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!!