Second period!!!

Every beginning is kind of hard. Today, I felt so nervous that I even felt sick. I don’t know what happened to me; I think I was worried because the topic I had to teach was a little bit confusing for me, and also because I had never taught on an Advanced English class. There was no lesson since the person in charge did not send it on time, so my tutor told me to look for activities to introduce the new topic (reported speech) that’s why yesterday, I had a hard time preparing today’s class. I wanted to link all the activities with the target structure so I look for some good ones on the internet; however, I did not find what I wanted. Then, I just tried to adapt some activities I had.

Well, even though I did not feel so comfortable with the topic, I arrived very early to the classroom so everything could be ready before students and my tutor arrived.

I began with a very common warm-up (the whisper game) which was perfect to introduce “reported speech”. Students made a semicircle, and I whisper a funny message (“yesterday, I saw a green monkey and a blue cat dancing on the moon) to the first student on one of the sides who had to pass the same message to the next student up to the last one. The last person had to write the message on the board so everybody could read it and checked if their classmates had told them the same. Then, I paste the original message on the board and everybody was laughing about it since they were pretty different, and the original message was so funny. My tutor told me she really liked that warm-up since it was very appropriate for the topic.

Then I continued with the presentation phase for which I used a nice reading that contained many sentences on the target structure. I split the passage into five parts. I asked students to work in pairs and I gave them a set of paragraphs to each pair. Before they checked it, I wrote the topic on the board (“the worst unsuccessful rescue”), and I ask students to make predictions about it so they had the opportunity to give their opinions and to put into practice their speaking skills. After that, they had to order the paragraphs chronologically. Then, I read the passage for them to check the correct order. Everybody did it well. In addition, they had to underline the sentences in which someone was reporting what others had said.

The grammar phase was not so difficult to explain as I thought it would be. I used some adjective flashcards in which a person was showing different expressions, and I made a bubble for each flashcard with a quotation inside (direct speech). I explained the rules using the flashcards as examples, and students perfectly gave me the reported speech for each example. My time was up, and my tutor continued with the rest of the class.

My feedback was great. I have always said I love the way teacher Yesenia gives the feedback. It is not because she tells me good things, but also because she makes me notice my mistakes in a very kind way.

FIRST MISSION OVER

Hello everyone!

I am so happy because I already finished this first teaching mission, and everything went well. Even though I had some challenges, I learnt a lot of.

Today, I planned to use a warm up I had read on Raul’s blog which I like. Students worked in teams, and they chose a representative who had to sit in front of the class. I was behind the representative showing some daily activity flashcards which their respective teams had to mimic. The representatives had to guess the daily activity but they had to use the “ing” form (doing the homework, watching TV, playing soccer, etc). Unfortunately, this activity took too much time, and also the teacher told me it would be better a warm up in which students could have more opportunities to speak since in the one I used today students had only to mimic.

After that, I continued with some controlled practice which was on the lesson plan. There was an activity in which students had to look a person’s schedule, but I considered it was so simple because it was just a chart so I decided to adapt it. Instead of using a simple chart with the schedule, I used daily activity flashcards, and I wrote on pieces of paper the different times in which the person did each activity. I pasted each piece of paper on the flashcards. I had to ask what the person was doing on different times. Students had to answer using the past continuous tense.

Then, we continued with another activity in which students had to complete some sentences using one of two options provided. I carried a chart with this exercise and I wrote all the options on colorful pieces of paper which I pasted on the board. I asked students to work in the same teams they worked with at the beginning. They had to work together to complete the sentences. Then, they competed to paste the answers on the chart. They made two lines and they had to run and picked the right option for the sentence I read.

My time was over so I thanked my students for their participation and for being so nice. Then my tutor continued with the rest of the class.

I am proud of myself!!!

I feel so satisfied with my progress through this period. I began with a good grade, but thanks God I have improved it with each opportunity I have had.

When all this stuff about teaching in the major began, I thought it was going to be so difficult and stressful; however, I have realized teaching is something I enjoy, and that could be one of the reasons why I always try to do my best. I think my progress has been shown in many ways.

Today, I had to begin a new lesson which is something I like, since that means I would have the chance to explain the grammar part (in this case the use of “so” and “such” and a review on “countable and uncountable nouns”). Thus, I decided to take advantage of the warm-up to check students’ previous knowledge on the topic. I prepared two sets of sentence strips using the target structures which I pasted in a scramble way on the wall near the board. I divided the class into two groups, and they had to order the sentences trying to guess the sentences I have written, and they had to paste them on the board. They did it very fast considering that I had not explained anything yet. The sentences they order, I used them as examples to explain the grammar structures. I gave students extra material on the grammar explanation so they do not have to copy and I could get their complete attention. On the explanation of the use of “such” I had to make emphasis on countable and uncountable nouns, so I carried a nice reading which I split into many pieces and distributed among students. I read the passage and they had to paste each piece of it as I mention it. Then, students had to identify all the countable and uncountable nouns from the reading which surprisingly they did very good.

Finally, I ask students to work in an exercise which was in the handout I had provided them. Unfortunately, my time was over and the teacher finished checking it.

I liked this class since I not only taught, but I also had the chance to review a topic I had forgotten (so and such).