in that way students had no the chance to complain as it was decided by fate.

The last thing I did in my class was to ask students to work in pairs, and to design a gadget they thought would make our lives easier. At the end they pretended to be employees form T.V Offer, and they tried to sell their inventions to the rest of the people. It was interesting to see how creative students are.

Today I got up and suddenly I knew this day would be meaningful for my life in many ways. Today I felt proud of myself because as I said before I could notice that I´m improving day after day. I will be giving my best every time I can, and I hope everything continues just right.

Well people thank you very much for reading this… Hope you liked it!!! SEE YA…

Second class of the period! March 17th, 2011

Hello people this is a new week of university which means that I have to teach again.  This time was kind of difficult for me because I felt a little bit sick the previous day of my practicum, so I did not sleep well. In general my class was nice because this time I tried to follow all the recommendations my tutor gave to me the previous class, and I guess I got a better interaction with my students this time.  I implemented a strategy for group the students and made them work with the people they are not use to work because this was a problem I could notice in the previous class that students just like to work with the same people all the time and that makes them reduce their attention span toward the class.

The part I liked the most was the part in which I taught grammar because I did not teach it at all but students did it for me. I had to cover the part of teaching the English articles “the, a, and an”, so I made two groups and I gave each group a piece of information with the purpose for them to teach each other after some minutes. The idea was great because at the end they got the idea and did not feel pressured for learning it at all.

At the end I could feel satisfied with the work I did, but as anything is perfect I received some observations from my tutor teacher. She explained to me some things I thought were ok, but actually needed some improvements. I will take them into consideration, and I hope next time will be even better than this one!!!

t.A.T.u. PROSTYE DVIZHENIYA (SIMPLE MOVES)

T.A.T.U., PROSTYE DVIZHENIYA (SIMPLE MOVES) Letras de Canciones

SECOND PERIOD!!!! First Class: March 10th, 2011. Advanced group.

Hello people! I want to share with you my first experience teaching in the English advanced level…

This time I started with the lesson plan, so I had to teach the introduction of the unit and some vocabulary related with shopping.  The first thing I did was to introduce myself to the new group of students, and then I started my class with an activity in which they had to work in small groups. This activity did not take too much time because it was a matching activity in which they had to order the meanings with the corresponding words.  After every group finished, we checked the answers together, and almost all the students got the meaning of every word I provided, which was excellent because I was going to be using that vocabulary throughout my whole class.  

My second activity was based on cartoons pasted on the wall. I asked students to stand up and walk around the classroom in order to see the pictures and label them with any of the words we have studied earlier. I gave them 3 or 4 minutes to do this, and when they finished I asked them to tell me their guesses about the pictures, but at the same time they had to justify their answers and defend their personal point of view. It was a nice activity because I got most of the students speaking and interacting with others.

To make my class interesting, I brought some printed funny cartoons and I gave one to each student. What they did was to look carefully to the cartoon and find the joke. After that, they had to go to the front and share the joke with everybody, and the other students were allowed to ask questions to that person; for example: have you ever been in a situation like that? It was a great moment because they had a good time. My original plan was to get everybody in front of the class speaking and sharing their joke, but unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the time and when I noticed my time was already over and just half of the students did it.

At the beginning of my class I pasted a chat on the wall with the title: “New Vocabulary” and I put some markers next to it. I explained my students that the chart was for them to write every new word they did not know, and that at the end of my tutor´s class I was going to give them the meaning of the words. Just two words were written on it, and during my tutor´s class I make little charts explaining the words and I pasted them on the wall. At the end, my tutor gave some minutes to explain the vocabulary to the students. My tutor told me that she really liked this because it was an excellent way to teach new vocabulary.

I enjoyed this new experience because students were so clever and they did not need too much time to understand directions. I guess the only bad thing I can mention about this is that I got accustom to teach in the basic level, so I talked to much and my tutor teacher told me that in this level I needed to let them perform the activities by themselves. This is it… Thanks!