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.