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!

My last class (Intermediate English II)

This was a class full of feelings. I was happy because I was going to finish the first session of teaching practicum, but I was thinking that I was going to miss those students. 

That day, I arrived early to the class, and I started to talk to some students that were there.  I gave them some advice, and I confessed how happy I was because they were learning a lot.  I tried to encourage them to continue doing their best because I could see an enormous potential on them. 

I felt happy because of them, for I saw that they had a good level of English and a positive attitude toward the language. I think that the education they are receiving nowadays is better than the one I received when I was in that level, and that fact becomes a wonderful advantage for these coming professionals.

Well, I have to stop talking about my feelings.

The class…

That last class was an unforgettable experience for me. Students worked beautifully and they were enjoying the class as I did. We were talking about reported speech and students were competing between each other. They always like to demonstrate that boys are superior to girls or girls are superior to boys. I think that it is normal because they are teens. Then, I explained them some important details of reported speech and that helped them to understand everything. After that, I developed oral and written exercises and all students did the practice in the correct way.

 

I finished the class sharing some thoughts that could help them in their lives. All of them looked interested in my words ,and they told me how glad they felt. I was about to cry, but I just said “thanks.” They were clapping, and I decided to say “bye” and to go out to swallow my feelings.

THANKS GOD!

 MY THIRD CLASS

Well, this was a new experience for me. I had to start the class, but the teacher was out of the classroom, and I wanted to ask him about the Cd for the listening activity that I had prepared and that he had to bring. The teacher told me “start the class,” and I was wondering if he was going to give me the Cd. 

I started the class, and we had a great warm up. I enjoyed it a lot, and I am sure that students did it too, but I was still thinking about the Cd jiji.

I developed my agenda and when I arrived to the listening part, I asked the teacher “do you have the Cd?” He told me “avoid the listening, just continue.” In that moment, I felt something hot in all my body because I had prepared around 4 activities for that listening, and I had divided the time per each one. 

In my agenda, after the listening, I had just a mini debate, so I decided to go ahead with that activity. The debate was great for me, but I had to add questions that I hadn´t planned to ask. That situation made me talk more than what I had planned. The thing is that I had to use the time of the activities that I couldn´t develop. I am sure that students enjoyed the activity, but I didn´t want it to be like that. 

In the feedback, the teacher told me that in debates I don´t have to talk too much because the purpose is that students talk. In that moment, I felt something hot again, and I explained him that I had to do that because he didn´t give me the Cd for the listening.

Fortunately, I survived and any student realized that I was in a pickle. 

Thanks Lord!

MY SECOND CLASS

INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH

The class started with a competence between boys and girls because they like to compete a lot. They were full of energy, and nobody wanted to stop playing. I was very excited too, but I had to stop the game. 

In the class, students were transforming sentences from passive to active voice. I realized that students had a positive attitude toward the language and most of them were taking notes about single details. They were asking about new vocabulary and participating in every single activity. Those things made me feel happy because students appreciated my job. 

After that, I gave students some sentences that must be completed by them, and some students finished very quickly whereas others were still working. I waited for some more minutes, but they hadn´t finished yet, so I decided to start checking the answers. 

When I received the feedback, the teacher told me that I had to give more time to develop the activities because some students work very slow. I agreed and told the teacher that I was going to consider that observation for next classes.