My last class!!!

Hello my dear friends!!

Today, I want to share the experience of my last class with the advanced students. During the 1^st and 2^nd class, I was kind of frustrated, but since the 3^rd class, the things were going on better, and in this 4^th class, I can say ¨good job¨ to myself. Thanks God, I was not nervous when teaching the class, even I did not get frustrated when planning it; I just tried to follow the topic and to look for interesting activities according their age.

I started the class with the same warm-up as in my previous class because I noticed that they liked it, and I promised them to do it again in next class; moreover, I thought that it would be interesting in order to introduce the new topic.  The students had a lot of fun with it, and they were trying to do their best. After the warm-up, I taught the grammar notes with a matching activity which was pretty easy; also I invented some tenses in order to know if the students were paying attention and they could notice them and also to have fun. I wrote the examples of the warm-up for them to notice that those sentences were useful, also I asked them their own sentences, and finally, I asked them what they have understood about the new topic, applying the CCQ.

After the grammar notes, students did some practice on the book, and we checked it together. One advantage for this activity was lack of books because almost the half of the class does not have it. The next activity was similar to the first practice, but in this case, I asked them to do it orally, and later, we checked the sentences together. I have planned a funny activity for them to enjoy and to practice the topic, but I did not have enough time, so I could not do it, but I gave all the material to my tutor and she was glad and excited, and she told me that she has liked the idea and she was going to do it later.

When my class was over, I thanked the students and the teacher. My tutor told me that she had enjoyed my class, and I was very happy to finish this period because in some moments I just wanted to give up. Thanks God I did it!!! =)

A great class!!!

Hello!!! Today I want to share my last experience in the teaching area. To tell the truth, I am totally fascinated with this class, and I can tell you that this is the best class that I have taught. I noticed it since the beginning, I mean since the moment that I started to prepare the class because it was the first time that I was not nervous in the previous day of teaching, I did not feel pressure of teaching, and I felt that I was going to do something good. It would be because I tried to enjoy my class when preparing it, so it helped me not to feel frustrated as I used to feel in the previous classes.

First of all, I started the class with a whispering activity though I had just five students, but later, the rest of them were incorporating into the groups. I noticed that the students had fun with this activity, but what they did not know is that they were practicing the topic because the sentences that I included were related to it. Something that I should have done is to give more sentences, but I promised to do it again in the next class, and I will do it.

After that, I had to do an activity in order to make pairs, but I could not do it because they were just 20 students and the activity was prepared for 30 students, so I had to change it and decide in the moment what else to do, and I let them choose their pairs in that way they had to create a dialogue in which they had to include the topic. It seems a little bit hard, but I showed them that it was not. I gave an example, and I told them to choose an interesting topic. There were some pairs that were undecided, so I asked them what things they liked in order to help them choosing the topic.

For me, it was unbelievable because all the pairs did the dialogue even the ones that usually talk a lot, and they did a good job with very good imagination, and it was nice to transmit it into that way. We had a good time when they had to perform it in front of the class, but unfortunately, with much respect, that teacher Christian arrived with a representative of the embassy of the United States, so I could not listen to all of them. But they had the opportunity to learn about the culture of the U.S. and practice the listening skills.

Now, I feel enthusiasm of continue teaching, and I am sure that I am learning a lot with this practices.

A hard class!!!

Hello my dear friends!!!

Now, I want to share with you my last experience when teaching Advanced level. Though I tried to do my best, the things did not go so good for me because students were very hyperactive during the whole class, and that made me feel a little anxious and with less confidence.

I prepared my class the best that I could, but it was not enough in the practice because sometimes I did not know what to do with the students as they were doing a lot of noise. It was just a group of boys, who were talking a lot, but that group distracted the whole class, and I told them sometimes to be quiet, but they denied doing it and because of the age, I think they are difficult to manage.

Since I have taught them once, I tried to prepare activities which they could enjoy. I brought a song for teaching the grammar notes and for them to sing it. Thanks God they liked the song and had a good time with it. That´s why I took advantage of it, and I assigned a free activity for them to practice speaking; that activity was related with the song and with the topic in discourse.

An observation that I had was to take more time explaining the grammar notes, I did not do it long because some teachers had told me to do it short, but I think each teacher is different and I have to respect each comment in order to improve my knowledge.

Though this was my second class, I was so nervous as my first class, and I do not why but I cannot avoid it. 

My first entry of the second period!!

Hello friends!! Today, I started my second period in the teaching practicum, and I want to tell you about my experience with the students of Advanced English I. Since some days ago, I had been very nervous because I had to teach advanced students and I did not know them either the teacher. I tried to control myself, but the most I tried the worst I was. When I observed the class, I saw that the class was pretty big and the students were very noisy; for that reason, I got more nervous. So I tried to study a lot in order to teach my class and to be well prepared for it.

At the beginning, I was nervous, but since I started the class, I felt better and more comfortable. The warm up was quite short and it did not have to do anything with the topic; I did it for the students to relax and have fun. My tutor told me that the warm up was nice and that she has never seen it before. Later on, I taught grammar and to tell the truth, I was anxious for teaching it because I was really prepared for doing so, and I organized well my class. Also, my tutor told me that she has liked my explanation.

After teaching grammar, I let the students practice on it by doing some exercises in which they worked really well, I was happy because most of them have understood the topic. I tried to monitor the students in order to check if they were working; though the teacher told me that I usually did it in the left part of the group, <> so next time I will do it in both parts.

Something that really helped me was that I managed well the topic, so when the students asked something, I was able to answer them. Something that I have to change is my voice in certain moments; though my tutor told me that I have a good voice, she also told that it would be a good idea to change the intonation sometimes in order to get the students’ attention when they’re speaking a lot. =)

4th entry!!!

Today, I want to share the experience of my last class in the first period of teaching in the Intensive Intermediate English I. It was a hard class because the teacher told me to prepare the grammar notes and to develop all the activities I could because she had little time to complete the unit, so I had to teach the grammar notes in an understandable and attractive way, but at the same time in a fast way. Thanks God, the students got easily the ideas and I was asking them to create some sentences for knowing if they had really understood.

During the activities, I tried to apply the CCQ which was very successful because I noticed that the students were understanding me, and also some of them were able to speak in order to explain others what they had to do in each activity. Moreover, the teacher told me that the CCQ was a good idea because students paid more attention when I was explaining the directions.

I liked this class because I had to study the topic, which was a little tricky to understand, and looked for more information in order to further enrich my knowledge. I think teachers must be well prepared in order to answer the students’ possible questions about the topics. In some extent, I tried to push the students to work fast and to make some activities orally for them to have more practice with the new topic.

In general, I liked this class because students were working hard, and they have understood the topic. Besides, I had more confidence and I felt sure about what I was teaching.

3rd entry!!

Hello friends!!

Now I want to share my teaching experience in the third class of this period. It was such a nice class with lots of activities. During this class, I tried to include the different learning styles such as bodily-kinesthetic, visual, tactile and audio because I have noticed that not all of them like to work in the same learning style so I have to think in my students´ learning process by applying a variety of activities for them to learn and develop their English skills.

Moreover, I tried to find the best pictures in magazines in order to bring them to the class for the students to describe them and to be part of those pictures. Students had to choose one picture, but they wanted to choose more than one, and also the teacher told that the pictures were amazing.

In one activity, I asked students to review the previous topics by doing mimics and creating sentences with each tense. Besides, I let them to made group work, pair work, and individual work. Also, I encourage them to use their own thoughts toward the activities.

For this class, I did not have to prepare so many activities by myself because all of them were already prepared. But I tried to include my own creativity though I think I still have to work on it because I know I can do it better. Also, I have to work on pronunciation because two students mispronounce some words and I did not correct them; for that reason, I have to pay more attention when students are pronouncing.

Something that I want to share is that now I feel better when I am teaching than in the previous semester because I have a little more self-confidence. Besides, my tutor told me that she has notice that I have more communication with the students, and that made me feel good because I know that I am improving my teaching abilities.