Ninth week in the school

first week of third period

Having finished the second period of practicum where I was with little children (first
grade and fourth grade), I had to move to my final level which was the young
adults. In the first week with them I observed how they behaved with the guide
teacher, Mister Aldo Guailla, I took some notes in order to know how to treat them.
I noticed that some classes were up to learn more with him that others, because he
was in charge of one of the classes, and they had a lot of respect to him. The other
classes were respectful to him in some occasions and in other occasions, he lost
control (extremely low situations). He had some discipline problems with a tenth
grade, and in general the opinion from the rest of the teachers was the same, it
was a conflictive class.
With twelfth graders, the teacher was covering present perfect and present perfect
continuous tenses, working along with the English book, doing activities that were
there. With tenth graders, they were working in use of English, learning new
vocabulary and its usage and finally, with eleventh grade they were finishing with
use of English, doing activities from their students book, adding some writing task,
to prepare the students to the final evaluation.
At the end of the week, the guide teacher gave me the liberty of choosing the class
I will work with. I decided to work with eleventh graders, because of the schedule; I
will be able to work with the three eleventh grades (A and B) in which one of them ,
my guide teacher was the head teacher. We saw the contents from next week and
some tips how the class should be carried out.
During this week, I observed every behavior that can be a problem for me in my
future classes and noticed the most problematic students that I am going to deal
with next week. This was very useful for me in order to be prepared to face them in
difficult situations.

Tenth week in the school

first week of classes

Being my first week of classes, starting on Monday, the teacher got sick and I was
not told that he was not going to come to classes during all this week. On Monday,
UTP informed me about this situation and I had to cover most of the classes of my
guide teacher. I felt ready to be alone in front of the class. I only covered contents
based on the textbook, using the help of the projector, showing slides and doing
activities on the software that the book had. I tried to cover pages from the book,
because I did not know about the lesson plans the guide teacher had to cover (he
did not leave me anything, not even material).
I think that passing new contents was not my aim for this week. I was focused on
the classroom management rather than making them learn something new (which I
could not do because there was not new material from other classes (except for
eleventh grade)). In eleventh grade, I covered some pages from the textbook and
started the classes with dynamic activities where the students had to move and
talk. I have to say that teenagers are not as enthusiastic as children, and this is a
reality. I made them stand up, and it took a more time that I thought. Then I noticed
that they know what I was asking, but they did not answer (have you ever game) I
think they found this activity a little bit boring and the hour they were in some cases
did not help, so for next classes I will design a more challenging lesson plan for
them.
I could not receive the proper feedback from my guide teacher and my supervisor.
My guide teacher did not come to classes and my supervisor could not see any
classes, but I think the classes were not excellent but they did what they had to do,
which was present them new content and vocabulary and put them in use.

Eleventh week in the school

second week of classes

During this week the guide teacher arrived to my classes and gave me the proper
feedback of them. He expected more from me and he told me this with the best
intentions, he wanted me to change the way I did my classes. I have to say that my
classes were equal to his classes and I was only imitating what he was doing when
I observed him. He clarified some things that he expected from the studentsteachers, he wanted that we (students) put in use new things, new ways of
teaching and be more creative, not only imitating what they saw in the observation
period. I only did two of four classes according to my lesson plans, because I had
to do new lesson plans with new features, new activities, etc.; changing all what I
was doing during the past week. So I changed it, and on Thursday, my class was
very weak because I had not time to prepare material for the new class, which was
a class divided in two (class and workshop). I focused only on the workshop, which
was very successful (according to the teacher, he did not expect that eleventh
graders like Phil Collins, due to the tastes of music that teenagers had). I chose
another day in paradise, because it was a nice song and its content is meaningful,
and with the handout I got (which I modified according to the needs of the class)
the students felt challenged and motivated to work in group in a class of 45
minutes.
Both classes reacted in the same way to the workshop, and the class had some
new features different from the ones that I did last week and on Monday and
Tuesday. I think that I did an improvement (a forced one I can say) to my classes, I
tried to be more enthusiastic and creative but I think that next week I am going to
be even more creative than in this week.

Twelfth week in the school

Third week of classes

This was my final week in this period and in the school, so I decided to make my
best of everything. First of all, I thought in new ways of presenting material which
was difficult to make entertaining. They have to finish learning how to write a pro
and cons essay, because they are going to be evaluated and it was the final grade
they are going to have in the first semester. So, I proposed myself prepare them to
write a good essay, and during this week, practice what I was teaching them.
They did not know very well how to start an essay, so I applied what I learnt during
classes in college. The first thing I taught them was how to organize ideas in order
to start writing, so I showed them the brainstorming. They knew how to do a
brainstorming, but they did not know that it was a very useful technique to order
your ideas and make a faster writing. So we practiced how to do an accurate
brainstorming and how to apply it to their writings. After showing them the linking
words, I presented them a prezi and finally they start working on their writings (they
have to practice, so last week I gave them an activity where they had to write an
essay, I knew that they were not going to do it or finish it, thats why I left as an
option the writing. In the case a student had finished the writing, they will keep
practicing, writing more by picking one of the topics that I prepared for them).
When they finished writing, I took some time to check them, pointing out the parts
of an essay, the linking words, the use of English, etc. Most of the students finished
writing, so in order to keep them practicing (In their homes, as additional practice
for their test) I delivered to them their corrected writing with tips, and do and do not.
In my opinion, my objective for the classes was complete, because they learned
how to structure a good essay and use all the features that were going to be
evaluated by my guide teacher.
For the workshop class, I decide to show them three videos and a handout that
was going to be done in groups. The idea of the videos was to enhance theirs
listening comprehension and also make them think outside of the box. I realize that
the handout had too many questions for 45 minutes, so I had to change the
instructions, because I noticed that they were not going to be able to finish all of
them in this time.
I think that during this week, I did a lot of things better than the previous weeks and
I felt that students really learnt what I taught them. I saw progress in their writings
and that progress was a result of what I taught them.