THIRD CLASS – Monday, March 9^th, 2015

This was the last opportunity to teach this group of students that I really liked for the first period; I was so comfortable and happy with these students because the group always showed a mature attitude and of course, it facilitated me to teach because I did not have troubles with trouble makers, nor any problem related to discipline.

I have gained experience that have enriched my progress as a future teacher; in fact, now I know many things that a teacher should and should not do. At the end of this last class for the first period, my partner and I developed a nice wrap-up to review the topics studied during the class. We were able to develop this activity because we arranged everything in the best way; we were well prepared. This class was kind of special because our tutor teacher gave us the chance to teach the whole class, I mean, my partner taught first and I did it second.

To sum up, this teaching practicum has been an excellent experience because I have learned many things to put into practice in a real life teaching situation. Moreover, I learnt how to treat with students of Basic English level, but I know that lot of experiences more are waiting for me as teacher.

SECOND CLASS - Friday, February 27, 2015

     My second class in this first period was even better than the first one because I already knew the group, the teacher and also I had the necessary confidence to develop my class properly.  I carried out series of activities according to the topic I was given to teach. First, I developed a warm-up activity that encouraged student to be focus and be active learners because they were participative. Moreover, I used many flashcards that supported the grammar phase, and I also made use of body language, which permits students understand things better.

      I tried to set up a better environment by giving students the chance to feel free when asking or when trying to participate and use the target language. This gave them the chance to start getting accustomed to use English in the classroom and avoid L1. I tried to b well organized and fortunately, I completed my class in time stipulated. As a feedback, I performed a wrap-up activity that made students be enrolled with the topic previously developed.

      I thought it was adequate to use a semi-circle to order the students because I was able to see everybody and check their work in class. Also, this way to have them seated gave me the chance to walk around and check everything around. Students looked comfortable and active. I prepared many important activities to complete my assigned time and also I prepared extra material to support students’ learning. This colorful material made students be focused and constantly participating. 

FIRST CLASS – Friday, February 20^th, 2015

            This class has been my first experience as a practitioner of the English major; to be the first class, everything was better than I expected. At the very beginning, I was so nervous because the section where I had to teach was basic level, and I knew that work with beginners will be a little difficult because they do not know the language, so it demands a special treatment as body language, gestures, speak slowly and use vocabulary according to their levels, but after a period of around ten minutes, the environment started giving me the chance to feel free and develop my class without any problem. To be honest, I expected less of those students for their level; however, they surprised me, for they liked to participate and speak in English, and it made my class easier.

            I had some problems with the warm- up activity because they did not understand well the activity, and I could not use Spanish; therefore, I had to change some details in the activity, and it worked because they understood it. Another problem that my partner and I had was teacher did not gave us the lesson plan, so we worked by our own; however, we did it well because we got good grades. Thanks God, I finish in the right time.  I started the class exactly at 3:50 and finished it at 4:40

To sum up, it was difficult to organize the activities according to students’ needs because they were in a Basic English level, so the students are starting the process as ESL students, but even though they are native students, the majority of them already know basic vocabulary to use it when expressing orally.