PRACTICE 23!

Today I had my third practice with Intermediate English I. I was praying to God for help because I have been sick. I have a sore throat, but I did a great effort to teach this class. My tutor asked me to teach present perfect simple and continuous. The warm up was related to the topic. I had them compete by saying the correct past participle form of the verbs. Some of them had troubles and I told them to review the verbs.

I prepared a brief grammar explanation so they could understand better through practice. I learned this tip in previous practices; the students grasped the grammar point easily and then I solidified their understanding by having them practice. I gave them pieces of paper with action verbs and I asked them to form sentences orally using present perfect simple and continuous. I also taught them the use of since and for; they had some practice using these words and at the end they were able to use both tenses properly. Though I am sick, my class was nice and I am glad to teach them every time.

PRACTICE 22!

My second experience teaching Intermediate English I was really glad; I was asked to teach four modal verbs to express obligations, permissions in the past, advice and strong obligation. It was a really fun class; I designed reinforcement for the grammar part because my tutor teacher has already explained briefly the use of these modal verbs. I designed a warm up that introduced obligations. They really enjoyed assigning a penalty for their classmates. I proceeded with the explanation of each modal verb and later, I had them develop an exercise in which they showed the understanding of the explanation. I tried to make work some students that were disrupting the class somehow. They were speaking Spanish and I asked them to practice English instead.

The relation I have established with this group of students is amazing. They seem to enjoy what I teach and the activities I prepare for them. They are very smart, and though there are some of them that are quiet or timid, I ask them questions so that they can have a chance of practicing. When I teach them, I keep monitoring the class so I can identify the students that need more help.

I usually develop speaking activities related to the topic because I consider crucial that students can practice orally. I catch their attention by asking them discussable questions and having them discuss in pairs or trios. My tutor told me that I did a good work and that I just had to apply more error correction techniques. I really liked my class.

First class with Intermediate I

In my first class with Intermediate I, I didn’t have the chance of observing a class before starting my practice. I just got ready for my practice and I pitched in. I tried to teach a really nice class. I knew the students were going to feel surprised with my sudden presence in the classroom, so I started the class with an ice breaker. Students really love the warm up I developed and even the tutor started to participate in the warm up. They had to guess the action written in pieces of paper but the activity was quite complex because they are Intermediate English students. They, for example, had to mime: to jump “from a bridge.” The game was related to the topic because I was going to teach stative and dynamic verbs. I explained the main use and difference of these verbs and then I asked a couple of CCQ questions. After that I had them practice making sentences and filling in the blanks so that they could differentiate stative from dynamic verbs. They had oral practice by discussing a couple of questions: how do you like to look when you meet someone? I wrote a couple of verbs they were going to use as they spoke.

The practice and the activities were a success and the tutor told me the class was good. She only required me to re-s tart explaining an issue when a student doesn’t understand.

This is my fourth class with Intermediate English I

I prepared a class in which they were going to have practice with phrasal verbs. This topic is very wide and requires the students to have lots of practice due to the large quantity of phrasal verbs. I tried to develop activities addressing the most common phrasal verbs.

I started my class with a warm up in which the students had to guess the phrasal verbs that their classmates mimed. They really had fun doing this and some of them got easily the phrasal verbs I showed.

There are some students that really feel frustrated when studying phrasal verbs because they are hard to memorize. However, I used context and discussions so they can use them in conversations.

I have them use the verbs turn down and ask out when discussing the reasons why women turn down somebody’s invitation when he asks them out. They discussed this and shared their opinion with the whole class.My last class ended well because they could construct sentences using many phrasal verbs.

We also talked about stress and the ways to avoid it. They read sixteen ways to avoid it and in each, there was a phrasal verb included. They also added some more suggestions and discovered the meaning of each verb by reading each suggestion. The class went quite well but my students were not paying attention too much. I called their attention and I they finally worked well.

3rd CLASS

This is my third class with intermediate I. this time I had to teach a quite broad topic; it was comparative adjectives. As you know, there are irregular adjectives and a series of rules that control the proper appliance of the adjectives when speaking or writing.

I started my class with a very fun and appealing warm up. As my class was about adjective, I had them make two lines facing each other; I dictated some adjectives and they had to construct a sentence per each adjective; it was an oral competence. Later, I engaged them in a reading activity and they had to determine how healthy they were by answering some questions. I tried to work fast with them and then I taught some of the rules for using adjectives in comparative form.

They paid careful attention and some of them asked some questions while I was explaining. I tried to explain from my knowledge because students come up with many questions.

I involved them in some practice; they had to fill in the blanks with the appropriate comparative form of the adjective provided. In this part, they asked about some irregular adjectives such as goo; well, they learned to solve an exercise but later I had them speak. They were asked to compare themselves to a relative using comparative adjective. They developed this activity in pairs. They enjoyed it.

My second class with intermediate English

Along this week I have been worried about many things I have to do but when the time to teach came, I tried to concentrate in my teaching. Today I had my second practice with this nice group. They are always enthusiastic about teaching.

I got ready to teach them about direct and indirect object. I had them develop a speaking activity as I think that they all need to practice English. The class was kind of uncertain because my tutor told me that he had already taught that topic but I had to be prepared for questions from them. He also asked me to teach about transitive and intransitive verbs which he had not taught. I assumed that students had clear understanding of direct and indirect object because he told me to engage them into practice, but when I explained the characteristic of transitive and transitive verbs, I got stuck a little because they seemed confused. What I did next is to resume what the teacher had taught the previous day.

The experience I had is that when two teachers explain a single topic, it necessary that the second is conscious about the points he must continue teaching.

The point is that I had to improvise some explanations but I used examples so they could understand properly. When I taught about both kinds of objects, I told them that a very easy way to identify them is by considering the following: an indirect object usually comes first and it refers to people whereas a direct object usually is placed after the indirect object and it refers to things.

Some students asked me to solve some exercises I had provided for them because they found them quit hard to solve. I did it using the board so all of them could see how to do it. When I finished explaining some points, some students asked me a couple of questions. For example, “if a sentence has only one object and it refers to people, it is indirect object since you told us that indirect objects refer only to people,” a student stated. The point is that if we only have one object, it must be direct object since indirect objects cannot exist without a direct object. Thank god I still remember something about grammar.

Students developed a couple of exercises in which they were identifying both direct and indirect object; I could notice that they did it well and this makes me feel good. As they shared the exercises solved, I recognized that they are very smart.

At the end I had them dance and compete seating on the musical chair. The ones that remained stood solved a problem orally. They did it great! They are a nice group.

My 5th practice!

I had my first experience with Intermediate English I. it is important to mention that I did my teaching practice with another group of intermediate English I and some of the things I noticed are the class environment is very different among the two groups. I really like the way those students are. They really respect the effort we do to teach. They are humble and that fact lets the practitioners develop our teaching skills. I was given the book and the topic I was going to teach, one day before, so I had to work at night in order to prepare a good class. The students welcomed me and I was really cheerful and enthusiastic and I tried to transmit that to the students. I had observed the class one day before and I had an insight about what it would be like to teach them.

The warm up was an activity in which they were divided into two groups and then they had a competition writing items they get when they go shopping. They were writing at a great speed but the only constrain I had was that since the group is large, they were concentrated near the board; I tried to have them all participate in the activity but they are 27 students and I could not have control of all of them. I tried to order them in a line but the class is not that big. Aver all, the activity was nice and they liked it. After that, introduced unit four; I had them discuss a couple of questions about the gifts they buy for their friends and they gave their opinion. I asked individual questions to the quieter students in order to make them speak.

I explain some grammar points in which I spend about six minutes; the time was meaningful because I solved many doubts about adverbs collocation. When I finished the grammar explanation, I involved them in oral practice. They were very enthusiastic and attentive to my class development. It was a great experience.

Last class with Intermediate I!

This group is very nice and I enjoyed all the classes. In this last class I had them a TPR activity which they enjoyed a lot. There were 2 teams. One of them turned back as the other performed an activity I showed through a flash card. I asked them to freeze and the other team then could turn back and guess the activity they were doing. They practiced past progressive by guessing what their classmates were doing. I prepared a series of speaking activities in order to have them solidify the grammar explanation I gave them. They were attentive and enthusiastic. And they asked questions regarding the topic. The class went so well but the only flaw was that I misspelled three words and the students corrected me. The teacher told me that I turned nervous but personally, I think I managed it. I tell the tutor teacher that I don’t feel confident at all because they are not my students. I don’t feel really committed to them. In the Saturday morning program, it is so different because all the students trust in me completely and I get to know them well.

I like them a lot because they work and understand better, but I need to be their teacher full time so I can do many amazing things with them. I would try many approaches, techniques and ideas to teach them in an exceptional way. This practice experience is really good for my learning! 

third class with Intermediate I

My third class with Intermediate English I was quite hard.  I had to read a lot in order to master the topic; one of the advantages this practice has is that we teach topics that maybe when we were students, we could not master. When we are in charge of teaching, we have to know a lot about the content. I prepared a series of activities for them to practice after the grammar explanation I gave; they really need speaking activities so they can practice their language. When I started the class which was about count and non-count nouns, quantifiers and units of measurement, several questions arose from the students. They found controversial why chicken and broccoli is uncountable; to this I gave a proper explanation telling them that it chicken is not the same when it is an animal and when we refer to it as food.

I also taught few and a few. I told them that few has negative connotation whereas a few has positive connotation. These words dragged them into confusion because they didn’t understand why it was either negative or positive. I gave them a couple of examples: Paul has few friends. It is not good for him because we must have lots of friends. David has a few apples in his bag. When nobody has fruits, David has some; it is good!

Well, students asked and I tried to answer as correct as I could. All I had read and the background I had helped me to answer their questions. At the end of the class, the tutor told me that I was not so confident, but personally, I think I was. She also told me that it is so good that I make them all participate in the class. Overall, it was a great experience.

Second class with Intermediate I

I was really eager to start my second practice with this group because i feel really enthusiastic when i have to teach them. They look really motivated when I come to teach them. in my first class with them, I saw some students that were sort of shy and not willing to participate. I tried to inquire into why they behave in that way and I found out that they are afraid of using what they know due to their lack of confidence. I tried to move the shy students but before the class I approached one humble student that told me he felt fear of using his language; I told him that I used to have the same problem but I looked for a way to help myself. I started to talk a lot and to participate as much as I could. I sat in the first desk to avoid distraction. After all I told him, he felt confident and started to participate. I feel really committed to this group because they respect my work and I respect them as learners. They are really polite and thank me every class I teach.

In this class I prepared a listening and some speaking activities because I saw the necessity they have for using their language. They did it in a fun way and I encourage them to ask for vocabulary they don’t know. This class was more special because I arranged the desks in a U-shape and all the students participate. It was a great experience.

My first class with Intermediate I

I thought I had lost track because a large period of vacations has slowed down I little my teaching techniques; however, when the teaching time came, I felt ready to do it again. Something I have notice is that all of the practice we have been through has already shaped our lives. We are grown teachers that are eager and confident when teaching. I was really keen to teach this Intermediate group because they look really devoted to learn and they have that thirst of learning. After I observed the group, I knew I was going to do something special with them. I felt somehow committed to them because I am also their teacher.

I was given the material to teach and I tried to find some interactive activities for them to practice. I was quite nervous but I planned properly so my class could be great. I arrived to the classroom and some of them were really surprised because I was about to make my debut with them. I greeted them and asked how they felt and tried to make them release their energy with a couple of questions they had to answer in a way that they teased their brains.

My impression was that they wanted to know me and what a showed was a great satisfaction of being teaching them. I had them do a review of the tenses they have being studying. They all participated and felt confident when making questions and sentences in many tenses. They all received me well and clapped their hands accepting the development of my work. They are great students.

My teacher was polite when making some suggestions. She told me that I have to show more confidence when teaching; however, I consider that I have enough confidence but I will continue improving. I really want one more chance to teach and put into practice what my tutor suggested me.

My last practice with Advanced English II

This week was not good for me. I was sick when it started, so I waited for the last two days to develop my practice. It was a flop because I didn’t know Mr. Blanco had planned to finish classes before the week ended. I could not do anything because there was nothing to teach to them. I was really willing to teach my last class to Advanced English students but I think three classes gave me the chance to deal with really challenging classes; all the experience I got with them really satisfies me and leads me to the right techniques and proper way to teach Advanced English Students. 

THIRD CLASS WITH ADVANCED II

In my third practice with Advanced English II, I was kind more confident; I prepared material and meaningful activities so the students could motivate and better understand the class. There were of course some grammar points I didn’t understand properly so I asked Mr. Blanco, my tutor, to clarify the grammar content. I was ready to teach, I started my class teaching Participle clauses when they are used to substitute adverb clauses; students had previous learning about adverb clauses which helped me to explain the Participle clauses easily.

The topic was not fun, but it was quite long; it took half of my class to explain grammar, so I had them to solve a brain teaser after the grammar explanation. They really enjoyed the brain teaser; after this activity, I had them practice the Participle clauses; they had a better understanding of these clauses and whenever they had doubts or difficulties, I helped them to solve the exercises.

When my tutor gave me feedback, he told me about the “momentum” where the students reach an state in which they are ready to practice; the grammar explanation sets the momentum, but he told me that I instead of having them practice, I developed the brain teaser, so they lost the momentum. I keep learning and getting the advantages of this practice, however all the feedback, my experience and the observations I do, help me to build my own style.

MY 2nd lass with Advanced English

Today's class was amazing even though the grammar points I taught were quite hard. My tutor asked me to teach Participle Clauses and their exceptions. I had a hard time understanding some exceptions, and even when I consulted some teachers, the exceptions were controvercial for them, too.

I concluded that the problem was not a matter of grammar but a matter of meaning. 

I was ready for the class and I started teaching my class with eighteen students; this made my warm up activity meaningful and fun.

Students enjoy speaking activities, so the warm up was so. Grammar makes students feel stressed out, but I tried to awaken previous knowledge so they could understand the topic easily. They have knowledge about clauses, which made it easy for me to explain the grammar point.

My tutor suggested me to discipline the students in that they sometimes don't pay much attention. He also toldme that I have to continue working on my voice which I have to play with in order to enphasize important points in my explanation and also to make them draw more attention. The students were very polite and and respectful when I spoke; in general terms I liked my class, and I think it is the most inportant thing in addition to the pieces of advice my tutor granted to me.

My first class with Advanced English II

Before teaching this class, I said it was going to be what would do the difference in my teaching practice; I have taught Basic English students and Intermediate English students, but I hadn’t the experience of teaching Advanced English students. I admit I was very nervous but I decided to go to observe this group on Tuesday which relieved me and let me know the way they are.

I spent lots of time masterminding my class; thinking of possible ways of approaching the students; their level of English is already good and I was quite concerned about it because I was aware that any mistake I commit shows something to them.

When the time of teaching came, I was more relaxed; the students were very polite and well educated. They respect my explanations and developed what I asked them to do. I explained some grammar points and then I had them practice. Some students were asking little things about what I was explaining and I solved their doubts.

In the practice was where they found they had some difficulties, but that is why practice is really important because doubts come up. I monitored the students work while they were solving a worksheet and I also helped them with hard points.

In my feedback, the tutor told me I had to play with my voice in order to make them notice important and less important points when explaining something. Being honest, I said I was going to do it in my class when I observed the class my tutor taught. It is a good tip. He also told me to develop rapport with my students in order to get to know them more. I really liked this class and I will try to do it better next week.

My last class with Intermediate:

This group was a really challenge because their English accuracy is quite good. It has been necessary to scaffold and pick some knowledge that was already passive in me.

My last class was amazing because it was the first time I didn’t teach grammar. I really wanted to have them develop free activities in order to experiment the behavior they would present when production from what they have learned. They had been studying the modal verbs, and they knew the most common uses of them; the accompanying topic was jobs advertisements and as we had got into the topic of jobs, chiefs, employees and costumers, I had them persuade a classmate to buy a product as warm up activity.

I really liked that activity though my tutor suggested me a better application of such warm up; he told me I should have given them certain time to think of the reasons why the product must have been bought; my conclusion is that as it was a warm up activity, it was not that necessary to do; I would have applied it in that way if it had been a FREE PRACTICE ACTIVITY.

There was an example of Job advertisement in the book. I thought I was enough for them to create a new one, but the tutor told me that I must provide more examples for them to prepare a great advertisement. What I did is that I gave the students oral directions in addition to the example they had. I said how I wanted the advertisement and after that I had them come to the front and present their advertisement as if they were in television. Some of them were brief and shy but some others did it well. I learned a lot through this experience and I am now thinking about my next challenge, Advanced English.

Third class with Intermediate

My third class
I had an extraordinary experience today. Students were late and I had to develop the warm up activity only with three students. I was assigned to teach all the modal verbs as an overview. The wonderful part is that the students had already read about them.


 It was a challenge but it was satisfactory to accomplish my class normally. Being honest, I learned new things when I was preparing my class and later I had the chance of shearing it with the students. In previous feedback, my tutor made me some suggestions that I have to implement when teaching grammar points. For example, he told me that when teaching grammar, I don’t necessary have to make sure if the students understood the explanation properly because we have them solve doubts during the practice.


 We all know that teaching grammar can be monotonous and students can get bored, so by knowing this, I tried to include some funny examples as I was explaining the use of the modals.
I sometimes laugh because my tutor points mistakes I make which I don’t remember to have committed. However, I appreciate what he suggests me every time. 
My grade also improved and it makes me feel confident to go on. 

my second class with Intermediate

This class was pretty good! I enjoyed developing one more Reading activity and explaining grammar structures. I put into practice the pieces of advice my tutor gave me. I did it better and I love it because my identity as a teacher is becoming more solid.

The students were kind and cooperate to develop my class. They sometimes ask questions but as I read before teaching, I have never had troubles. The only difficulty I had when teaching was that I had to explain grammar related to prepositions of place and have them practice, but in addition to that I developed an activity related to a different topic which was phrasal verbs. Though it was unusual for me, I managed to do it well.

My tutor told me I had to cares the content of a reading and that I have to be careful with the time I give the students to digest what they are reading. I told him that since he me the number of activities to be done, I have limited time for each, otherwise my time is not going to be enough. He told me that that is not a problem; I can make use of the time I need to develop my activities as I desire. I like this part because this mean that I won’t be so worried about overcoming 45 minutes; however, I won’t abuse.

first day with Intermediate English

In this particular experience, I felt more nervous. I had the idea that this Intermediate group was going to be a challenge because the students have more knowledge about the English structures.

Before starting the class, I was trying to get relaxed. I arrived to the classroom early and I arrange the desks; students started to get in the classroom and the tutor allowed me to start the class. It is a nice group of students; they are not troublemakers.

I had a great view of what I was going to explain. I had to develop a reading and I had to explain grammatical content which I introduced with a reading activity.

My view of my work was that I didn’t have to spend too much time in the reading activity otherwise my time was not going to be enough; that’s why I just have the students read the text and identify some vocabulary and to answer some questions. However in the observations that my tutor made to me, he told me that I had to spend more time in the reading activity.

I always try to be sure about what I say, especially in my practice, but I did something my tutor considered it was a hesitation. I don’t feel bad but I probably never do that again.

Definitely we learn everything in the practice; but practice has to be taken in a reflexive way. At night I reflected on what I could have done differently, and what I concluded is that experiences reward us anyways because what we do is to learn from them when they don’t go as you would like, or we feel confident when everything goes right.

As a conclusion, I would say that this class was not so good for me; however it motivates me to do it better. I am sure I can.

My fourth practice!!

My last practice was very meaningful because as ever, I gained knowledge and I could see how the students achieved the objective. They were studying the use of Wh-questions. I introduced this topic in my third class and they had been practicing along the week. I had the chance of developing more practice with them because they had had some troubles at understanding the structure of questions with Wh words.

Of course they had some previous knowledge about the topic but let’s remember that they are basic students and not all of them come with background to start this major.

At this time, they were able to make oral and written wh questions with a low degree of difficulty; however, they needed some more free practice.

It is gorgeous when students start walking on the way of learning. These students are very smart and they have a great potential. I really appreciate that they let me help them to grow. In my y last class, I had them develop free activities in which they could practice what they had been studying and they did well in this practice.

My tutor told me that my activities were appropriate for them to practice, which made me feel proud.

THIRD PRACTICE

My third class was amazing because I had to teach a more complex topic. The grammar focus I taught made me think of easy ways to teach it and to make the students understand my 45-minuts class. I really enjoyed the class because all my students participated and they seem to like the way I teach.

What is very satisfying is that some of my students have told me that they like my classes.

In this particular class, the warm up I developed was success because they enjoyed writing commands for being performed by their classmates. The explanation of the grammar focus started with a diagnosis of the knowledge they had about Wh-questions. At the end of my class, the students clapped and showed satisfaction.

My tutor congratulated me and highlighted the positive aspects of my class. He said that he liked the way in which I approached some students that were not paying attention. I approached them and asked them a question gently about what I was explaining and they felt lost because they didn’t know what to say. After that, they were paying attention and I explained it again.

I had my students do lot of practice so they could internalize the topic we were studying. As they are very smart, they grasped the new content in an amazing way. I really like to work with these students because they really love studying English.

My 2nd day of practice

Hi, I want to share with all of you what my second day of practice was like. 
Of course my nerves were more controlled and my confidence was high. I started the class with a warm up that   the students really enjoyed. They had the chance of asking questions to their classmates to make then say yes or no. I taught the use of "whose" and to do it, I specially did it through examples. I engaged them in lots of practice and at the end of the class they were able to ask questions using WHOSE.


I particularly liked my class; however, my tutor told me it was just a little bit better than the first. Believe me that I really care about what the teacher tells me, but I am more concerned about satisfying myself and making the students like and understand what I teach them. We teachers are not perfect and our flaws are at the mercy of the sight, but I really learn new things in each class. My class became sort of distracted at the end, but I didn't call their attention becase my class was over. I already deduced the source of their distraction; it is because of the nature of the topic; it is easy to understand and students thought I was repeating the same thing along 45 minuts. However, I kept the majority of them focused with fun activities. 

WHAT MAKES A TEACHER?

my first practice!

I really enjoy the experience I am living. I can feel how my experience as a teacher is solidified by the meaninful bits of experience I get.
One day before my practice, I went to bed late because I had to prepare a lesson plan for my own class. I woke up at five and got ready for my class. When I got to the University, I was nervous and it got wost when I saw the students, but suddenly I thought, "I am able to do anything because God is with me." I tried to ignore the tutor teacher and started to think of the class as my own. I didn't pay attention to a grade I was getting, but I tried to enjoy the class and to help the students understand my content.
It was a great experience and the feedback is something I take as a gift and as something that will help me to teach a better class.

I would like to mention that my students participated a lot and that some of they approached me to tell me" you are a good teacher." 
I have a large class; THEY ARE 25 students and it is difficult to monitor all of then. What I did is that I had them work in pairs and I asked them CCQ questions so they all could participate. they enjoyed the class and I did it, too. As you know, Basic English classes are not hard but there's always a challenge for teachers. I really love the idea of starting teaching because the difficulty of teaching will increase little by little.The feedback I received was appropriate to my mistakes which I recognize. The ttutor told me to be more enthusiastic and try to speak louder. He also told me I had to use easy-to-understand vocabulary because they are Basic students. He told me not to forget to write an objectivo on the board. I tried to speak less and let the students speak, so the tutor congratulated me.


I monitored my students all the time so doubts could be solved. I could notice the students had understood the content because I had them solve some problems I wrote on the board.

It was a meaninful class and I really want to do it again.