I finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, this was my last class in this subject. The topic was subject and object questions. I must confess that I felt kind of nervous at the beginning because I did not remember that topic very well. I had to teach from the beginning, so the grammar notes were included; I arrived early to the classroom in order to prepare my material; I started my class with a warm up as always. In that activity the students had to make three lines in front of a desk where they had a piece of paper; one representative from each group had to go out the classroom to read some sentences that I had pasted on the outside wall. The students that were inside the classroom had to listen to their classmates that were out because they had to dictate the sentences to them and they had to write them on the piece of paper. The activity was nice; my tutor liked it because it promoted the communication skills in the students. After the warm up, I continued with the presentation of the topic; I started by explaining what a subject and an object are so that students had a clear idea of what they were about to learn; I did it very carefully since this topic can be confusing. After that I explained the rules to identify or to distinguish those kinds of questions. The teacher told me that  my explanation was really nice. After that I pasted a chart on the board where they had to identify the sibject and the object questions. During my explanation some of them came up with some questions that I clarify and that consumed some of the time I had planned to perform other activities, so my time was up and I finished my class at that point. In my feedback session, my tutor told me that he had liked the warm up and the grammar explanation; I just had some pronunciation mistakes. At the end my grade was not as good as I expected; now I accept that teaching the grammar part in the practice really sucks. Anyway, I finished and I feel less stressed now.

Class and video

Hi, this was my second chance to teach. Uff, I'm almost done. Also, I decided to record my class because I think I have to be prepared in advance. I was worried because the part of the lesson plan I had to teach was really short and easy to be covered by the students. 

I arrived ten minutes before to the classroom in order to prepare my material and to look for  a place where to put the camera. The classroom is small, so I had to put the camera on a window; it was OK in that place because it had a good angle of vision. The teacher arrived and it was my time to start. I started the class with "The broken telephone"; I chose that game because it helps the student to exercise their communicative abilities. I got really surprised because the second message I sent got intact until the last student! I guess that has never happened before... jejeje. After that, students had to work in some fill-in-the-blanks exercises; I was worried because they finished very fast; actually, the exercise was sooooo easy. Well, after that my planning included another exercise of that kind, but I prepared it different. I made them stand up and make two lines in front of the board; I had pasted some papers on the board; in one of them I had written "Have" and in the other I wrote Has, but in addition I pasted more papers with words and drawings related to the sentences they had to complete. I showed the incomplete sentence to them and they had to pick up either the paper with "have" or the paper with "has" and also the drawing or word related to the sentence; I assigned 3 points to the first paper and 1 point to the second. It was a nice activity because it was a different way to present a fill-in-blanks exercise; also my teacher liked it. Then I still had 10 more minutes, so I made them work on the book. I can say I enjoyed this class although I was about to finish early. Also, I got my video and that is very important because I don't need to worry about that anymore. My grade was good.

The last period

Well, I'm almost done!! Today was my first class in the third period. Honestly, I must say that I've learned a lot this year. The topic for this class was job and occupations; it was focused on the use of can and can't. I arrived ten minutes before to the classroom and I prepared my material. At 7 AM, the teacher arrived, so I started my class. I began with a nice warm up. I pasted some papers on the students' back with names of jobs written on them; then I made them go around asking Can I...? They had to guess what was their profession, so they had to make questions to their classmates and practice the structure they were about to learned. They had fun and they practiced a little bit. After that, I present the topic using a reading. I read the paragraph first, and then I made them read portions of it. I used the activity of the ball; I gave a soft ball to a students and he had to read; when I said "next", he/she had to throw the ball to another student and he/she had to continue reading; that way I made them pay attention and participate. Later on, I explained the grammar part, that is, the uses of can and can't. For my explanations, I made them participate. I gave some sentences written on a paper to each student. As I was explaining the rules I made them analyze the sentences they had to determine if they belonged to the category I was teaching; For example if the sentence used Can to express ability, or to express permission, etc. They participated and demonstrated that they had understood. After that, I pasted on the board some flashcards about jobs; they hag to write sentences using can based on the abilities people have in their professions.
In the feedback, my tutor told me that he had liked the warm up because I had made the student speak; also, the reading was nice because they were paying attention. The grammar explanation was excellent also because I involve students in the explanation. Among the things I can improve, he told me about pronunciation; they were some words that I didn't pronounce well; my grade was not bad at all. I liked this class.

Only one period left!!!!!!!!...

My last class in this second period is already over. Today I arrived earlier to the classroom; it was empty, so I started preparing my stuff. At 7:00 AM some students arrived.

I started my class at 7:10 AM; I guess you already know why. I started with a warm up activity; I made the students work in groups; they had to send a representative to the front to pick up a paper and then they had to write what the paper said; for example: "6 clothes we wear in winter", etc. They like competitons, so I like to do those kinds of warm up activities. They had to write and when they finished, they had to shout "stop" and the other teams had to stop writing. If they had written the requested things accurately, they got a point.

After that, I started the lesson by presenting the grammar notes for the use of simple present and present progressive. I pasted two charts about the grammar rules on the board so they remembered those topics which they saw in basic English. After explaining that, I made them work on an exercise in the book. They had to match some names of clothes with the correct adjectives; It was kind of confusing, but I had studied that in my planning so I was prepared for any question. I monitored the activity and of course they had a lot of questions which I answered easily.

Later on, I made the students work on a conversation that was in the book. They had to complete it with some useful expressions related to shopping. They are very participative, so I didn't have any trouble to complete that exercise collectively. Once we finished, I made them repeat after me the pronunciation of some words and phrases. Then, I had them build up their own conversation in pairs; they had to use some of the useful expressions they had learned. I finished with that activity because my time was up.

I received a nice feedback from my teacher; she told me the things that she liked from my class, and after that she told me the things I could improve. My grade was good, so I feel satisfied with this second period that now is over. We are almost done, congratulations to all of us; keep it going!  

A forty minutes class

Today I taught my 3rd class; as always, I arrived early to the classroom and I started to prepare my material. I must admit that I did not feel well prepared for this class; yesterday I went to bed late, so today I did not feel OK; I felt very tired. The teacher arrived at 7:10, so I started my class at that time.The topic was not difficult; it was about direct and indirect objects, and also about verb patterns. I got a copy of the lesson plan yesterday, but the problem was that I confused the teacher's instructions. I thought I had to make a review of verb patterns and an introduction to the other topic, but it was the opposite. Anyway, I started my class with a warm up to review verb patterns (which was a topic they did not know about), but it was useful to introduce one of the lesson's topics. I had the students make three lines in front of the board; I gave some scrambled sentences to the ones at the beginning of the lines and they have to write the sentences correctly on the board; the one that finished first had to yell: "next" and the rest of the students had to stop writing and give the marker to the next student on the line; they had to continue doing the same until all of them participated. It was a nice warm up because some of them wrote correctly although they had not studied verb patterns before. Well, after that I made them work on a handout they had. It was about direct and indirect objects; they had to identify and underline those parts of the sentences; for some of them it was difficult at the beginning, but after some 2 or 3 sentences they were able to do it. I monitored the activity and some of the students asked for help to me; it was nice because that is a sign that they trust me as a teacher. After that I introduce the other topic, verb patterns; I made them work in their books. It was very easy because they had a list of verbs they could use to fill in some blanks to complete a conversation. After that I had to play  that conversation on the CD player but the teacher told me that there was no more time. Well, she arrived late and took 10 minutes from my time. Anyway, I'm just a practitioner, so I finished my class.

What did I learn? Well, I learn that I must pay more attention to my tutor; yesterday she told me what to do for today's class, but I forgot it and I did it in a different way; second, I learned that using a warm up about a new topic is not a bad idea at all; students may work with new things using their cleverness. It is a good idea to expose them to unknown things (obviously you have to explain later); and third, the time for a practitioner's class is not 50 minutes, it is the minutes they have available until it is time for the second part of the class. Good night.

A nice class!

Well, today I gave a class that I really enjoyed. The topic was adverbs of frequency, so I felt happy because I consider that as one of the easiest topics in English. Also, today I was observed by a classmate, so I had an additional reason to feel nervous.
As always, I had to wait for the teacher; she arrived around 7: 10, and I took advantage on that because I had plenty of time to prepare material. I started with the warm up proposed in the lesson plan; I made the students work in pairs and use some questions to discuss a topic. The topic was gifts, so I presented some realia which was a St. Valentine's gift. It was very useful because the students felt curious from the beginning and that made them pay attention to the class. After they discussed the topic with a classmate, I asked them to share some of their findings. One of the questions was: "Which is easier, buying gifts for men or buying gifts form women?", and almost all the students participated giving their opinions. I liked it. After that, it was time for a reading; I read the first paragraph and made some of the students to help me with the reading. I corrected mispronunciation of some words. Later on, I showed the content of the gift I had showed from the beginning of the class; it was an mp3 player and a necklace because the reading said that men prefer gadgets, and girls prefer jewelry; most of the students agreed with that affirmation.
After the reading part, I introduced some common expressions we use with objects, for example a bunch of, a pack of, a bottle of, etc. The students got the idea very fast. The next step was the grammar part which was a piece of cake. I explained the rules for using adverbs of frequency and I dictated some examples. I like those students; classroom management is easy with them.
I finished my class with some practice they had on their handouts. It was time for feedback, then.
The teacher told me that she had liked the way how I presented the activities, especially the warm up and the presentation of the topic. I knew I had done it well because at the end I felt good with my work. The weird thing this time was that I got a 6 in pronunciation; she showed me my mistakes which were 5 words only!!!!!
I guess my final grade was not bad at all, but the important thing is that I feel satisfied with the class I gave today.

A lesson learned. Second Period.

I had to get up very early today; I had to start my class at 7:00. Last night I went to bed early because the lesson was kind of easy, so I did my planning in some minutes. I arrived to the classroom at 6:45 with enough time to prepare my material; I had to wait around half an hour for the teacher (she lives in Ahuachapan like me; however, I came earlier; I do not understand), so I had extra time to review what I had prepared.
The teacher arrived, and I started my class at 7:15. I started with a warm up I did the last period with teacher Yesenia; students had to tell their names and the title of their favorite movie. That was very helpful because the number of students is around 25, so I had the opportunity to get familiar with their names. After the warm up, we worked on a listening; I had a student read the description of what the reading was about and then we listen to a TV show in which the participants had to answer some questions about their partners. Then, the students answered some questions about the listening and work in pairs in the next exercise in which they had to identify the tenses of the verbs in some extracts from the listening I had pasted on the board; it was easy because they are very smart and got the idea very fast. The topic was past progressive vs simple past; later on, I had them write sentences using the past progressive based on some pictures I showed. They did it very fast and had few mistakes. My final activity was a reading; I learned a couple of good techniques to work with readings in the last period, so I made the students read parts of the story; I gave a student a soft ball and when I said "next", he/she had to stop reading and had to throw the ball to another classmate who had to continue with the reading (I like this activity because it makes the student pay attention to what is happening). Then I finished my participation and it was time for feedback.
The teacher showed me the paper and I just had some observations regarding to pronunciation; besides that, everything was apparently fine. My grade was acceptable; however, I know I did it very good.
In this subject, I have learned so far that not only our skills, but also our courage are being tested. I say this because in the peer observations I have made I have noticed that we prepare our classes in a nice and very creative way. Yesterday, I observed the class of "XYZ" (a teacher) and it was one of the worst classes I have observed; it was full of improvisation; also, that teacher almost always arrives late to the classroom (I confirmed that with the students). We are being evaluated rigurously by some of the teachers that never start with a warm up, that never use visual aids, that never stimulate the different macro skills and learning styles, etc.; and according to what I have learned so far (referring to didactics, pedagogy, and all that stuff), those teachers would not "survive" if I had to grade their performance according to the same criteria they use to evaluate ours. I just mention this as experience I have acquired throughout this process. At the end, this will be useful in one or another way.
I had to mention this; I could not help it. This has been my today's teaching report :-)