Almost done....

Hello everybody!!! I am so happy because I almost finish this last teaching mission. I am not saying that I do not like to teach, but what I really hate is to get a grade which sometimes has been that I have unfair after each class. I really like teaching, but not being observed and evaluated by people that criticize my mistakes, even though when they make the same ones. Anyways, I guess that's part of the process.

Let me tell you that yesterday, it was a little bit difficult to go to teach after a long period of vacations, but anyways, I did it. I had to continue on the less control practice of the same lesson we used last time. You know that I really hate the practice phase, but this time I tried to enjoy it more.

I began with a very common warm-up "change places if..." Since my objective was to practice the present perfect in the oral form, I asked them to say phrases like "change places if you have taken a shower, have done homework, have eaten, etc" Besides, the standees had to pick up and answer a "Have you ever...?" question which were on a box, and then, they had to say another phrase to make people stand up. I really like that activity in which students easily put into practice the target structure and they also had fun.

After that, I asked students to work on groups of four to work on some yes/no questions which were supposed to be in the handout, but they weren't. So I read a question, and they had to ask it to each other on the groups, but if the answer was yes, they had to tell the experience. I monitored their conversations, and every certain time I changed the questions.

We continued with a great activity in which a student had a minute to look around him to memorize the position of everything; then, he had to go outside for some minutes while we were inside the classroom making some changes. After that the student had to go in and try to guess what has changed...

Finally, they work on groups again, and I gave them an adjective flashcard to each group. They had to discuss and give ideas of what they thought that could have happened to the people on the flashcard for them to have those expressions on their faces. I was monitoring students when my tutor told me that time was up.

This time, there was no oral feedback. My tutor only gave me the evaluation page to read what she had written. I did not want to read so I just checked my grade which I think it was acceptable.

Last teaching mission!!!

OMG! I cannot believe that we almost finish this hard teaching missions. I feel so happy because we are missing only two more classes and we´ll be free from all this.

I have to tell you that I have a very nice group this time. My new students are so kind and participative that I really liked my first teaching experience with them. However, that group is kind of large so I have to be very careful if I want to manage everything well.

I was so happy to know that I was going to introduce the grammar part instead of just working on the practice phase that I think that was one of the reasons why I felt so confident and which made me forgot about nervousness; and also because I already knew my tutor so I knew the way she works which was another advantage.

Today, I arrived 15 minutes before the class. Thanks God I had enough time to arrange everything before the class. My tutor arrived some minutes later which was perfect for me.

I began the class by introducing myself. Then, we continued with the warm-up. Well, let me tell you that Raul and me were assigned to teach the same topic, so we decided to work together on the preparation of activities and also materials. We did exactly the same warm-up, the same practice with the flashcards, and we even taught grammar in the same way using the sentences which they had to order on the different uses as we were explaining. I tell you this since it would be a waste of time for me to write what I did if you had already read Raul´s blog.

I can only tell you that it was a very nice class which I enjoyed a lot of. Since it was about the use of "can", I asked students to think about special abilities that they had. Some guys say they could move their nose or ears, and they showed it to the rest of the class. It was so funny because one guy said he could sing, and he sang a piece of "La Reina Del Sur" song. Another guy showed us how to dance reggaeton. Everybody was so excited by showing their abilities. I liked this part of the class since they were using the target structure without noticing it.

The feedback was nice. I had some pronunciation mistakes. But the rest was great, my tutor told me she liked the activities.