Reflection- Teaching Practicum II "Teaching English to Teenagers"

 

Teaching Practicum II - Teaching English to Teenagers course has already finished. It was one of the most important subjects I took in my 5^th years at University in order  to become a professional teacher. Last semester, I had a great experience in Teaching Practicum I –Teaching English to Children. I had never had the opportunity to work with kids before taking the subject.  I learned a lot of important aspects as well as strategies that were useful not only by working with children but also teaching teenagers, eventhough the experience is totally different. Why was it a different experience?. First, the age, behavior and attitude of students are different because of their brain’s development. Second, in Teaching Practicum II, we started working with a new framework to plan our lessons which is called ECRIF. This framework is divided in the following stages: Encounter, Clarify, Remember, Internalize, and Flently use. To be honest,  at the beginning of the course I had no idea about this framework and I felt a little bit scared about applying it. However, I had high expectations about learning this framework and I had a big intrigue to know how was the experience to plan my lessons using ECRIF. When our teacher Yanira Peña explained us the ECRIF framework I was confused because of the different stages and what kind of activities could be more  effective  according to the different stages for this framework. However, it was only through practice that I really understood that this new framework is teacher friendly and flexible. Besides, as soon as I started practicing in classes the ECRIF framework I realized that lessons  are very detailed and organized. I consider this is important because both of roles teacher’s and students’ are very clear. I also understood that different activities can be used in order to deliver a lesson using this framework, and it is not as complex as I though at the very first time I saw a template about it. Let me tell you I really like the ECRIF framework. I think I will use it for  future lessons.

Moreover, as I mentioned above, ECRIF looked complex and confused for me. I did not know what kind of activities I had to apply for each of the stages , and I had not clear enough the difference between some of the stages about the framework . For example, remember and internalize stages. In order to clarify my doubts and to overcome this situation, I researched on Internet about ECRIF and its components as well as activities we should apply in order to deliver a potential lesson. I also watched some tutorials on Youtube, and I practiced a lot.

In Teaching Practicum II, my classmates and I had the opportunity to practice teaching with teens. I think all of us delivered good lessons and we also improved our teaching styles, strategies, materials, attitude in each lesson taught. A classmate who really caught my attention because of the  great improvement he had  during the three lessons was Luis Oyarbide. In his practice, I could notice the improvement he had not only in his lessons but himself as a teacher. I remember his first lesson taught in this course. He was a little bit nervous. I could notice on his face. Furthermore, there were some materials which needed to be improved. Even though he had a good attitude toward students, in his first class he was serous and the tone of his voice were not appropriate at all. On his second lesson, the improvement was noticeable. This time Teacher Luis looks more confident. The instructions given were clear and he interacted more with students. I think this last point is very important for the reason that students feel confident when teachers smile with them or when teachers express positive phrases such as “Excellent job!”. Finally, in his last lesson, Luis did a really good job, the activities he planned were funny and meaningful  for students. The materials he uses were appropriate. One of the things I liked from Luis lessons is the fact that he always asked for volunteers and students raise their hands. It is admirable because sometimes students feel shy in the class. As well, teacher Luis had a good control of the time. During his third lesson his nervous disappear because he looked really confident. He knew what he was doing even though he was the only one who had to teach one hour and a half. I think this aspect was a challenge for him. However, teacher Luis demonstrated his potential on the teaching field and the great teacher he is. Nevertheless, Luis, my classmates and I need to improve some little details in order to deliver excellent lessons in the future and to be potential teachers.

Finally, I want to mention that I learned different things in Teaching Practicum II. In my personal opinion, I did a good job in this course. I effort a lot in order to deliver really good classes. I dedicated enough time to plan my lessons, materials and other important aspects for each of my lessons taking into account students needs. As well, I think I applied the ECRIF framework properly. I consider all my lesson plans were clearly detailed. I tried to apply all my knowledges and strategies during my practice. As teacher I felt confident when delivering my lessons. The activities I planned were effective; eventhough, I know I need to improve some important details but I am sure I will do it because teaching more than be a profession is a passion for me.

 

 

"The mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inpires" - William Arthur Ward

 

Physical and psychosocial development of the adolescent student

During this week, in Teaching Practicum II course, we discussed about the physical and psychosocial development of the adolescent students, this topic made remember my adolescence time. As we have already studied, adolescence is a period  of many changes in human’s lives, and these changes may result difficult for adolescents. As all teens, I also faced many changes as physical as phychosocial. I remember when my body started changing. For me, this stage was kind confusing for the reason that at the moment to dress I did know what to wear since I was not a little girl anymore. Besides, at the same time I was surprising for all those physical changes we girls suffer in the adolescence. On the other hand, I was not an exception of the psychosocial development. I remember, I wanted to be part of a group in which I could be accepted. As all teens, I also experienced my first love relationship and break up. During this period of my life I wanted to go out with my friends, and I remember how disappointed I felt when my parents did not allow me to go out with them. I behaved unmature and I always wanted to have the reason  of everything. Now, I see all those facts, it was really embarrasing! 

(Self -Esteem Tips: Dealing with body image issues)

 

Despite once I was a teen, I did know why adolescents go trough many changes. I did know why they behave the way the do. But now, as a young adult and as a teacher I understand why adolescents are in fact adolescents. I learned that adolescence is a transition where teens are getting ready to become adults. In the article “The self, identity, emotion, and personality” , Susan Harter expreses that “adolescents carry with them a sense of who they are and what makes them different from everyone else”. In other words, teens look for idependence, attention, and their own self and identity in order to be unique. In addition, I learned that teens are emotional and this aspect influence in the way they think and the way they tend to behave. Moreover, I learned that teenagers deal with self –understanding and self - esteem which is the cognitive representation that each human has about himself. According to Harter (2006), an adolescent’s self – undersatanding is based, in part, on the various roles and membership categories that define who adolescents are.

Regarding to the teaching field, as a techer I would like to help my adolescent students to find their own identity, being the way they are. I consider important to make our students understand that even though they all are teens in the classroom, and they are facing the same changes;  everyone is so different  because everyone has their own essence, which makes them unique; no matter if they have the same likes, needs, capacities and interests. I would also like to help my students by creating an environment where they feel confident about themselves, and that they are  part of a group where they can demonstrate their capacities and at the same time help them to discover new abilities.

Meeting and dealing with the changes in the brain of a teenger

 

Before start working with teens, it is important to understand how the adolescent’s brain works, the way they use to behave, and some other details we as teachers need to know and take into account in order to take advantage when teaching languages to teens and make them feel confident in the target language learning.

To be honest, before taking the Teaching Practicum II -Teaching English to Teens course, I had never asked myself why adolescents behave the way they do. Even though, I was a teen I believed that the adolescence was just a “difficult” stage in huma's life. My perspective about adolescents behavior was negative at some point for the reason that most of the teens are dramatic, emotionals, lazy, and they also get angry easily without any reason. However, at this period of life humas have more capacity to learn new things or develop a new talent such as play an instrument. During adolescence, teens start experiencing new things, and this last point may be a risk for them if they are out of their parent's control. For example, teens may taste drugs or be part of gangs in order  “to be accepted in the society”.

Looking and researching for information about the adolescent brain, I learned that some of the reasons that explain the behavior in teens is that teenagers want to be independent, as well the values and the environmentin which they grow up may influence in teens behavior. Besides, in adolescence, unused connections in the thinking and processing part of the teen brain (grey matter) start working, that is why between 18-19 years old the brain becomes more efficient. In addition, there are some important parts of the brain such as the amygdala that influence in the teenager’s brain and the decisions they make. The amygdala is associated with emotions , impulses, agression and instintive behavior. Due to the role this part of the brain plays , teenagers are not aware about the consequences of their actions and decision making. However, it is not until the Prefrontal cortex of the brain is “developed”, teens start making jugdments, they control their impulses and emotions, as well they tend to think about the consequences of their own acions. Moreover, I learne that when teens become mature they ask and think what kind of person they want to be and they see themselves in the real world. (Source http://www.livescience.com/21461-teen-brain-adolescence-facts.html)

As a teacher my expectations for working with teens are high. Besides teach my students a new language, I also want to learn from them. I consider that through practice, I will understand better what are the teens' needs and how to deal with different behaviors in the classroom. It will help me as a teacher to be even  more creative by the time to create lesson plans according to adolescents likes in order to catch their attention. Finally, I think that more than be a teacher, we need to be a positive guide to our students specially in adolescence stage.

"Adolescence represents an inner emotional upheaval, a struggle between the eternal human wish to cling to the past and the equally powerful wish to get on with the future". - Louise J. Kaplan




 

Teaching Praticum II - "Teaching English to Teens"

Reflection

Teaching Practicum I “Teaching Children” was an interesting and meaningful course. I really learned value theory. I also gained experience through practice in the teaching field in which my classmates and I had the opportunity to work with children.

 

Before taking this course, I had never worked with children. To be honest, I really enjoyed preparing materials to work with kids. I think my teammates and I were very creative by the time we planned our lessons. Since the first class we taught, my teammates and I were pretty excited and we always tried to do our best. I consider we did a good job in this time of practice.

In addition, I have to say that there is a big difference between the performance from the first class to the last one. In the first class, I was a little bit nervous because I did not really know how to deal with children. However, as the class went on, I felt more comfortable and at the end it was a great experience to me. I remember I was not clear at all when explaining the instructions for a task. I knew students  were kind of lost. So, I tried to do some mimics and model in order they gotten the idea. During the feedback, I received important suggestions from my classmates. I took them into account for the next lesson.

In the second class, I felt so comfortable and enthusiastic. In fact, I remember I asked my students to get relax too, and we sit on the floor to perform the task. I enjoyed this class because I learned and  noticed how amazing is  the way in which  we teacher have the capacity and the enthusiasm to allow students feel part  of the class and encourage them to participate. Fortunately, in this class I received positive comments from my classmates. On the other hand, I also received some meaningful suggestion in order to improve.

The last class was not an exception. I think each class was a new experience in which we have the opportunity to learn and to improve. In addition, I felt a little bit nervous because I was encharged of a different stage. I think I did a good job. The students were focused on the task, they as me enjoyed the activity. However, I need to think twice in relation to the materials (colors) which are so important when working with children.

 

Personally, I had a wonderful experience. I consider I have improved some details, but I need to work on time management. As well, I aware that I need to improve while explaining instructions to children. I will include commands for future classes if I work with kids since they are beginners in the language. Furthermore, I also learned different things from my classmates. I learned different and creative ideas to delivered an activity, for example.

Moreover, as a group we really improve. Through the  practice we felt more confident about what we have to do in a classroom. We learned how to modulate our voices and how important is our body language when working with children. Even though, we have improve, we need to still working on some specific details. Just require more practice.
 
To conclude, I increased my knowledge, experience, enthusiasm and positivism. I feel satisfied because even though we had hard weeks working on lessons, materials and everything a class imply, at the end we enjoyed what we did and I am sure our students learned not only from my group but from the other classmates too. 

"The best teachers are artists who know the science of teaching" - unknown

Group 2 - (Lesson 10)

Our lessons in Teaching Practicum I "Teaching children" course finished this week!!!

 

To carried out our last lesson in this course, as usual we got together as a team in order to think in the objective, plan the lesson, appropriate materials according to the topic, new ideas to implement in the class, etc. It was a hard week since we prepared materials and improved some important details. In this opportunity we developed a PPP planning framework. The topic of the lesson was “My Profession”.

 

We started the class with the “Hello-Hello song” as we have been doing in all previous lessons. This time we prepared big hands with foami in order to catch student´s interest on the lesson since the very beginning of the class. I think this material was catchy for them. They liked their big hands!

Besides, in this last class teacher Gloria was encharged of the Warm-up stage. I think students enjoyed the activity prepared for them. During the performance of this stage, students were asked to jump because it is something every child like to do at that age (9 years old). I notice they were surprised when teacher Gloria asked them to pick up the circle they have chosen and they were able to see a flashcard with new vocabulary and the one taught the previous class.

After the Warm-up, the Presentation stage was delivered by teacher Jacqueline. She uses a flipchart to explain the topic. I realize she tried to engage all students in the lesson. Students were focused while she explained the structure and vocabulary. However, a couple of students were a distracted because of the costumes they wore.
Moreover, the first practice was delivered by myself. In order to form pairs, I used some balloons with a color  piece of paper inside of them. I think students liked this activity. Perhaps I could have used a different strategy to form pairs in order to gain time. Then, I gave them some flashcards to each students. In this practice they had to form a sentences using the structures taught in the presentation stage. I think students were focused in the activity since it was required to make them think in a certain degree in order to organize the sentences.

While the class went on, teacher Yaneth delivered the second practice. Students really enjoyed this class because they were asked to throw a hoop to three different cones. It was challenging, but on the other hand students were excited while they performed this task.

Teacher Nancy was encharged of the Production stage. I think students liked the activity and the material used to performed the activity. She did a great job because the activity was a little bit difficult for girls and she knew how to manage this problem.

To end up the lesson , we gave some mask to students to sing the “See you later song”. They were really excited when they wore them.

To summarize, I think my classmates and I did a good job in this lesson. In fact, we improved some important details. For example, some of us got more comfortable and less nervous. As well we have improved the materials used in the lesson, the activities, the tone of our voices. However, we need still working on some aspects like the color of the materials, appropriate strategies to gain time while performing a lesson, and one of the most important things we really need to improve as a group and individually is the time management. In this class time management affected us and for that reason we skept the Wrap - up stage. Personally, I aware that I did not respect the time I had available to deliver my stage. So that, I need to work on that aspect in order to improve for future classes. I also need to improve the way in which I explain the instructions in order to make it easier to students understand the task.

 

Group 2 - ( Lesson 6)

 

After a hard week planning our lesson, preparing good materials, and looking for interesting and funny activities here we are again, teaching our second lesson for Teaching Practicum I. As you remember, we are group number 2 and  my team is compunded by Nancy Membreño, Yaneth Argueta, Gloria González , Jacqueline Martinez and me, Brenda Ayala.

First of all, planning a lesson sometimes may result stressful for language teachers. However, my teammates and I really enjoyed planning them. We got together in order to expose our ideas about the objective for our lesson, the activities and games we could use in the class, and to help us to each other to prepare and  the materials. At the moment to think about materials and activities many ideas came to our minds. Even though, we had not had previous experience working with children, we tried to be very creative in order children feel encouraged while the lesson is being taught.

This time, we tried to improve some little details that were skept in the previous class. As well, in this lesson, we made use of many and different materials. For example, for the opening/closing song we gave a puppet to our students in order to increase their interest from the beginning of the lesson. Besides, we integrated different materials which were catchy for students.

In the Warm-up stage teacher Nancy used a basketball hoop and students had to throw the ball. If the ball did not enter in the hoop, a question was asked to the students to review the previous class. I could notice our students really enjoyed this activity and enthusiasm was noticeable.

In the Pre- listening stage, teacher Yaneth used a flipchart and flashcards to explain the topic which was  Household objects , prepositions and possessive adjectives. The flipchart resulted interesting and catchy to children’s sight. Students were focused on what teacher Yaneth explained. I think she has a great attitude when she works with children.

 

 

Moreover, the During-listening stage was divided in two different activities. The first activity was delivered by teacher Gloria. In this lesson a new resource was included, a CD-player. She gave students some flashcards and they had to listen and showed the correct image according to the sentences students listened from the audio. The second activity was developed by teacher Nancy. She has pasted some colorful charts on the board with a possessive adjective and an object studied in this lesson. Each students throw a “Crazy dice” and according to the number they got a chart was assigned. Then students had to said a sentence with the information from the chart. At this point I noticed students had already encounter the structure and vocabulary. As well, the activity resulted funny for children. They seem excited with the activity.

 

After the During-listening stage, came the Post-listening stage which was delivered by myself. To be honest, I really like working with children. They are very enthusiastic, intelligent, and they are always excited about each of the activities performed because of the interest and energy they have. To develop this activity, I asked them to sit on the floor by forming a circle. I explained the instructions to them. I could notice them interested in the activity by the time they saw the materials I had prepared for them (flashcards and  a bedroom model).

 

They were more excited when I turned a “Magic hand” on the floor to choose the students who had to pass at the front. They had to put the object (flashcard) according to the prepositions I told them. Then I asked a question to the student in front, and one more question to the rest of the students. Personally, I really liked to develop this activity because as teacher I could interact with my students, and at the same time they demonstrated what they had learned in this class. Another activity children really enjoyed in this lesson was in the Wrap-up stage which was developed by teacher Jacqueline. She had marked with small cones the space that children had available for the “Mica” activity. Students had to touch a classmate in order to ask him/her a question to assess what they had learned during the whole lesson.

 

In general, my teammates and I felt really comfortable and satisficed because of the work we did. In my opinion, there was a remarkable difference between the first class and this one. We improved many things. For instance, the materials we used were interesting for students, the activities were funny and meaningful, and the most important point is that students learned new things about the language.

In the feedback session, we receive good a positive comments by our classmates and teacher. As well, some classmates gave us some suggestions we need to take into account in order to improve for future classes. It is clear we did a great progress; however, my teammates and I will be working  in some small details that we did not notice when we taught the lesson.

 

"Teachers who love teaching... teach children to love learning"