My third class

                                                                                Monday, February 18^th 2013.

Salutations Everyone!

Thanks God my third class with the guys of the ACCESS Program was successful despites of the fact that I began it 5 minutes later because the people in charge to open the classroom’s door weren’t there which was very strange because they have always been there the previous times.

This is what I did:

After greeting students and establishing rapport, I did a TPR activity as a warm-up in order to awake students because they are always kind of tired inasmuch as they attend to high-school the whole morning. Thus, they need to be motivated and get into another level of consciousness so that the class will be of benefit. The warm-up activity was called: “Don’t do what you see, but do what you listen to”

Then, I did a quick grammar review by eliciting examples of affirmative and negative sentences as questions and answers with The Simple Present Tense. Next, I gave students a short reading with some blanks which they had to fill in by writing the correct verb. I checked the activity orally by eliciting answers from the students in general. Finally, I did some comprehension questions about the reading.

For the next activity, I did a short TPR game in order to make random trios; it was called: “Rabbits to your house!”. I love this game because students always have fun with it. Then, when students were in trios, I gave them the instructions for the role-play in a sheet of paper and orally too, and I set the time they had to create their dialogues. In the role-play, student A was supposed to be a TV reporter who interviews students B and C who were supposed to be famous people; I asked students to be creative and funny and they were very, very funny by the time they were acting. We all have a lot of fun and laugh with their performances; I tried to make the interviews more vivid by playing talk-shows’ intro music at the beginning, and by playing clapping’s sounds when they finished their interview. It was very cool! After the role-plays, I let students know about the most common mistakes that I could notice during their performance; I did it in general and just as a remainder.

For the wrap-up, we played “ The hot potato”; the lucky student who had the medium dice in his/her hands when the music stopped, talked about his/her habits or daily routines for 30 seconds  without stopping. When I gave students the instructions, I reminded them to use the target grammatical structure, which I consider it’s very important. Finally, I let students know about the most common mistakes that I could notice during their participation and I asked the participants if we should give the rest of the students a candy and they said: “No”; nevertheless, I gave them all a candy.

All in all, what I liked the most from this class was that it was very interactive, It was student-centered, we all had fun and students were excellent actors and participants; I’m going to miss this group!

My second teaching experience

                                                       Monday, February 11^th 2013

Hello once again!

I’m so excite it to tell you about my second experience because everything went so well; it was wonderful to me, I didn’t have any problems with anything, of course, my tutor and peer gave me a couple of suggestions for the things that I need to improve, but I feel very, very satisfied with my performance of that day.

Some of the things that really help me to be less stress and consequently teach better were the facts that I could work on my lesson plan as well as rest during the weekend; in addition, I applied all the pieces of advice that my tutor gave me in my previous feedback.

What went well after all?

Everything went well thanks GOD. I began the class with a mimic game and I gave all students a candy to motivate them. Then, I used a short reading, which had many pictures; students listened to the audio's reading and then I asked some comprehension questions about it. Finally, students underlined the sentences that had the target grammatical structure, which was the simple present tense. For the next activity, students stood up and worked in groups of four to discuss some questions for 5 minutes. The last two activities were the ones that students enjoyed the most since I developed them outside the classroom, on the basketball court for being more specific. For the penultimate activity, which was called “find someone who…?”, I asked students to make a circle in order to give them directions about it and then to check their results. For the wrap –up, I developed a TPR activity in which students needed to speak and listen to their classmates too; it was called “Swap place if you…”.

About my feedback:

Well, I’d like to share it because I think it can be very helpful for you too guys. Among the positive observations that my tutor gave me were: enthusiasm, good CCQ, good transitions among activities, good activities, good interaction with students and he also liked that at the beginning of the class I gave students a piece of paper so that they could write their name on it and paste it on their chest. On the other hand, my tutor advised me to do not give too many directions at the same time; this is something that I already knew, but that I couldn’t avoid at the moment of teaching. Hence, my tutor shared with me a technique to give directions better; he told me to use only three verbs at once, for example: “Stand up, come to the board and work in groups of four”.

So, this was my second teaching experience at UNICAES and I really enjoyed it; I really hope that the rest of them can be even better and I wish the same for you too.

My first teaching practice at UNICAES in the ACCESS program

                                                                                                               Friday, February 8th 2013

Hello everyone, I hope you be doing well with your practice.

My first teaching practice was on Friday, I taught a teenagers’ group of the ACCESS program. 

At the beginning of the class I felt very nervous because you know, it was the first time and I really wanted to do a great job. At the end, my performance was not the one that I expected because of my nerves, I was very, very nervous so I committed some grammatical and pronunciation mistakes; however, it was not that bad, it was just that it was not the way that I expected because I knew that I could have done it better.

In regard with my lesson plan, everything was very good and appropriate for the student’s level of English and for their likes; I used a song with a rap rhythm to teach grammar just like teacher Melendez taught us, I cut the lyrics into pieces so that students could pasted their part of the song on the board when they listened to it in the song. I also used some flashcards to get them speak during the warm-up and the worksheet for the controlled-practice had some pictures too; I think pictures always help students to understand better an activity and they also motivate them.

About the students:

I taught a group of 19 students, they are teenagers who are still in high-school, but they already speak English since this is their second year at the ACCESS program. I had a really good time with this group because they are smart, obedient, willing to participate and willing to learn; in addition, they respect you as a teacher and they also respect your class. My advice to you for this group is that you should include many speaking activities as well as TPR activities not only because they like them, but also because these activities help them to be more “awake” during the class.

About my feedback:

I received two feedbacks for this class, one from my tutor and the other one from the teacher of the group that I taught. The pieces of advice that both teachers gave me were tremendously helpful for me. I’m going to tell you the things that they liked and the things that they advised me to improve so that you can take advantage of my experience too. My tutor liked the lesson plan in general, he especially liked the song and the fact that I taught grammar with a song; he also liked the transitions that I did among the activities and that all the activities were perfectly matched with the objective.

The teacher and my tutor advised me to ask students to speak aloud in this way: “I’m sorry, what did you said?” and put my hand on my ear. This is because some students don’t speak aloud. They also advised me to use more CCQ and to do not speak while I’m writing on the board because this is as if I was talking to the board; this last comment was kind of funny for me, but that was what I did in first class and they told me that it is something that often happens to novice teachers.