Nice class, bad grade!!!

Strange….right? But it is at it seems. Today, I was happy because I had to teach again after a period of forced vacation because of the terrible rain; I had the opportunity to prepare my class and all the activities since last week. I read everything in order to be well prepared for this first day, and even I tried to improve my class by adding more enthusiasm as other teachers have told me to do it, and also I follow the recommendations that my tutor gave in the last feedback.

But guess what? Now that I followed her recommendations, she told me to change the things almost in the same way that I did them in the last class. So I got confused and frustrated because I’ve never crowded her expectations. She just evaluated me one activity because she did not like, but she never talked about the rest of them or said something positive about my class. I don’t like this evaluation because it is not fair, and it won’t help me to improve; it will just help to make me feel terrible!

Talking about the class, I greeted the students, and I asked them about their activities in the last week, and if they had had any kind of problem with the rain, but thanks God they didn’t. After that I made a little warm-up related with the new topic in which the students had a little fun. Then, I asked them to read a paragraph; it was related with jobs and present participle, so I didn’t want to talk too much about jobs because I did it in the last class. I asked them to work in pairs and read aloud to each other because I’ve noticed that they’re afraid to speak and pronounce the words. For me it was a nice idea, but my tutor thought the opposite.

I asked them about the reading, and they answered very well. Besides, I told them to underline the sentences or expressions in present perfect, and almost all of them confused simple past with present perfect. Then, I explained the grammar and the difference between the two tenses, and they got it easily.

Finally, I made two controlled activities; the first one was a fill in the blanks activity for them to practice "have" and "has" and the other one was a crossword for them to practice the verbs in the participle form.

I enjoyed my class, and I think the students as well, also they were participating and doing all the activities. I know that a grade defines knowledge, but I don’t think this grade will define me because I’m glad that I’ve improved my skills as a teacher, and thanks God, I don't have nerves anymore!

Every class is a new experience!!!

Hello friends!!

After two weeks of vacations, I had to come back to my teaching practicum, and now I want to share my new experience during my last class. I´m happy because I´m almost done with these practices; I´m in the third period, but as I said before, every class is a new experience. Guess what??? During my last class, I didn´t introduced myself and of course, I didn´t notice it until my tutor told me during the feedback, and I was reflecting on myself and what a shame on me! This is my last period and I´m doing things that were supposed to do in the first period instead of the last one. That means that I have to pay more attention because now I have a new group; though I already know them, I have to follow the same steps.

I tried to make the class funny because in that way students learn and they don´t get bored; also the time passes quickly. I started the class with the warm-up which was about jobs; it was review of some jobs and occupations that the students supposed to know already. Then, I had to make the presentation related with jobs, so I took a reading of a book and I change it into strips for the students to order and read it.

According to me, the class was nice because the students were completing the activities that I had planned; though the reading took 35 minutes, but I gave them the chance to read and practice. I did it in that way because my previous tutors had told me to let them read, but my actual tutor told me that I took too much time in that activity. I know that each person has a different mind and sometimes I get confused, but for future classes, I will try to do my best with the activities that I consider appropriate for the students.