Three most important moments during Teaching Practicum II

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TEACHING PRACTICUM II-ADOLESCENTS

Hello everybody!

This is the last blog entry of this semester and as I reward for our learning experience, I will describe three most important moments ocurred in the semester. 

Provided that we had just finished our teachings, I am trying now to remember those moments of mine which will never be forgotten, because those bad moments and happy ones, thought me big lessons of life and of my own teaching.  

I like this Einstein's quote:

Moment number one

Explanation of the preposition of place

I had learned that oriented and well structured materials give students a clear and conscise idea of what we are trying to teach. On Friday 9th, May I really felt that my chart in the explanation stage was promising. However, where I put the chart and how it was designed affected students's perception of the places. Also, I was told that the labeling of the places were too short for students to see. I asked two students to tell me the positions of two places, but they did not have enough time to encounter the prepositions and thus create sentences or short phrases. 

It was really bad, I felt bad since I felt it. I had a hunch that students were not going to appreciate the chart so that the topic would have been clear and internalized.

the chart moment

I had thought to make the chart of the places simplier. Though, I thought the final design was more appropiately, but I had not seen how the labels of the places might affect students' learning. 

Then, the practice came and I took 4 or so minutes for them to practice the prepositions and after a little while, they got it. At that very moment, I felt through their actions that most of the students had recognize them. 

Students were practicing with me by showing them prepositions

Another drawback from the same lesson, happened in the practice stage, when they were asked to fill in and complete exercises in a worksheet. It had some details in format, like put the prepositions in bold, that affected the way students perceived it. I now see how important this detail was, because they were like hesitating what to underline. It was not that clear. 

Practice stage: Worksheet!

Second moment

This a positive one. This lesson was about "be negative". I think that this lesson provoke students to participate and interact a lot! The topic and their moods were in the right direction. The presentation was in a short paragraph and students did get the general message of the topic. 

 I imagined how to explain the grammar through the subtopic "jobs" and I first put one of the subjects near the verb "is not", so that students could identify those personal pronouns and how to select the right negative verb. 

Then, I was advised to lead the explanation as a manner of interaction, so that students can interact with me in the same stage and it was successful. 

 

That is why I selected Fátima to come to board and pick one personal pronoun and to paste it near the verb she thought was the correct one. I asked them if it was correct or incorrect, and most of the time they corrected themselves a few times and then I corrected them.  Then, Xiomara passed to do the same. 

 

 Involving them into this stage has provided me the opportunity to see that students fail and success depending on what they already know of the topic. Also, by doing this, students feel motivated to help the rest of the class to get it right and at the same time they are learning. They were happy when I get them participating giving them a new opportunity to excel their abilities and self-confidence. 
After this, the next moment students wrote one positive sentence and one negative. 

-Students' senteces based on a big chart pasted on board.

Next to me, there was the chart for the practice.

Third moment

This moment is a short one, but a big one to me. This occurred when I was trying to get from students words from a song (a practice of listening lesson). I used the lyric and two power point slides so that students catch the word and come to board to write it on the space.
The bad thing came when they listed to the song and began working on see the lyric on the board and at the same time look for the correct word to fill in the lyric.
It was not meant to make it hard for them. However, the lyric was too wordy. They knew what song was, but they hardly recognize the words to come to board. I try to encourage them by giving them two answers, but they just got three words out of 9, I guess. I felt anxious and really bad because even though they knew the song they felf unable to puzzle the activity. They fished more puzzle... and they did not enjoy singing the song. 
I learned that students are able to catch words. Teacher Yanni, told me to use a simple lyrics from the 90' or 80's, but I did not see the value of her advise, until mine got failed. It is funny now how I believe it would work, I was pretty sure girls at least, would know the lyric since it was one their favorite bands and do the task, but it was way too hard. I mentioned it in one of the entry: "The problem also was that I assumed many things. Though, I also had expected these problems to come up. Since they are beginners in the target language, they needed a song that was appropriate for their level, such as a romantic song that had a normal rate of speed so that at the end they can cope with my expectations. I have to be very carefull and not let things slip this way". 

At this point,  as my reflexion on learning, I am so happy to have finished this course. Success or not I do know most of time were days of learning rather than success. Success only comes when experience and logic (ability to manage on the planning) on the planning get together. Logic or dimension, I mean, to figure how my chart will work for them, not for me; I prefer now to make materials focused on their learning, because that will affect greatly positively or negatively to them. I felt bad and dissapointed because I wanted so bad to finish this practicum with positive vibes or good comments. Though, I had not thought on the greatness on the negative side. This side thought me a lot lot more than only winning. My mistakes are my teachers and I want so much to turn all my mistakes into good things in every single teaching. 

When my partners and I get together to be working in the same classroom I thought would bring to me more energy, but it happened that it brought both sides. I considered it as a big opportunity, because it was more or less alike to the teaching practicum I. I observed my partners doing the teaching and I perceived their goods and bads. Then, I reflected how to change it, how to do it differently with the same topic. Ideas came and went as I thought how to improve them. This exercise is good because I now see it like a reflection on the learning process. I learned from Gisselt, Monica, Mercedes and Cristela a lot. They all are unique human beings and they know what to do and not to do with a lesson. I see all of us growing and learning do better and significant lessons for students. Lessons that reflect kindness so that students feel comfortable while learning the language. 

¡This is not the end, but the begining of a long and beautiful teaching story!

I would like to acknowledged my thankfulness to God, who guided and encouraged me every day so that I could finish this course, without him I would not be standing where I am; to my family, who is continuously supporting me with love and patience in this path; to teacher Yannira Peña, who always finds a way for letting me know what I am and to find what kind of teacher I want to be, her kindness and support has become my solid ground in the teaching.

And to my classmates for being so kind, lovely and thoughtful with me in every feedback in the teaching. 

Thank you very much! =)