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"

Group 1- (Lesson 5)

High expectations! The second round of classes started from this lesson. It is the chance to demostrate the improvements we had made from the first class we taught.

This lesson was delivered by group number one (Eunice, Bryan, Eduardo, William and Thomas). To be honest, I had high expectations from this group. I expected they showed a better effort on developing this second class. However, it was an unexpected moment. There were many details which they had had to take into account for this lesson. For example, they came late to the classroom. In my opinion, it is important to be on time for the reason that materials has to be posted and children are already in the classroom probably with good desire to learn new things. Besides, it was evident that this group was not organized enough to teach this lesson. Teachers from this group got problems with the opening/closing songs because they forgot the lyric. As well, the Warm-up stage was skept because of the time management and lack of materials.

I really wondered because even though there were only two students, the attitude and enthusiam that teachers have is fundamental. I could notice some teachers were kind of boring and forced to teach the lesson.  Hovewer, some other teachers from this group did a great job trying to catch student’s attention.
Moreover, in their previous class this group presented visual aids which were not approppiate by children. I really expected they improve them for this class. However, this time they lack of materials. It is pretty important to take into account that children like colorful, big and interesting materials such as flashcards. Through materials, children increase their interest on the lesson and in the activities they are asked to perform as well.

 

In addition, there were positive aspects from this lesson. I really liked the last two activities this group delivered. I think students enjoyed them . And  teacher- student  interaction was good. The teacher who developed these activities had a good degree of positivism which is so important when working with children.

What did I learn from this group? First of all, we have to be organized as a group of teachers. The lesson has to be organized and planned with enough time. Furthermore, the attitude, enthusiam and positivism is fundamental when teaching languages to children. A class can not lack of materials which they have to be appropiate (color and  size) for children.  To sumarize, this was not the best participation for this group, but I am sure they will work on their weaknesses in order to improve. I really hope they will perform an excellent job for their next lesson.    

Group 4 - (Lesson 4)

Group number four compounded by Susana, Kriscia, Xunaxi, Olmes and Josue is closing the first round of classes. I expected a pretty interactive and interesting class. To be honest, I really liked the materials they used during the lesson. They used good visual aids; flashcards were colorful  and big enough for children. However, there were some details I consider could be improved. For example, I could notice that some teachers from this group did not know very well the songs, since this stage consists on the opening/closing of the class, I consider singing the song is a crucial moment in order to awake student’s attention. Besides,  children enjoy singing; so if students see teachers without enthusiams, then children will get boring and they will lack of interest.

Moreover, I consider the attitude of the teacher is so important when standing in front of children. I noticed teacher Olmes a little bit nervous when he delivered the Warm–up stage; but I am sure he will improve that point for future classes.

Besides, I liked the Presentation stage which was taught by teacher Xunaxi, she did a good explanation about the topic.
Nevertheless, I consider the explanation was faster for children understood better. As well, she only asked one student to pass to the front to read a sentence. I think , it could be a good idea to look for a stretegy  to choose the students to participate.

Then , teacher Josue delivered the second part of the Presentation stage. I liked the way he explained the lesson. He knew how to modulate the voice, and he had a good enthusiam when he was explaining the topic.

As the lesson progressed, it was time to practice. The Practice stage was encharged by teacher Kriscia. To be honest, I noticed her a little bit nervous, which is normal, but I was wondering because she speaks low. However, she did a good job in this lesson, she modulated her voice very well. With practice, I hope she will control her nervousness. In addition, I liked the fact that she engaged all students in the activity.

 

The part of the Production part was developed by teacher Susana.  I really liked the activities she and the students performed. The activities were interesting for children; I realize that they enjoyed them . The materials she used in this stage were appropriate for the task students had asked to perform.

Finally, the Wrap- up stage was delivered by teacher Josue. I liked that that he not only asked students what they had learned, but he asked them if they had enjoyed and liked the activities in the lesson. In general, this group of teacher did a good job.  In my opinion, they made a well use of materials, and it was a meaningful lesson.

Group 3 - (Lesson 3)

Lesson three was taught by Yenifer Avalos, Wanda Carranza, Deyanira Castro,  Luis Oyarbide and Vanesa Rodriguez. They taught “Preposition” and vocabulary about Sport objects. I really liked all the material they used.

In the Pre stage, they presented real material like, a basket ball, a rope, a bike, a bat, etc. Some studies about language teaching have demonstrated that  real material is the better way to teach although it is kind of difficult for teacher.

Visual aids such as flashcards were proper designed, they were coloful and big enough by the sight of children. Furthermore, children enjoyed the activities and tasks performed in the lesson.

I  could notice some small details which I consider could be improved in future classes. For example, the names of the objects were pasted on the floor, I think it could be a good idea to pasted the names on the objects in order every kid could read the name of the object without any problem. Besides, in order to know if children had understood the topic of prepositions, I think it could be better if teacher picked up the flascards with the name of the objects before askig students to pointed out some of them  through commands given by teaher. For the reason that I notice that students did not encounter pretty well the prepositions so they were guided because of the object they heard instead of the preposition. This group of teachers had issues in time management as we had  too. So, we have to care time and work on it.

In addition, I liked the enthusiams of some teacher from this team. They seem confident about what they were explaining. However, nervous always attack us and we focused our sight in one specific point. I noticed  this happened in this group but I consider it is so important to make eye contact with all students in order to make them feel part of the class.  In generall, the class was good developed , teachers did well use of the space in the classroom, appropiet activities and materials.

What did I learn from this group’s participation? Eventhough, we had stablished an activity in our lesson plan and if we notice that it is not working in the class, we are able to change it at the moment we are developing the lesson,  in order students get the idea about was is being taught. I also learned that if we have enough time, we can emphasize vocabulary, pronunciation or even explain if we consider something was not well understood or explained about the topic we are teching. Inconvenients can arise while we are teaching and we have to be prepare to think in a possible solution.

Group 2 - (Lesson 2)

Thinking on the objective, considering  appropiated activities, preparing proper material are some important details which teachers take into account when planning a lesson, specially when teaching English to children.

This class was developed by my team which is copunded by Yaneth Argueta, Gloria Gonzalez, Jacqueline Martinez, Nancy Membreño and me, Brenda Ayala. We worked on PPP Planning Framework and the topic taught was “There is- There are, using classroom objects vocabulary". I consider my teammates and I were confident at the time to teach the lesson. During a week we were preparing our lesson plan, we worked on the materials, as well we worked on the activitities which were according to each of the stages from the corresponding Planning Framework.

To start the class, we encouraged children to sing the “Hello-Hello” song. We asked them to make a circle in order to create a more interactive enviromnent. We were part of the circle, we mixed into the students this with the objective that children got confidence and they perceived better the mimics we did according to the song.

Besides, Yaneth Argueta was encharged of the Warm up stage. To carry out this activity we made use of a “hoop”; students had to make a line and they had to take their hands and pass the hoop throught the line with out breaking it. By the time teacher Yaneth said “stop” , she showed to the students who got the hoop a flash card with vocabulary from the last class. I could notice that children really enjoyed this game. Then,the Presentation stage was developed  by Gloria Gonzalez. She explained the topic “There is- There are” by using flashcards with an image of some classroom objects and the name of the objects in order students knew how to spell them. To be honest, I thought this topic would be difficult for children to encounter, however, they got the idea of “There is- There are” structure.

After the presentation it was time to encouraged children to practice. Nancy Membreño was encharged of this stage. She presented two different activities in order children practice forming questions and sentence using the structure and vocabulary taugh in the presentation stage. Both activities were very interactive and interesting for children because they made use of different material such as flashcards and they had to ordered a sentence an then they had to pasted it on the wall. For the second activity they used a chart and an image posted on the wall.

 

Then came the part of the production, I developed this stage. I gave children one flash card with the image about  classroom objects. They had to showed their flashcard to three different classmates in order each student wrote three different sentences using the structure studied in class. To accomplish this task, I asked them to sit on the floor in order to make them feel relaxed. I monitored them while they were writing. When they had finished the three sentences. I asked them to pass in front of the class and read one of the sentences they had written.

As a Wrap-up Jacqueline explained the “Hot- Potato” game to children in order to check what students had learned during the lesson. Finally, to close the class we sang the “See you later song”. I was excited because they already knew the song. That was great!

After finished our lesson, we received positive and constructive comments from our classmates and Teacher Ponce, as well as suggestions in order to improve future classes. Since we are not very experimented teachers yet; we skipt some details like the spelling in a flashcard used in the presentation stage, the order of some of the charts used in the Practice stage. Personally, at the end of the Production stage, I forgot to ask for the material to students and I interrupt a couple of minutes while Teacher Jaqueline was developing her corresponding stage. I also aware that we had problems in relation to time management and we had to improvise in some areas like emphasizing the pronounciation of the vocabulary. However, all those positive and constructive comments we received will help us to care of some specific details and throught practice we will gain experience to be good English teachers.

Group 1 - (Lesson 1)

Finally our teaching practice starts this week. It is time to demonstrate all we have learned during this course!

 The first lesson was taught by group number one, which is compounded by Eunice, Thomas, Bryan, William and Eduardo. They worked on PDP Planning Framework (listening-speaking) the topic they taught was “Classroom Actions”. I liked the activities they presented for the reason that they were according to each of the stages in the lesson plan. This group also did an great job in relation to time management. However, there were small details which could be improve such as in the “Shark” activity, the teacher asked children to walk in circles in order to form small groups. I could notice that students were walking almost in the same place, I think it could be better if teacher had made use of the available space in the classroom, and so ask children to get more separated from each other. I am considering to use this activity in future lessons in order to make the activity more interactive and funny for students due to children like to try new things and a kinesthetic activity can be interesting for them. Besides, I liked the materials this team presented in the class. Nevertheless, some of the flash cards had not the proper size for children to see the image about what the teacher was explaining. On the other hand, I consider this team did a very good job when they gave instructions to children about the different tasks students had to perform.

Personally, I liked how some teacher from this groups encouraged students to participate in the class. One important details I notice in this group was that since they were focused on speaking, I liked how teacher emphasized  the repetition of the vocabulary taught in class. Moreover, I consider important that children has to be monitores while they work in specific tasks; the team did a good job in this area.   In addition, I think that enthusiams is fundamental when working with children. I noticed that some teachers were shy and I know that nervousness is normal in the firsts classes. However, I think that teachers have to be enthusiastic in the classroom in order to transmit interest to students and so they feel they are in an interactive environment. Finally, what I learned from my classmates’ practice is the importance to pay close attention to the materials we will present in the class, they have to be with the appropiate size and catchy to the children’s sight. As well, I learned that we have to think on making correct use of the space available for each of the activities we want our students perform. We have to take into account that we are working with children, and they increase their interest on learning  when they are asked to perform kinesthethic activities. It is also pretty important to take into account the lesson’s objetive because it is our guide to develop the whole lesson. One important details I notice in this group was that since they were focused on speaking, I liked how teacher emphasized  the repetition of the vocabulary taught in class.

Diagnostic Class

 

Before start  planning lessons, it is important that teachers make sure about the student’s previous knowledges about some topics in the target language. A diagnostic class is always taught at the very beginning of a course, semester or  module  in order to measure students' understanding of a subject area, vocabulary or skills. During this diagnostic class, we were assigned to work in groups in order to present two different activities with two specific topics such as:

• The numbers
• The alphabet
• The personal pronouns
• Classroom objects
• The family members
• Action verbs, and some other topics.

The activities allowed us to know if the children had previous knowledges about the topics presented in the class. It was really interesting because some children already knew vocabulary about the different topics; however, they did not know the pronunciation of some words such as: swim, cousin, sharpener. They also got confused with some letter from the alphabet and numbers.
Moreover, even though we expected a high number of children, we only had five children in total. At the beginnig I was worried whe I saw only five students for the reason that my teammates and I had organized our activities based in the quantity of children that were supossed to be in classes. Personally, I asked myself “How are we going to form the children is small groups?” ,”How are we going to develop our activities with only  five students? . However, in that  moment I remembered something important I learned in a previous worshop with Instructor Geovany (Coping with Stage fright and How to Speak in Public). He told us “In theatre, the scene has to continue, it does not matter the circunstances and issues that arise in an unexpected moment”. In other words, unexpected problems can arise also  in the classroom. However, we need to be prepared in order to face any problem and the most important is to continue the class, it does not matter if we only have three children in the class. I think, this was a challenging scenario that we had to deal with and solved it successfully. Finally, I liked the diagnostic class because my classmates presented interesting and interactive activities which were enjoyed by the children. The materials used were according to the age of the students (color, size, design).

Coping with Stage Fright and How to Speak in Public

After two interesting, meaningful and funny workshops at the Art and Culture Departament, I really learned important things I consider important for future teaching practice.

During the workshops we did different activities. For example, Instructor Geovany asked us to walk around the classroom in order to cover all the spaces available in it. At the beginning of this acivity I did not undertand what was the purpose of it; however, I learned that it is important that teachers walk and cover all the spaces in the classroom in order to interact with all children,and not only stand at the same place.
As well, Geovany explained us that when working with children, it is important that we become children too. As we already know children do not have shame to do funny things either they have prejudice about other people.  I think that we have to be funny in our classes  in order to motivate our students. An interesting detail I learned is that if we ask our students to sit on the floor to perform a task or activity, we also have to do it for the reason that we are a model for students and they will see teacher as a friend rather that a person with authority giving instructions.

 

 Moreover, in these workshops we did some activities in order to learn how to modulate our voices in the classroom. Why is it important for teacher to know how to modulate the voice into the classroom? I learned that it is important modulate the voice according to what is being expressed. The tone of the voice can get student’s attention. It is also essential to modulate the voice in order all our students listen what we are saying, explaining, etc.

Something important I learned in the second workshop is how important is avoiding the use of "fillers" (and, but, so, and some others). Fillers make our speech repetitive and disgusting. To be honest, I know I have a good tone of voice; however, I aware that I have to modulate it in order to give some better intonation. In addition,we were working in some funny and really interesting activities. The purpose of those activities was to know how to solve different situations inmediately not only in teaching field but for everyday life. Instructor Geovany suggested us that we have to be ready and sure as possible to answer students questions, doubts and to solve problems that can arise in the classroom.

 

 

What I really like about the two workshop we has these 2 weeks was to pass to the front to tell stories in order to control our nerves, modulate our voices when standing in front of the class. I learnd from my classmates’ strengths and weknesses. Weaknesses and mistakes make us learn in order to improve and be better for life and furute teaching practice.  Finally, even thought I learned important things to put them in practice not only for teaching practice but for everyday life, I enjoyed every single activity we did in the workshops. It was a great experience, I share with my classmates, we forgot for  a while our routines, we had fun and we learned at the same time.

To summarize, it is important that we interact with our students, specially children in order to motivate them and  make them feel in an interactive environment where they can develop their language knowledges. As well, we have to take into account the importance of the way we modulate our voices according to different situations, instructions or explanations. Taking control about our nerves will also contribute to take control over our students. We do not have to forget to be a child when we work with them.

“If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, we must teach in a way the child can learn.” - unknown