My last class (Access program)

Well, I had to teach my last class at the Access program. I started the class with an activity called “mimics.” I could see that the students enjoyed it because they were laughing a lot. We were about to practice the use of “be going to,” so the activity was about some actions that students were going to use in next activities. 

The presentation was in groups. In that activity, students had to form the sentences that I was dictating. They really got excited, and they wanted to continue, but I had to stop because of the time. 

During the practice, students worked with some sentences that I gave them, and I could see that they understood the topic because they did well. Almost at the end of the practice, I developed an activity in which students had to sit back to back to describe a picture. The end of the activity was great, but I had to face a problem, and it is that I didn’t consider that the space was not suitable for the number of students. When I saw that it was not enough to sit them in the same column, I had to change the methodology and put some students in one side and others in another one. It was more difficult for me because I had to move, and there was no space.

 

At the end, I talked to the students to encourage them to take advantage of the program because that is an amazing opportunity.  Most of them told me beautiful things such as “we are going to miss you teacher,” “please, come and visit us, “and I felt very happy. I think I will miss that group mmmmmmm.

Thanks Lord!

                                        My third class

In this class, I started with a running dictation in the field. (I need to say that I love to have a lot of space to have students do different TPR activities). Students were divided into four groups to compete between themselves. 

In the classroom, there is a student who has a little problem to walk, so since I planned the activity I thought about him because he could have some difficulties to run, so I suggested some students to take the role of the writer. I didn`t want to make him feel bad, so I tried to do the things very carefully. In the activity, I could see that he was very exciting writing because all of his classmates were dictating him the sentences. I also told some students who were wearing skirts to write, but without making them notice why I did that. I felt very happy because all students could participate, and I think that they enjoyed the activity as I did. 

The whole class was about stories. I tried to adapt an activity that the teacher Cristian had taught us in the class. Students watch a little clip of a story, and they had to write the name of the story, the characters and a little description, but maybe it didn´t work as a wanted because as the they are not advanced students, I had to give them more time to think about the answers, and I just had 1 hour. I liked the activity, and that difficulty made me think about some modifications that I could make in order to help students in next opportunities. For example I could give them a list of useful words in advance. 

At the end, I gave students a poster with different Disney cartoons, and they had to create their own stories. I liked that the students tried to do their best and all of them could participate. To be beginners, they are amazing. 

I have a problem with the time because I always prepare many things, and I cannot develop them because some activities are time consuming. Anyway, I like to be prepared in case one day a teacher doesn´t want to work and tells me to take the two hours jeje. 

Thanks Lord!

                     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!