Great!!!

Today, I taught my second class. It is curious that when you feel everything is going to be ok, nothing goes well; but when you think your day will be a disaster, then it becomes a great day in which everything goes perfect (or almost perfect). I say this because today I felt kind of sick, and I really did not want to teach. In addition, I had to work with the controlled practice, and I felt kind of disappointed because I prefer to teach the grammar part since I can choose the way to introduce it and explain it. I feel limited when I just give instructions for the students to work on activities that I have not chosen. Therefore, I always try to adapt or modify the activities to make them more interesting, so I can stimulate students’ motivation. Thanks God, everything went very good on the development of my class, and my grade also improved…

 I arrived early before my class. Unfortunately, there is a class before mine, so I have to wait until they finish, and I cannot have the environment ready before students arrive.

I began with a common warm up (the whisper game). Students had to work in two teams for this activity. The funny part was that they were only five, so I asked my tutor if she wanted to participate, and she kindly accepted. Students and even the teacher enjoyed the activity; they had two make two lines. The last person on the line had to whisper a sentence I was showing to the next person and so on until the first one on the line who had to write the sentence on the board. The first team to finish writing the sentence without any mistake got a point. I was planning to use those sentences to introduce an activity which was part of the practice; however, when I notice a student had erased everything on the boardL. Then, I had to read the sentences for them to identify their tenses and also the negative form of them. After some oral practice, I dictated the sentences for them to work on their notebooks. While they were working, I pasted some daily activity flashcards on the board, so I could have everything ready for the next activity. Then I monitored students’ work, and I corrected some mistakes. Finally, they took turns reading the answers of the exercise.

After that activity, we continued reviewing the present continuous tense. I used the flashcards and I also pasted a name tag to each of them, so students could write sentences using a proper name rather than a subject pronoun. First, we practice a little bit in the oral way. Then, each student went to the front and chose a flashcard which s/he used to write a sentence on the present continuous tense. They did it very well.

Finally, I gave some photocopied material for students to continue practicing. Unfortunately, time was over, so the teacher continued with it.

I had less pronunciation mistakes than the last class, so my grade improved.

I really liked this day because I did a good job which was reflected on my grade.

A New Beginning!!!

OMG! Time really flies. Vacations were just a dream, and now we are here once again to continue with this long preparation to become teachers.

We have just begun a new mission, and new experiences and challenges are arriving. I just hope this new opportunity could teach me as many things as I might need to be a good teacher.

Yesterday, I began my teaching practicum. This time, I was assigned to the Intermediate English I class which is in charge of teacher Cristy. This group is very small; there are around 12 students, so I feel very comfortable in the classroom.

At the beginning, I was not nervous; however, as I was giving the instructions for the warm up, I got a little bit. Yesterday, I was not only being observed by my tutor, but also by a classmate. I guess that could have been one of the reasons why I got kind of nervous.

The warm up took more time than the expected because students had some difficulties to understand the instructions :( They worked in teams, and they had to bet each member of the opposite team to do something; for example: Bet you can’t dance for three minutes. Each bet was directed for a speciphic person, and if that person said s/he cannot accomplish the bet, then the group who bet got a point for their team.

This activity was just a review for the use of CAN which they were studying a class before.

After that, I continued with a new topic which was "be going to". The teacher asked me to introduce this topic, but because there was no activity to present the topic I looked for an interesting one.

I had a chart with a drawing of a guy at the supermarket which Sonita made for me last semester (thank you monita). I decided to create a short story for that drawing in which I could include the target structure. Then, I wrote the story in a separate chart and I carried them to the class.

First I paste the chart with the drawing, and I introduced the guy as one of my friends whose name was Mark. I told them he was at the supermarket because he was going to have a party the next day. After that introduction, I continued asking some questions related to the party for them to make predictions as they used the target structure without noticing it. Then, I pasted the other chart for them to check if their predictions were right.

Some of them went to the front to underline the sentences with the target structure on the chart (they did it very well)

After that activity, I used the sentences they had underlined on the chart to explain the grammar part.

As I was explaining the structures, I allowed students to help me with the explanation by making questions such as: Do you know what we need to add to a positive sentence to make it negative? or How could they change a sentence into a question? and so on. They had gotten the topic very well since the presentation activity, so it turned easier for them to answer my questions and without realizing it, they were explaining the target structure to themselves. I really like that because I had taught a new topic to my students with their full participation.

Finally, I asked them to change all the sentences they had underlined on the chart into questions. That was my last participation because time was over. The teacher finished with that activity.

Then, I thanked my students for their wonderful participation.

I liked the class, but I think I could have done it better. The grade was acceptable.

Thank you guys for reading my post. I hope you have had some nice experiences on your teaching mission.