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.