My Third Practice.

     

     My third class was even better than the previous ones. I already knew my students and the way they react while I was teaching. At first, I was a little bit worried because of the topic I had to teach. It was causative case. By reviewing, and studying the topic, I got ready, and I started to prepare the material for the activities. Because I had to do like a review about active and passive causative, the teacher suggested me to do it through a reading and then through a speaking activity. They were students from Intermediate English II, so that was not a difficult task for them. As in every class, I had to start with a warm up that were useful for the next activities, so I decided to organize my class with a warm up activity called The Participle Train, a reading about Two Teaching Styles, and a speaking activity called  In Class Activity.

     With the warm up activity called The Participle train, I firstly count my students. They were thirty, but some of them were missing. Then, I divided the class into two groups and asked them to form two lines facing the board; after that, I gave them the directions. They were going to be given a marker per each line, so that they could quickly write on the board the past participle of the verb I said. Next, the student who already wrote the verb had to pass the marker to the next one and go behind the line. The line who had all the past participle forms of the verbs well written was going to be the winner. Obviously as in every class, there were some late comers, so what I did was to locate them in the two lines; then, I ask the students to explain latecomers what they had to do. They did it, and it was awesome! Ater that, I started the activity and they really liked it because the fact of trying to win motivated them. Finally, I ask them to go back to their places, so that I checked and count the written verbs on the board and said who were the winners. I really enjoy it.

     The pre stage of the reading activity was astonishing. I thought the topic of the reading was not going to generate a lot of ideas to my students; it was Two Teaching Styles. I wrote the topic on the board, and also I wrote: Student-centered teaching and Teacher-centered teaching; to my surprise, that generated a lot of ideas to them when I asked them to guess about it. Then, I asked them to discuss with the person next to them, and finally I asked them to share the ideas they got. For the during stage, I gave each of them a piece of reading ( It contained the active and passive causatives.) They were asked to read it and discuss about it. I think it worked very nice. For the post stage, they had to pay attention to the highlighted sentences ,and state if those were active or passive causatives.

     Lastly, in the speaking activity, My God, It was a mess for me! I don't know why, but I confused the directions and asked them to stand up; first, I had to give them the pieces of conversation that they had to complete, adding causatives. Anyways, I did it like that, so I asked them to stand up, and then, I formed the groups; I spent time giving each group the pieces of conversation; but at the end, it produced because my students were speaking even if they didn't understand at first because of my confusion.

     Concluding, I can infer that my third teaching was nice because I could manage the last situation although I got confused with the activity. I think Everybody face that. Having experienced these three classes, helped me to improve many of the things I have to change while teaching. Based on what I observed, I think students like and understood the topics a little bit more even if sometimes they face some difficulties with the topics. On the other hand, I think that trying to do our best in every class motivates the students, so that they learn. In the future, I will try to think carefully which activities are appropriate for my students to get the knowledge they need, and also I will prepare myself even better to be ready at the moment to teach, and leave behind all the nervousness I felt facing this gorgeous adventure.

     

My Second Practice.

     My second class was much better from the first one. In this second experience, I felt a little bit more confident because I already knew my students, and the way they behaved in class. I saw my students were expecting my class because they were there attentive. I was writing  my agenda on the board when a girl asked me what the class was going to be about, so in that moment I felt something really good because I could notice she was interested on that; the environment was quiet and sitting arrangement helped me do the activities without any obstruction. My class was like a review of modal verbs, and some vocabulary about illnesses and symptoms, so I divided my class in a warm up activity called ´´Mimic the Word´´, a reading comprehension about the evolution of dentistry, and a listening about Asthma disease.

     In the warm up activity, I ask my students form three groups; they had to choose a representative per each one. To start with, I told them they would be groups A,B, and C, so they must have chosen their representatives, but they were hesitant about who was going to pass to the front. I was nervous at that time because they did not do it fast, and time was running. The guesses I make about this are that most of the time they do not want to participate because they feel unsure, also they don not like to participate, and it was a challenge for me to ask for their participations. Then, when I had the representatives per each group in the front, I explained the activity. I show them a paper with a word written down, so that they could mimic the word; it resulted very nice and funny, and I think that it helped them be not only funny with the class, but also engaged with it.

     Then in the reading, I prepared a pre, during, and post activity, for them to understand more and review the modal verbs. At first it worked pretty nice because they formed the groups I ask them; basically, they had to look at the pictures I showed them, but the pictures were not so big and I had to show them group by group, so it would have been better if the pictures were bigger and pasted on the board, so that everybody could see them. They had to guess about what the pictures showed and then, they had to comment about it. After that, I gave each group a different reading related to the evolution of dentistry. They were groups A,B,C, and D, and all of them had a different one but related. While reading they had to answer the questions, and finally each group had to select a representative to share about the piece of reading.

     Lastly, I developed a listening activity; my students had to guess about the word I wrote down on the board. It was ASTHMA. Then, they had to share what they knew about it and the possible symptoms a person with asthma can face. After that, I played the audio for them to get familiar with it. Subsequently, they had to listen again and answer some questions; finally, I asked to some of them to answer if they knew a person with that disease, and then I told them I have trouble breathing and some symptoms, but that I do not suffer from asthma; to my surprise they were really interested on what I was sharing with them.

     Concluding, I can infer that my second practice was better, even if I have many things to improve like when giving instructions, or managing the large group I had. I think it is important to be well prepared and to have a plan B for any issue. Based on what I already know about teaching, I think I have to improve many things; I have to be sure of what I am teaching and the activities I apply. I believe that this second experience will be helpful for my next practices. In future lessons, I will try not to be hesitant or nervous at the moment to teach; also, I will try not to be afraid of gestures, manners, etc., students do; the next time I teach, I will plann very nice and productive activities where the macro skill can be developed very well. I will also include, appropriate, and interesting  information. Finally, I can say that with the feedback I have received, I have to try to improve many of the aspect that were identified in my teaching.

The reflection about my class.

My first practice in a real class.
By Karen Mariela Grijalva Castro.

     My first practice in a real class was a wonderful experience. It was something good that I felt; the fact of being in contact with students made me feel very nice. Besides, I could notice that changing roles from student to teacher is totally different because teaching is a big responsibility; on the other hand, it was nice to realize that those thirty students learned something from me because of the way I did it. Despite the fact that it was a nice and wonderful experience, this first time helped me to notice that every time I have to be well prepared in order to avoid nervousness, to know the students, and to know how to manage them.

     At first it was pretty nice to be in front of the students. I was so nervous because that was my first time with real students; I tried to prepare my class very nice, but I had some problems because of time; moreover, many things happened to me the day before, and that is the reason why I felt  so nervous when I started developing my icebreaker; maybe my students noticed that, and I was afraid because they were many. It was a big problem for me to look for a warm up that fit with the quantity of students I had; however, the one I found was so good and my students liked, and enjoyed it.

     Then, having broken the ice, I had the opportunity to get in contact with the students by playing with the Paper Airplane icebreaker. They said they enjoyed the activity because it was funny and interesting, so I really appreciated that. Even though some of them were not participating as i}I expected, but the good thing was that the rest did it and liked it.

     Lastly, I could notice that managing the students is a difficult task for me as a teacher because they were many; besides, apart from trying to manage the class, I got nervous because it seemed as if some of them definitely did not want to participate. I think that the fact of looking younger affected my teaching because at first, I could notice that they thought that I was the same age as them and also that they thought that  they could do whatever they wanted, but I managed them.

     Finally, my first teaching in a real class with university students was really nice because  I could learned what to do for next time, and also how to establish better rapport with them, and also how to manage a class with many students thanks to feedback I received from my classmate and my tutor. I can infer that this first time was a wonderful experience.