third practice! third period!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Well, I have to say that I am really happy because I have finished all my practices of the semester! I have to say that I have learned a lot by doing all my practices and getting the feedback is a good way of learning too, because that is the way we are gong to know all the mistakes we make at the time of teaching. I have never gotten angry at the time of getting the feedback because I think that I have to take advantage of other people´s experience and try to improve every day.
For this last practice I had prepared with a lot of material for my students. I taught them a new topic (comparative adjectives) as a warm up I explained the grammar notes, it took a little bit longer because it is a little complicated for basic students.
I gave them the forst activity that was about filling in the blanks with the appropiate comparative adjective, I did it in order to check how much they had understood what I had already explained to them.
after that I made a contest that consisted on makin two lines in front of the whiteboard and write in the correct order a list of comparative adjectives that were written on a chart and pasted on the board, the line that finished first was the winner. T he students enjoyed that activity a lot, they had fun, and they practice.
After that I gave them a reading comprehension in which they had just to read and find as many comparative adjectives as they could, they did everything I asked them to do.
To finish the class I gave them some pieces of paper that contained four nouns that they had to compare, they stood up and looked for two or three diffrent classmates to tell their comparative sentences to them.
That was how I finished my last practice, I was a little bit tired but happy at the same time because I had finished the semester.

second entry! third period...

Well, in this second time I was expecting to give my class without any problem. I got early to my classroom that day, however I started my class a little bit late because I was pasting the material on the board for the warm up I was going to do wih my students. I was a little bit nervous about the class because I know that sometimes it is not easy and you do not what you are going to face with. Every class has a different experience. I think that it is a little bit easier to prepare the class if you have a text book to guide yourself to find the best activities in which the students can get involve and active and in which they can also develop the four macro skills such as: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Looking for the best activities is something very difficult but it is really exciting when you look at the results at the end of class.
I started the warm up with an activity that consisted on making two groups and each group made a line in front of the whiteboard, I dictated some verbs in the simple present tense and they wrote them down in the imple past form, the line that had most correct verbs was the winner. It was really funny, the students enjoyed the activity and in that way I could see how much they had learn about the simple past tense in the previous classes.
The only problem was that I took too much time making that actvity that I did not finish with some other activities that I had prepared for them. I think that the most difficult problem I can find when making a lesson plan is timing the activities, it is a little bit challenging.
After that I gave them a piece of paper with an activity called: "board game" and in pairs they had fun in that activity, making sentences, saying verbs in past, saying irregular and reguar verbs, they could practice a lot in that activity.
My second activity was an in individually form in which the students had to rewrite some verbs from the simple past tense to the simple present tense and backwards. after doing it, they chose 10 verbs and made ten sentences using those verbs.
the last activity was a reading comprehension. In pairs, they read a paragraph about the simple past and after reading it they completed some sentences.
Every time I ask my students to work in some actvities I like to monitor their work and check what they are doing to see how much they have learned in my class.
I also had prepared a role play for them but I could not do it because I did not time well my activities, but I was satisfied with the work I did and with the results I saw in that classroom.

First practice! third period..

Well this day I was really excited that I was going to teach my studets of english access. I was told that this groups of students are really good, that are students with a big desire to learn english every day. I was told that they like to get involve in the class, that they like to participate and even though not all of them are really good for english but they try to do their best. That day I had all my material prepared, I got early at the classroom, I was nervous but I tried not to let them know it. I started my class that day with the warm up that I had prepared for them, they were studying the simple past at that time. Then I gave them my first activity and they worked, they participated in the activity, but when I gave them the second actvity, the teacher Christan who was monitoring and checking my class geve a piece of paper that said that the students had to leave early because there were some rumours that there were some bad people that were threatened others that friday afternoon. So, I had to finish my class earlier and the students couldn´t even finished the activity I gave them and I let it as a homework and asked the teacher to check it for next class with them. These are the type of things that as teachers are going to face but we have to be intellingent and be prepared to know what to do in those cases, even though I did not finish what I had prepared or that day I was happy because the students particiated in the activities I gave them. It was a really nice group that I had to teach, I really liked it. It is really sad to know sometimes that the violence in our country affects education, but unfortunately we can say anything to change it, we just need to trust in God and be happy and with a big desire to teach every time we have the oppotunity.

Third class of the second period

This time I was really excited and a Little bit at the same time because it was going to be my last class with Basic students, I really liked that group because it remembers me when I was at that level and I just new how to say some words and some things, and I wanted to now more and more every single day. Now that I am in my last year of the university I can notice that I have learned a lot and I hope they learn even more than what I have learned until now. That day I was really happy in my class, I greeted my students and I tried to carry out my class with all the material I had prepared. That day I prepared some drawings and each drawing had it own name. I pasted all the drawings on the board and I gave two pieces of paper to each student, they were going to look for at the name thay had and will oing to look for the drawing on the board and will paste the name under each drawing. They were really happy working on that warm up and happy of knowing the names of the ítems they were looking at on the board. That type of exercises are good for visual stdents because they learn through looking at something and we can be sure that they won´t forget it. After that I ask them to repeat every sinle Word pasted on the board and they were happily doing it. When I finished with the warm up, I gave them a page in which they were working in some excersises. After that they listened to a auidio in which they were putting into practice what I had previously thaught them with the drawings. I gave them many activities to practice what they were learning in order to clear all doubts they might had at that moment. I guess that I need to imprve is that, I need to be prepared with something else if a different situation is presented in the classroom and I won´t have time to finish another activity that will take longer. and I say this because while I was teaching them two boys came in the classroom and asked for permission to make a survey among the stdents. It stole my time and I could not do my last activity in which I was oing to need a Little more of time, anyways, I saved my photocpied material for any other time I am going to teach the same topic.

second class of the seond period

Well, in my second class I got in the classroom and tried to be polite with all my students, I had everything prepared in my lesson plan and with all the activities I had. I tried to make a review of he previous class and try to explin to them a Little bit more about the topic. I started my class with a warm up in which I try to make them all participate and make feel comfortable in the classroom. I took some exercises from another hand out which contained some exercises related to the topic they were studying at that moment, whic was present progressive, and they did what I ask them to do. I also made my students sang in the classroom with a song I brought for them in which they could practice the present progressive, it was really nice, they did not want to stop singing. What I liked is that they participated and did all the exercises I ask them to do, they were even asking for more exercises because they felt that the topic was easy to study, It is a nice group because even though they are ike twenty students they are respectful and they have the desire of learning more everyday. What went well was that I felt like a real teacher because I feel satisfied because they worked a lot and they did everything, I covered all the activities I prepared at home and I monitored my time, that made me feel really happy. I think that what I need to improve is that I need to be less nervous in every class because it doesn´t make me look self confident.

First Practice of the second period!!!!!

At this time I taught Basic. I can start saying that it was not too difficult as the last time was, this time I tried to monitor the time I was given for my class, I tried to prepare everything to give a good class. I had to teach about counts and noncount nouns, it was really good because we were talking about food, restaurants, menus and things like those. It is Kind of challenging to work wth basic students because as teachers we do not have to speak spanish in class but sometimes the students do not understand the directions for an activity or something and they do not do what we expect them to do. I tried to put into practice every detail the teacher Alex of intermediate level told me in my lasts practices, I know that I will be improving in every class I will teach. Basic students are pretty nice, my classroom had like twenty students and what I liked the most is that they like to participate in class even though most of them have difficulties to understand, to write and to speak english, but I can see that they are making a big effort to learn a new language and that´s good! It is important to look for the right activities in the classroom in order to make them participate and learn and it will continue being a big challenge for me because not all the activities are going to be for all the students, I guess it will be something that it can be improved in every class and in evry level I will teach. This experience was definetely good!!

THIRD PRACTICE!

At this time I think that I improved a Little bit more because I felt more confident since I got in the classroom, I talked to some students, I prepared everything I was going to use and I started my class on time. I took some sentence strips for the students to work in groups, but unfortunately they took more time to make them than the time I expected. Even though, they are in an intermediate level, there are some basic things that are still hard for them. After that I tried to put the listening but it did not work, so I had to read the conversation and they were repeating after me.
They roled play the situation I asked the to do and it was really funny. I made them work in pairs on some worksheets, but they were not able to finish, so the teacher worked on that with them at the end of my class.
Almost everythng went the way I expected, I think there are still some things that I have to improve such as: monitor the time, activities, etc. I hope to improve them in my next practices with basic and advanced level.

This was a big challenge for me but it was also a good experience inside the university.