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 :-)
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 :-)
Wow! you are so critical today, but I agree with you since sometimes we do our best and we prepare lots ot nice materials to make our teaching practicum more meaninful and intersting for students, however, teachers (not all of then of course) do not appreciate our big efforts. It seems like if they had forgotten that one day they were in the same situation.
ResponderEliminarChulada you were inspired when you wrote your entry!! But I agree with you! The Teachers use all what they have taught us to evaluate us but they don`t apply it when teaching. Most of the time they think we HAVE TO/ MUST do a better job but they don`t reflect about the way they are teaching! They should have a journal reflection, too! So they can notice they are assigning us grades just because they liked the class or not.
ResponderEliminarRegarding to your teaching practice, I think you do a very good job since you are smart and can deal with unespected situations.
I like that reading technique!
wow....I'm totally in agreement to what you mentioned in your post Raul. I know the students you are working with and I have to say that they work and perform activities very nice. About the teacher, well, she arrieved late when I was teaching that group too. I don't know why as you said because you are from that place too and you arrived early. I liked your activities and the way you applied them. Let me tell you that yesterday I observed a class of an "XYZ" teacher too and it was like the description you mentioned before. I agree with you when you said they will not survive if we have to evaluate them becasue they do not apply what we apply in every class we teach. But anyway, we can't help mention it! jejeej! Nice work chicken! =)
ResponderEliminarChicken what I quick lesson planner you are jajaj you should teach me how to do that because I am always taking long to plan my classes.
ResponderEliminarlike around how much did you spend to prepare the class?????
Raul dont worry I know you did a good job and we should try to learn to not feel that bad when teachers are just thinking about numbers to grade our job. Any grade either a 10 can show how good you are at teaching and how hard you work for that class. We are more than a grade.....we are fighters trying to become English teachers. (= keep working the same way
Now you can feel how I felt in the previous period and see that all my complaints were justified because I always tried to give my best but no one took that into consideration. It is really frustrating when you know you have done it better than your tutor teacher and when your class finishes they show you a 7; come on a 7 REALLY??? But anyway is nothing you can do about it. If I had to assign a grade to X teacher I would assign a three or even less because as you mention they never use a warm-up activity or even a chart, so what do they want? That we teach in the same average way they do?... I also want to say that I agree when you mention that not only our skills, but also our courage are being tested because in some occasions teachers assign you a good grade just because they like you and I think that a real professional person should be fair, ethical and do not be guided by personal prejudices.
ResponderEliminarRaul,
ResponderEliminarI know you are very creative, but yuo have to be patient with all your teachers. We all have our own style, which is not the best onw. I understand your feelings, but I think we've all felt that way at some point in our practice. Continue doing a good job.