3 class... 2 semester

On Tuesday 14th, I had my third class with the intermediate English I. This time I was to have more students´ involvement in the class, so the tutor teacher asked me to bring more speaking activities rather than the ones that were in the lesson plan which were more for writing. 

I got on time to the classroom and got everything prepare. Well, I though I did not have enough activities to develop, but when the time to teach came, I could realize that time was not enough and I just could carry out 3 activities from the 5 I planned to do. 

I gave students a dialogue in which they were going to complete the sentences with one of the options provided. This was a nice activity because whenever students had doubts, they asked for clarification and I could do it. I could clarified doubts. This same dialogue was useful for the next activity which was to have students practice the conversation with different classmates. To do this, I used the common activity called "the onion ring." I could notice that students liked the activity as well because when they were practicing it, they were excited. 

Let me tell you that in this group there is a student who uses  crutches, so whenever a teacher wants to involve him in the activities that require move around that students is like not taken into account, so what I did was to take a students from the " onion ring activity" to go and practice the conversation with him; then, I sent another student to practice with him and so on.

second class with intermediate English I

Yesterday, I had my second class with the intermediate group. The class went well as I got the same grade as the previous class. 

This time, I was kind of nervous because it was supposed that the teacher in charge of the group was not going to be on time, and I was supposed to start the class without her, but fortunately, she got on time. I was kind of nervous because it was almost time to start the class, and students were not in the classroom but they were outside. I did not imagine myself calling them to get inside that´s why I was not comfortable knowing that the teacher was not going to be there when the class was to start. 

I developed my activities as normal as always. I think students liked them because they were happy when carrying out them.  

I introduced the new lesson plan teachers have, but I gotta say that I made some changes in the activities I was to carry out. I think they worked really well because in the feedback session I was congratulated again because of my performance.
I explained some grammar points regarding the use of so and such which students understood very well because when the time to practice the theory came, they did it well. 

2012 SECOND SEMESTER (1ST CLASS)

Hi my friends, today I had my first touch with the new group I am working in the teaching practicum. It is intermediate English I. 

Let me tell you that I know most of the students as they were my students last semester in the Basic English groups, so I feel comfortable teaching them.

I was on time in the classroom, so I was able to arrange desks in a semi-circle way. I started my class with an activity in which students worked in groups. They were given a bag with letters and students were to form the antonym or synomyn of the adjective I was to say. I could see that they enjoyed the activity. 

I was to explain the use of the pattern look + adjective and look like + noun. I could not find exercises about this on the web, but I tried to plan some activities in which students could practice this grammar points.

I also developed a listening from the book which helped me to create another activity in which students were to talk about someone important to them with different partners. 

I think the activity which students liked the most was the last one. I gave them a piece of paper with spots of drawing which they were supposed to guess. I liked the activity as well because students were to practice the grammar point studied this day which was "It looks like," so the activity really matched with the target grammar. 

In the feedback part I was given good comments about my performance in this class. I was recommended to continue doing good in next classes.  

THIRD PERIOD (LAST CLASS)

Today, I had my last practice with this Basic group. I got early at the classroom, and I got prepare with everything I was going to use. I started my class with the warm-up which students liked it at all. At the very beginning, there were some girls who did not want to stand up, but then when they were doing the activity, they were having fun. 
I was to make a review of the topic which is QUANTIFIERS. This is not something easy to be taught, and I tried to do my best, so that students could understand it. To start, as I said, I did the review by using a chart where some students were to paste some papers with words about quantifiers. It was nice as I could see that those students were helping each other to paste the papers where they should go. I made some corrections of course with some words that were not in the correct space.
Later on, I gave students an appendix with some sentences that must be completed with quantifiers as well, and it was the moment in which many questions came up. Students were asking me why and how can they know which quantifier to use in the sentences, so I tried to explain it to them in an easy way. It was kind of hard because there were like two students who did not get the idea at the beginning, so I had to explain it almost like three times, but it was benefitial because the rest of the students got a clearer idea as well.

I feel happy because I think that during the whole course, I have learned something new in each of the classes I was to teach. This has been a very fruitful experience for me, and I guess it has been for all of you guys.  

Third period (third class)

Today was my third experience with the third group, and let me tell you that I was kind of nervous because I knew that my class was going to be recorded. I did not know how students were going to behave, and fornutanely, most of them did behave well. 

The warm-up was simple and the teacher told me that it was nice because a warm-up is not just a game, so he liked that I did something different. I also took advantage of it because as a follow-up activity, I used it to review what students started last class.

I was to give a little bit about the grammar point of the usage of there is and there are in all forms (affirmative, negative, and question form). I think it was simple and I did not have to much to read about it. Then, the rest of the activities were to practice what I had just taught. 
 

Sometimes I do not know what kind of activities to do, and then when I start planning, I consider that time is enough but when the time to carry out the activities come, I can notice that it is not enough so then I do not have time to do all the activities that I plan, so I have to learn more on how to control the time.  

third period... second class

Hi again. Today, I had my second experience with this new group. I feel very happy because even though when I was planning my class (yesterday), I did not what to do because it was just free practice and the activities that were in the lesson plan the teacher gave were not that long to last for the whole hour I had to teach, so then, I decided to design my owns. It took me some time and I was like running because unfortunately my printer is not working, so I had to work fast and go to a ciber cafe as I was going to use printed material. Hopefully, the activities worked well, and students enjoyed them. 

This time, I took into consideration the advices I was given last class, and it was marked in the feedback session. The teacher told me: "it is nice that you took into account the recommendations."

Something I want to share with you is this: we have studied something regarding on correcting students´ mistakes. We discussed about which is the best moment of doing that. In my last class, I was suggested to correct students at the moment they make the mistakes, and I did it today, so the teacher thanked me for doing that because he consideres that this is the best way to do it because later onwe can forget about it. SO I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT. 

This class was better than the previous one, and I think I will be doing better class to class. I hope so heehhehe 

THIRD PERIOD.. FIRST PRACTICE WITH BASIC ENGLISH

On Tuesday the 8th, I had my first practice with the new and last group of this term. It was Basic English and let me tell you that everything went better than I expected it to be. The first thing I have to say is that since the very beginning I felt very comfortable because when students were getting into the classroom, they said "good morning" to me, and it was nice because even though we were not introduced when I went to observe the class, they were very respectful in this class. The warm-up activity worked nicely. Students enjoyed it at all, and even the teacher. Something that I have to say is that last period, I develped this activity, and I was given some advices so that this can work better, so I took into consideration those advices and they really worked.

I was to teach about describing people, so all the activities I prepared were related to that. 

Students are very collaborative, and this is awesome because when you have to develop any activity, there are some of them that voluntary offer themselves to do it.   

At the end of the class, students were very happy, and I heard some comments from them that said: "I liked the class. He is a very nice person." This made me feel happy and proud of the job I did and thisnwas reflected in the feedback session because I was given congrats of what I did. I just was told to push students to use English at any moment they speak Spanish. I think, I will get a good grade this time.