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