ENGLISH ACCESS COURSE 1st CLASS

Well, we have just started the second period and by now we are working with the new groups assigned. Today, I had my first contact with the students of the English access course. To start, I have to say that I got a little late to the classroom so that I could not have everything prepared as I always do. I could not write the date and the objective on the board, and it was mentioned in the feedback I was given by teacher Ovidio. 

The warm-up activity was about to form the past form of the regular verbs I mentioned with the pieces of paper I gave students in a bag. They worked in groups and the activity worked very nice; students liked it at all. Then, I continued with another activity based on the previous exercise. Students were to write sentences with the verbs they formed previously. It was nice because from each  group all students wrote at least one sentence or two in the paper I provided. 
I carried out a conversation too. There was repetition before students practice it in pairs. Then when I asked them to practice it in pairs, they did it well. At the very beginning I though about having them practice the conversation by the onion ring way, but as the space is not that enough I had to do something else and it worked. 
Generally, the group is very nice and they work in every single activity you ask them to work. It is great because you are not pussing or let´s say forcing students to do what they are supposed to. These students do it immediately.  
There is just one thing more to say.  As they are adolescents, they sometimes use a lot of the mother tongue (Spanish), so I was asked to push them to use more English.  

My 4th class of this first period

This Tuesday the 21st, I had my last class with the Intermediate English I. As always I got there early so that I could have everything I was going to use prepared.  I started the class with a warm-up activity in which students were to work in groups. It was an activity called "hidden pictures." Students were to find some images provided in the same appendix in which they had a big picture and it was there where they had to find the hidden pictures. It was nice to see them working and trying to find the images. 
I continued with the class by explaining some grammar points regarding adverbs of manner. I was explaining each of the rules to get an adverbs from an adjective and at the same time I was asking students to help me saying examples. It was great because they were putting into practice what I was teaching. 
I gave students an appendix in which they were to complete the statements with the adverbs provided and all of them did well. 
At last, I asked students to make groups and work on the exercise I was to provide. I gave them some pieces of paper with words. What they were to do was to form logical sentences by using those papers  and applying the rules of the adverbs of manner I explained. Each group could form the sentences but one of course finished first. 
This has been a great experiences for me, and I hope it has been the same for all of you guys.... 

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.