LAST CLASS

Before to start I´d like to say that I´m so glad that I finally finished my teaching practicum. It hasn´t been so easy, but I´ve learned a lot. 

For the very first time I wasn´t nervous before starting the class.

As a warm up, I had the students playing the "hot patato" game; the person who got the ball had to answer a question using "used to". After that, I had them working with a listening from the book which was also related to the topic "used to". For this class I was supposed to do only practice since the teacher had previously explained the grammar part.

After the listening, I had them working on a fill in the gaps exercise. Later, they worked on a short reading which talked about childhood memories, and taking as a model the paragraph I asked the students to write some sentences to talk about their childhood memories. As a follow up activity, I asked them to stand up and go around the classroom to share with their classmates what they had written. 

I tried to get students practicing the four macro skills of the target language, so I guess it was a good class. 

THIRD CLASS INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH I

Today I taught my third class with Intermediate English I. I must say that I feel really happy for this is almost the end of my teaching practicum. 
This time I felt things went so much easier, maybe because of the experience I have acquired throughout this course or probably the topic was kind of easy. I had  to teach the present perfect: simple and progressive. 
I began the class with a warm up related to vocabulary. After that I gave the grammar explanation. Later, I had them doing a fill in the blanks exercise which was a dialogue. When they had finished, I checked that everybody had answer properly, and I ask some of them to perform the dialogue in front of the class. 
After that, I had them developing an activity "find someone who". Because of time I had to stop them; they were enjoying and speaking a lot. Unfortunately, I didn´t have enough time to develop some exercises I had planned, but in general, I think it was a good class. 

SECOND CLASS INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH I

My second practice with this group was satisfactory. This time I felt more comfortable with this group, so I gave my best to teach them. 
The video of my class was being recorded during this practice, but I didn´t feel uncomfortable or nervous as I thought I would be. 
This time I was supposed to have the students practicing the future tense (be goin to, will and present continuous), but speaking and free practice mainly, so I began the class with a warm up using some scrambled sentences written in the tense I mentioned before.
I continued with a listening and then I had them doing a fill in the gaps exercises mixing up the three structures. 
After that, I asked them create groups and I had them discussing and making predictions about certain statement regarding their future. They were standing up and moving around while doing this activity.As I follow up activity, I asked some voluteers to share with the rest of the class what they were discussing in their groups.
Later, I continued  with a "chain story" activity for which I provide some cards containing some words and verbs related to the future, and  they had to use them to invent their story about making predictions regarding a person´s future or their own. During this activity they were working in trios. While I was monitoring I could listen to them speaking a lot using the structures to invent the story. Unfortunately, due to time issues, I wasn´t able to ask and hear all the groups sharing their stories with the class; I just had the chance to listen to a couple of them what they had invented. I think they enjoyed this activity and they had fun while working on it because some of them were inventing funny stories.

First teaching practicum with Intermediate English I

My first class with this group went pretty well even though I was kind of nervous because it is a new group for me and I don´t know them so well. 
I began the class some minutes later because just few students had arrived to the classroom. 
As a warm up I used a bingo which was about stative verbs ( stative and dynamic verbs was the topic I was to teach) all the students enjoyed the game and at the same time it helped me to introduce the new topic. After that, to formally introduce the topic I used a short paragraph which they had to read and underline the mistakes; the mistakes were some stative verbs written in the progressive form, and I got surprised because they immdiately identified them. As a follow up activity, we corrected the mistakes. Later, I gave the grammar explanation; luckly, this time doing this part wasn´t that difficult. Then, I had them doing a written practice which they developed properly. Furthermore, I had them doing a miming activity; in order to do this activity I ask some students to mimic and make gestures regarding a verb, and the rest of the students had to raise their hand and tell me if it was dynamic or stative and a sentence using such verb. If they did it accurately, I was supposed to give them a point. During this activity I could verify that the students actually grasped the new topic because they participated properly saying if the verb was stative or dynamic and using it in a correct sentence as well.  
As a wrap up, I had the students working on a exercise from the book. 
As I said before this class went allright, and I hope the coming classes turn out great as well. 

LAST CLASS WITH ADVANCED ENGLISH I

First of all, I would like to say that I´m glad because I finally finished with this period.
My last experience with this class was quite satisfactory because I was able to develop all the activities I had planned. 
I began the class with a warm up using scrambled sentences. The sentences were related to the passive voice structure. 
I was supposed to teach passive voice in the simple and progressive tense so then, I continued with the grammar explanation. I wrote some sentences on the board and explained the use of the structure; I also gave them a piece of paper containing a more detailed explanation and more examples as well.
After that, I had them doing a written practice in which they had to transform some sentences from active to passive. I helped them because they were 
The follow up activity was a fill in the blanks; it was a recipe and they had to complete it using the passive form of the verbs that were given into brackets. Later, I asked them to work in groups and take as a model the recipe from the previous exercise to write a recipe from their own of a dish they already know or it could have been made up. I provided paper and markers so that they could do it in a chart; at the end, I asked them to present their recipe. I could notice that they enjoyed this activity. 
It was a very nice class and I´m pleased with the work I have done so far. 

THIRD CLASS ADVANCED ENGLISH I

My third practice with this group went alright. Again, I tried to be prepared as much as I could, so I was more relaxed and comfortable before beginning the class. Another teacher, whom I didn´t know at all, was going to be checking my work, which got me a little bit nervous, but then I forgot about it.
My tutor teacher asked me to prepare activities related to the previous topic I taught in the previous class, so it wasn´t that hard. 
As warm up, I used the commonly known activity "Find Some Who...". In this activity students had the chance to practice the Present Perfect Tense, simple and progressive, in the oral form. I think they enjoyed it because they were speaking a lot and using the target structure a lot. 
After that, I had them doing a fill in the gaps exercise; it was also related to the Present Perfect. 
I also had prepared a reading comprehension which was about being a vegetarianism. I asked them to work in groups where they were going to read and then to disscuss some questions. After that I was going to ask them to prepare some presentations about the topic they were reading, but unfortunately time wasn´t enough; they took more time than what I had estimated to work on the reading.
During the feedback session, the teacher told me some techniques to handle such a large class because I´m still having trouble in managing them. There are too many students and it is kind of hard to have them all quiet. 

SECOND CLASS ADVANCED I

My second class with this group went pretty well. First of all, I would like to say that in this second practice I learned that attitude defines if things will go wrong or right; I got prepared for this class with plenty of time in advanced and I got in my mind that everything would go right, and so it was. 
I was supposed to teach present perfect: simple and progressive, so I began the class with a warm up called "truths and lies". The students have to write 4 sentences using the present perfect tense (some of the sentences could be lies and others could be truths) then, they had to stand up and read their sentences to their classmates and they were supposed to guess wich ones were false and which ones were true. I noticed that they enjoyed this game as well as they practiced the present perfect tense a lot.

After that, I gave the grammar explanation. I must say that I feel proud of the way I did it since I didn´t use charts; I had studied that topic a lot, so I was able to explain it in my own words, and I could see that everybody understood because they did the following activities without almost any trouble. I was able to clarify doubts exactly when they needed it. Honestly, it feels nice to be called "teacher" and gain the student´s trust by teaching them the correct way of using a certain grammar structure either in the written or speaking form.

To finish the class, I had them doing an speaking activity. I pasted 5 statements on the wall. The statements were written using the present perfect, for instance, I wrote: "how long have you been learning English and how has it been your experience?". I formed groups and I ask each group to go to one question and discuss it. After some minutes I asked them to switch, so each group was able to discuss the 5 statements. Then, I had some students to report what they were commenting in their groups. 
I could notice that they enjoyed my class a lot and I had a great time as well even though this group is kind of difficult to handle because there are too many students. 

FIRST TEACHING EXPERIENCE WITH ADVANCED ENGLISH I

Well, my first experience with this group wasn´t that bad, but it wasn´t that good either. However, I feel as if I´m moving backwards instead of moving forwards in my learning process to be a teacher; honestly, I already proved that teaching is definitely not my thing. 
Anyways, for this class I had prepared a very nice warm up, but it didn´t worked out as I expected. It was for students to fresh up their minds about verbs that take infinitives, verbs that take gerunds and both; For this activity I took to the class a set of verbs for each group and a chart with each category, and I asked the students to form four groups. When I read a verb, it was supposed that someone from the group had to go to the board to paste the verb in the right category; the first group doing it properly would get a point, but it became a whole mess because only two groups were participating and some students got too excited to past it first that they even ripped off the chart from the board and they were making too much noise, so I had to stop the activity.
The follow up activity was an exercise on the book in which they had to underline the correct form of gerund or infinitive, and they did it right. 
I had prepared a short listening, so I began with the pre activity and everybody participated, unfortunately, when I was going to play the listening there was no electricity. I felt kind of frustrated in that moment, but anyways I continued with another activity, and all the students were working. There I realized that it is always necessary to have a "plan B" because you never know what can go as you haven´t planned.
To finish the class I had two students doing a practice for impromptu speeches because my tutor teacher asked me to do so.

THIRD PRACTICE WITH INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH I

Unfortunately, my third practice with this group didn´t go so well. This time I was supposed to review countable and uncountable nouns and teach the use of "so and such as". I began the class with a warm up in which the students were divided into two groups; one group had to write as many countable nouns as they could, and the other group had to write uncountable nouns. At the end, the group with more nouns was the winner. After that, I gave the grammar explanation. The problem was with exercise I asked them to do; the exercise was in the lesson plan the tutor teacher gave me, but I guess it was too hard for them because almost any of them was able to do it. When I got closer to monitor their work, I could notice that everybody had written anything, so I had to tell each of them how to solve it. It took me a lot of time, and at the end, it was the only one activity I did, so it affected my grade, but I felt that it wouldn´t be right to continue with the class if they hadn´t understood well. At least at the end they had clearer the use of countable and uncountable nouns although I couldn´t move on with the other topic and other activities I had prepared. It made me feel kind of frustrated.

Second Entry Intermediate English I

The last Friday 27, I had my second teaching practicum with the group of intermediate. I arrived very early, but the students always come to class late; that´s why it is kind of hard to do the warm up activity since they are getting one by one to the classroom, and I have to explain every single student what they are supposed to do (it is something I hate). Anyway, I decided to do a wordsearch as a warm up because I was supposed to do a review of the simple past tense. This wordsearch contained about 20 regular and irregular verbs in their past form, so I thought this would be a good idea for them to remember about how the verbs are written and pronounced in the past form; it was kind of difficult to find the verbs, so I asked them to work in groups of 5 or 6, and the group finishing first was the winner. I think they liked this activity although it is not that dynamic. 

I took a very nice dialogue for them to remember the affirmative, negative, and interrogative form of the simple past tense. I gave them some minutes to read it, then, I read it to them so that they could listen to the pronunciation, and at the end, I required some volunteers to perform the dialogue. 
Later, I explained them some of the use of the that tense and I provide some examples. I asked them to provide some examples as well. Then, I had them doing some written exercises, and to finalize the class I did a story telling activity in which they had to use the simple past in the oral form. In order to develop this activity, I took a picture of a princess and a witch so that they could invent like a tale or story; I aked them to do a big circle and to say at least 3 sentences using the simple past. I began the tale, and then, each student would add a short part. I guess they liked this activity, and I think it is extremely helpful when teaching this tense since it contributes to check if the students are using the tense properly; in the case of this group, I could notice that there are still some students struggling with the correct use of it.

I think it was a nice class, but as always, there are still some weaknesses which I need to work on to keep improving as a teacher. My tutor told me to be firmer and not to let them use their native tongue, which is something I will definitely consider in further classes. 

TEACHING PRACTICUM II first entry

This morning I had the first teaching practicum with Intermediate English I. First of all, I would like to say that teaching English is such a great experience and I already learned to like it and enjoy it. 
Today was the first time in which I felt comfortable and relaxed before teaching my class although I was worried because the group is very large and kind of difficult to handle. 
I began my class with a very nice warm up, but unfortunately there were just few students, and it was kind of hard to explain each student that was coming in what they were supposed to do, but at the end they were speaking and the teacher told me during the feedback that she had liked the it because I had them speaking a lot.
I was requiered to teach the present continuous tense, it was an easy topic, so I introduced it with a short reading, luckly everything went well. After that, I gave the grammar explanation and I had them doing some written practice with the tense I had just explained; I checked their answers and they did it well. To finish the class, I had them doing work group in which I gave them some pictures, and they were requiered to write a short paragraph about what they saw the people were doing in the image; at the end they had to present the picture and share the paragraph with the rest of the class. 
During the feedback the teacher told me that I did well and that all the activities matched with my objective; she liked that I had them speaking and participating a lot. 

Last Teaching Practicum With Intermediate II

Before beginning my entry about my last practice, I want to say that I really liked this experience even though it caused me to be anxious and nervous in some times, but I learned many things regarding with teaching English; besides, it has given me a great personal satisfaction because I did many things which I thought I would never be able of doing so. 

Everything went well in my last; fortunately the warm up I had prepared worked out as I expected. 

I was required to teach the students the use of MAKE and LET, so it was an easy topic. I explained to them the use of it, and then I had them doing a practice on the book and they did it correctly. After that, I had them doing a listening in which they remembered about childhood memories. 

It was a very nice class, and my grade was good. 

THIRD TEACHING PRACTICUM INTERMEDIATE II

The third class with intermediate was kind of well although I was nervous because I had someone record my class. There was some trouble with the camara since it was meant to record 40 minutes, but in the moment it just recorded like 20 minutes.

I began the class with a nice warm up that my collegue Lupita shared with me; it is a really good one and it worked perfectly for my class.
The class was to be pretty challenging because of the grammar structure I was to teach and the students didn´t know anything about it. It was defining realtive clauses, so I introduced the topic with a reading from the book. After that, I gave the grammar explanation, then I had some volunteers to provide some examples to check if they had understood, and fortunately they did because they gave some correct examples. Later, I gave them some written exercises for they to practice more on the new topic, and I had some other activities prepared, but time wasn´t enough to continue.

This time I didn´t see my grade, but whichever it is, I´m satisfied with what I achieved and learned with this practice.

SECOND CLASS WITH INTERMEDIATE II

My second teaching practice with this group was on the last Friday. Thanks God, everything went well; definitely, I was lucky to be assigned such a great group.

I began the class with which required them to speak a lot and they enjoyed it. The rest of the class was easy since I just was required to do a review of the past perfect tense, so I gave a short explanation of it and how to connect simple past clauses with past perfect clauses. After that, I had them doing an exercise on the book which was using a listening. I also had to teach them the use of some useful phrase which I did it using a listening from the book.

I´m glad of doing this practicum because I´m getting used to using my English in a more natural and fluenty way; besides, my fear of speaking in public is going away.

FIRST PRACTICE WITH INTERMEDIATE II

I had my first practice with the intermediate students on last Friday. I must confess that I was extremely nervous, even more than with the previous groups because this group is very large, but fortunately as the class flowed, I became more comfortable and calm and I even enjoyed teaching them.

My tutor teacher urged me to begin the class with a nice warm up since they had been going through a tedious evaluation week, and so I did; everybody participated and got engaged with what I would do next. The topic was easy: modals of deduction, and probably that´s why I felt it was easier to teach that class. I did a listening, but this time I didn´t forget the pre, during and post activities. Then, i continued with the grammar explanation which I think I did kind of well because everybody did well on the short practice I asked them to do after I had explained. Lastly, I took some flashcards of famous and beautiful places around the worls for the students to make deductions about it ( I gave a flashcard per trio). 

The more I teach, the more I understand and learn the process of teaching a foreign language which at the beginning seemed a huge confusion to me and I didn´t know what to do. 

FOURTH AND LAST TEACHING PRACTICUM IN ADVANCED

First of all, I must say that I feel really proud of what I have achieved and learned during this period of practice teaching the advanced level even though I know I still have lots of things to learn. 

My last class wasn´t that good as the previous ones; I didn´t like that much the warm up I did but anyway the students participated. I was supposed to do a listening, but things didn´t turn out as I expected due to my lack of preparation and probably lack of practice when working with listenings; it was a very long listening and I played it once but then I didn´t know exactly what to do next ( in the second playing) because the during activity in the book wasn´t that appropriate, and I was working based just on that. During the feedback session my tutor teacher told me that I should´ve created my own during activities and the correct way how to deal with long listenings; she also told me that I shouldn´t feel so bad or frustrated about it since it is just a matter of practice. 

Even though it wasn´t an excellent class, I´m happy because I finished with this group and because I gained more confidence.

 

THIRD TEACHING PRACTICUM IN ADVANCED

Yesterday I taught the third class in advanced; basically, everything was alright. 

I began the class late because the techer hadn´t arrived to the classroom. I began without her being there because it was too late already, and I thought that was going to be a problem in my grade outcome, but fortunately it did not affect me at all since during the feedback, the teacher told me that she had liked that. 
During the grammar explanation some of the students were talking and laughing, but I managed to keep explaning without getting desperate and getting them back focused. In general, all the activities were ok since with advanced levels we´ve got to have them speaking a lot, but being careful because they may lose focuse on working in their job and could begin speaking about other matters.
I had some trouble with some exercises because they were too confusing, but anyway they solved them. 

My tutor teacher praised my positive attitude towards teaching the class and she liked it, and I must say that it is something I feel really proud about; honestly, that is a big achievement for me because in spite of the fact that teaching is not my thing, I´m doing it fairly well.

I´m giving my best to improve my teaching skills, so I hope everything turns out alright at the end of this course.

SECOND TEACHING PRACTICUM IN ADVANCED

My second practice with the advanced group went pretty well. Now I can say that I finally overcome my fear of being a teacher, and I actually enjoyed teaching the class because even the teacher told me that it was reflected on my smiling face. I´m so glad that I finally changed my attitude towards teaching.

Of course, everything went ok because I gave my best planning the class, besides, the topic and grammar explanation was kind of easy. I learned that preparation plays an important role at the moment of teaching.

I hope to do the next practices as well as I did the last one, and to keep learning and improving as much as I can.

First Teaching Practice in Advanced

Yesterday I did my first teaching practicum in Advanced (my biggest fear); even though I made some mistakes and was kind of nervous, the class turned out to be better than how I thought it would be.

I started the class a little bit later and with few students, but as the rest of the students came in, they were getting into the warm up activity; I could notice that they liked it because they were talking a lot and having fun. Honestly, I was afraid they wouldn´t be quiet or paying attention to me because I know this is a restless group, but the presence of licdo. Melendez helped me a lot.

Again, I made the same mistake when working with the PDP framework; I didn´t do a pre activity, but I´m sure that it was the last time, from now on I know I won´t forget it.
Another mistake I made was when giving the grammar explanation. It was a review of relative clauses, so they already know about it and when a I gave them the examples, I should´ve given them the opportunity to provide examples of their own, but I forgot to do so.
I had them doing a roplepay in which they were to use all the vocabulary they had been studying, and they did it well.

Fortunately, the rest of the class went ok although I wasn´t able to finish due to time issues; I would´ve liked to finish because I had prepared a good activity to introduce new vocabulary.

Of course, I hope to improve my teaching skills in the next classes.

FOURTH TEACHING PRACTICE IN BASIC ENGLISH

Today I taught my fourth and last class in Basic English. I had to teach grammar of the simple present tense; although it was basically a review, I had a hard time because teaching  grammar is what I like to do the less since I feel as if nobody understands me. I felt nervous and I guess it was noticeable; it is so frustrating not to being able to control nervousness yet.

The warm up went wrong because it was a survey that the students had to answer according to their tastes and believes, but I didn´t clearly know what to do after they answered.

I´ve learned a lot through these first practices, and I´ve tried  to follow the advices given on the feedback; hopefully with time, I´ll do it better.

My 3rd teaching practicum

I definitely felt more confident and calm in my 3rd teaching practicum although at the beginning I thought everything would go wrong since that day there was a catholic event exactly at the moment that my class would start and almost all the students were there; I just had three students, and I had prepared a warm up for all the group together (30 or 31 students), so I was kind of sad and worried that my warm up wouldn´t work. Anyways I began to develop it, and while the few students were doing it, the others were getting in the classroom. Even though it wasn´t as I would´ve wanted, the students developed it correctly and I got them remember the topic studied previously, and I could notice that they liked it. 

Luckly, my class was to be developed just by checking some exercises(homework) in their handouts. I used different strategies to check and correct mistakes having them involved so that they wouldn´t get bored; besides, I had them practicing their pronunciation. 
After this experience I can say that just checking exercises or homework is not as easy as it seems; we must check and be aware that every single students is doing it corectly, and if not, we must be showing and explaining the correct way to do it which sometimes could be exhausting.

Second teaching practice in Basic English

I guess my second class went a lot better. I tried to follow all the suggestions my tutor gave me in the previous feedback, and they helped me a lot. Everybody participated in the warm up since I gave clearer directions (I provide an example on what they were to do written on the board); I was satisfied because I had them writing and speaking and they seemed they enjoyed doing the activity. Regarding with the speed I did the activities the previous class, this second time I took it into consideration so I was doing each activity more camly. It helped me to realize that the class flows more naturally if I do so. I think I did well teaching the grammar explanation since I involved them a lot during I was explaining avoiding to get them bored; after that I did a short exercise to check if everybody had understood, and most of them did well.
I guess with more practice I will assume my rol and believe in myself that I´m a teacher.

My first teaching class experience

Yesterday, I did my first teaching practicum in Basic English. Unfortunately, many things went wrong; I wasn´t nervous, but since it was my first time and I don´t have experience at all, I forgot to do some things. First of all, I didn´t write the date and the objective for the class I was going to teach, and I made a mistake when doing the presentation. It was a reading and I forgot to do the pre-activity; in other words, I ran too much when I was doing the activities. I definitely got an important lesson which I´m very sure I won´t forget; not even in all my years of studying how to teach English I´d have learned what I learned yesterday, so I´m positive and sure that it will help me to do better my next classes.