My second class in the access program

I started the class with a TPR activity in which students had to go out to look for pieces of paper that I had hidden around the field. They worked in groups to find the pieces of paper and form the sentences that I was dictating. I really liked that all the students were participating and enjoying the activity. With that Warm up activity, I could review the last studied topic to see how much students remembered.

After that, I introduced the new topic ´´questions in simple past tense.” For the practice, I developed a listening, and I had students create some questions; then, they had to ask those questions to their classmates, and if they said yes or not as an answer, they lost the bill that I had given them. At the end, the person who had more bills was the winner. I really liked that activity because students were speaking as much as they could in order to make the other students say yes or not. I gave them more time because I was enjoying their production. 

At the end, we played a board game that I made with foamy. It was ``finding the partner.`` Students had a lot of fun with that game and they could practice what we were studying at the time. The only problem that I had was with the masking tape. I tried to put the chart of the game on the board, but the masking tape didn´t work (this is the second time it happens to me jaja), so I had to hold it in my hands. I will try to buy a better masking tape jeje. 

I am really happy because of this group.

Thanks God!

MY FIRST CLASS IN THE ACCESS PROGRAM

Well, I want to start by saying that this has been a wonderful experience for me because I enjoy when students want to learn.

 I arrived early to the campus, and I could share with some students. They expressed me how happy they felt because of the program, and that made me believe in the program and in the students. 

At the beginning of the class, I was kind of lost because I don’t usually start classes as I did. My tutor had told me not to prepare a warm up activity because we were going to do it with the other two groups, but because of time, we couldn´t do it, so in the last seconds, I planned a warm up activity. I felt very good because students understood the activity and they did well. The warm up gave me more confidence with the group, so that I could continue with the class. 

I started to talk about irregular verbs, and I realized that most of the students already knew about the topic. It was amazing because I knew that it was going to be easier for them to develop the activities. During the practice, I developed one activity that was called ``freeze. `` It was good because students worked as a group to guess the verbs of the flashcards. It also gave us fun.

In the last activity, students had to talk about their vacations including the picture given by me. They were working in pairs, and I liked that they felt confident because all of them were asking me about new vocabulary. I really like when students ask because it means that they are interested on the class. 

At the end of the class, the teacher gave me the feedback, and I learned many things. For example, how to apply good CCQ’s

 After I give directions, I usually ask the students to paraphrase what they are going to do, but sometimes it is difficult for them to answer, so he told me that is better if I ask them yes/no questions. Example: Are you going to do this? Do you have to…? Doing this, students can easily say yes or not to answer to my questions, and I can evaluate if they have understood or not.  

Thanks Lord!

My last class with Intermediate English

This was my last class with that amazing group…

I taught the second hour of the class because my tutor wanted to finish some activities that they had started the day before. The tutor explained a grammar session, and I had to explain another one. I thought that it was not the best for me because I had to explain many grammar rules, and that limited my time to practice. 

I started the class with a TPR activity because students were kind of tired. Then, I had to explain the topic and its rules. I had prepared many activities to practice the studied topic, but the time was not enough, and I just could develop 2 more activities. 

At the end, I felt strange because there were many things that I wanted to explain, but I couldn’t do it. The teacher told us that they were going to continue practicing about the topic, but I wanted to clarify every doubt. I like to feel satisfied with my job, but this time I felt limited. The worst part was that I knew that I was not going to have another opportunity to continue sharing with them and practicing about topic.

Thanks God, I learned many thing with this group. 

My third class was much better than the second one because I know more about the students and what kind of things I can do with that group. 

For the warm up activity, we played "the scrambled basket".  I realized that students enjoyed the activity a lot, and that made me feel more comfortable. 

After that activity, I had the presentation part in which I had prepared another TPR activity, but I realized that it didn’t work as I had planned. During the feedback the teacher told me that it is not a good idea to develop a TPR activity after another one. I had never thought about it, but I learned that. 

During the practice, I had students describe some landscapes using “such” and “so.” I liked the way how they worked because they were saying many beautiful things about the landscapes.I also liked that I could use the material that I had prepared in Audiovisual Aids. 

The rest of activities were developed better than what I had planned, and that gave me a great satisfaction. 

Thanks Lord!

My second class

Well, this time I started the class with an activity related to the topic that we were going to study (Present Continuous). I had to explain the grammar part, but it was not too difficult because they knew a little about that topic.

I faced a problem because during a TPR activity some students were not doing what they had to do, and as I was working with another group, I didn’t realize that two boys were playing in the classroom.  The thing is that I thought that all students were paying attention to me, but later I understood that I had to be more careful with my students.

When working with big groups, we have to develop many abilities, so that we can control all the students at the same time. 

The rest of the class was better than what I had planned and that made me feel great.

I am waiting for my third class……….

Thanks Lord!

                                  My first class in Intermediate English I

I started my class as I always do, by praying. Every student was paying attention to what I was saying. They looked serious and strange, but when I started to talk to them, they started to feel better.I gave each student a piece of paper, so that they could write their names and paste them on their chest. It was helpful for me because I could talk to the students by saying their names. 

The group is very nice. They like to work and participate, and their attitude toward the language is amazing because all of them expressed how much they liked English. We developed very controlled, semi controlled and free practice, and in the free practice students were very excited speaking that I didn`t want to stop the activity; that is why I took seven minutes more. At the end, I checked the time with the teacher, and realized that I have control the time better because I have just 50 minutes. 

Something that made me feel happy is an activity that I invented. When I went to observe the class with their teacher, I realized that a lot of students were speaking in Spanish. Due to that fact, I printed and laminated some bills, and I gave each student one bill. I told them that if someone said a word in Spanish, the person who heard the word had to take the bill of the person who spoke in Spanish. At the end, the person who had more bills was going to win a beautiful book.

This was the first time I developed that activity, but it worked beautifully, and even after my class, they were saying “You are going to pay if you speak in Spanish.” The teacher congratulated me.

At the end of the class, I felt very motivated to continue growing as a teacher.

Thanks God!