Last class with basic!!!! February 24th, 2011.

Well people this was my last teaching practicum in the basic level… I really like this class because before I started one student asked me if I had brought an activity for them to play. I asked: why? Do you like playing games?  And she answered with a smile on her face: “of course I like playing games because if we don’t play any game the class becomes pretty bored, that´s why I like your classes”. When she told me that I felt pretty nice, and then I felt nicer because, when I told them that it was my last class with them, they started asking me to stay with them.  It feels really good that someone tells you that he/she enjoys your classes because that means that you are doing a good job.

In this class I had to finish the with the lesson plan because students will begin the partials next week. This time I wanted to do something different from my previous classes. Looking at the lesson plan I realized that there were not readings in it, so I decided to focus my class in helping students practicing and developing their reading skill a little bit more.

I started the class with a warm-up called “Snowball fight” and I asked my students to write down in the paper their likes and dislikes because it was the content I was supposed to cover in the class. Students also had to write down on the paper the word “Male” or “Female” in order to try to guess the name of the person later. It was pretty nice because they liked it a lot, and it just took 10 minutes of my class.

After that, I started brainstorming about buying things on the internet because it was the reading´s topic. I provided each student a copy of the reading, and I asked them to read it, but at the same time they had to look for new vocabulary.  When they finished reading, I asked them to tell me every new word they did not know, and I wrote them down on a special chart I had provided for that purpose. After students told me all the 

words, I explained the meaning of each word one by one.

At the end, my tutor teacher told me that he really liked the part in which I asked for the new vocabulary because it was a piece of advice he gave me in the previous class, and doing that meant that I was taking into account pieces of advice to improve myself.

In general my class was pretty nice, and I felt satisfied because I could notice I helped the students for their future exams by practicing reading.  I want to give special THANKS to my tutor teacher and my students because it was a really enjoyable experience being sharing time with them…  

The third one!!! February 17th, 2011.

Hi everyone this is the report of my third class… This time I was asked to teach the grammar part, and let me tell you that it was a little bit harder than the previous classes I taught. I had to cover the negative and interrogative form of the simple present, so it was kind of complicated because when teaching grammar you must think a lot about a way to make it enjoyable for the students. I began my class performing a warm-up activity named “Forbidden say YES or NOT”, and I asked my students to use yes-no questions as: Do you like English? Do you live with your family? But I did not tell them that they were actually using the target structure in the game.  It was a really nice activity because they were walking around the classroom interacting with their peers, and they actually got the idea about making questions using the simple present.

When the warm-up was over, was the part for explaining and teaching the grammar part. I used a song containing the structure of the simple present in the negative form, and I implemented the PDP framework in this section. I also brought some chats to the class containing important points of the topic, but I did not use those charts until the PDP framework was over.

 The song was pretty old, but fortunately the students liked it. The first time I played it I asked students to pay attention to it and think about a question I had provided previously, but when the song finished playing I asked them about the answer and the only thing I listened from them was: I did not understand anything! At that moment I felt worried because I was thinking that my class would become a total failure, but when I provided the lyrics of the song everything changed because students could read as the song was playing, and they actually got the idea.

Provide a song was a clever idea because in that way students did not feel they were actually learning a grammar structure. My tutor teacher told me that he liked that idea, but the only thing I forgot was to ask to the students for new vocabulary or any doubts they might had about the song´s lyrics.  He explained to me that I should be aware of that next time I use it because he said that some students might have a doubt about the meaning of a word but they would never ask, so they will have that doubt forever.

At the end I felt satisfied with the work I did in this class because students could reach the goal I was expecting them to reach. Teaching grammar is not an easy task because if students do not get the idea in this part, they will not be able to do a good job in the practice part. I think it was a challenge for me, but fortunately it had a good ending. ;-)

 

February 10th 2011... My second class

To be honest my second experience was better than the first one, I enjoyed it a lot. I started my class reading the objective, and giving a little description of the topic I was going to teach. I did a warm-up activity in which students had to stand up and ask for personal information to their peers. It was so constructive because all students were willing to participate. It was useful to introduce the target structure in a way students felt they were not studying grammar. By the time I was monitoring them, I could noticed they really enjoy the type of activities in which they have to stand up and talk to their friends. When they finished completing the task, we checked the answers together.

The only inconvenient I faced in this activity was that when I started the warm-up, a student was not in the classroom yet, and when I was in the middle of the activity she got in. She asked for a photocopy containing the table in order to play, and in that moment I realized I was missing a photocopy. I felt so silly, but fortunately I remembered that I had one extra copy in my lesson plan, and luckily I could solve the problem, but I promise to myself that I would never let it passes again.

I performed four activities in total, and at the end I felt so satisfied because students participated, and at least the majority archived the goal I expected.

The students and the teacher are really friendly. They made me feel really nice when they invited me to share a moment with them on St Valentine´s day because that means that they consider me a friend and not a stranger. Of course, I accepted the invitation with a smile on my face hehehe… I will tell you later how it was ok...

First entry: February 3rd, 2011

My first Class…

I arrived 15 minutes earlier to the classroom in order to prepare the first activity I was going to perform (The warm-up).  When I got into the classroom some students were already there, and they started asking me questions and I felt a little bit nervous, but some minutes later they made me feel as part of their group and I did not feel nervous anymore.

The first thing I did was to introduce myself, and then I started my class. The part I liked the most was the warm-up part because in that moment I felt that students were having a good time at the same time they were learning. That activity consisted in making them listen to what I was saying, and when they got the idea, they had to pick up the paper with the name of the profession I was talking about. It was so enjoyable because students were running, laughing, and participating. I think that this activity helped me to break up the invisible barrier that existed for being the first time I was in front of them.

Almost everything went great because students paid attention and were willing to participate, but when I was in the middle of the class something happened. Students were working in an activity related with professions when a girl asked me about the name in Spanish of a profession, and I did not remember the name of that profession in Spanish. It was so awkward because she was looking at me waiting for an answer, and in that moment I got paralyzed because I did not what to do or say.  It was the worst moment for me I swear hahahahahahaha, but fortunately another student remembered the definition and helped me out.

I promise that in my second experience I will be more prepared, and I will pay more attention to little details that sometimes you forget because you consider them unimportant. My tutor was so nice because he gave me the feedback in a way I did not feel ashamed, and he also gave me some pieces of advice in order to improve myself.

Well, I think that I have mentioned the most relevant points about my first experience, and I just want to add that it was different as I have thought, but at the end I liked it. I guess I did it acceptable for being my first time. Of course, the students and the tutor teacher helped a lot!!!!