My third Class, 3° PED!!!

In my last class, I developed a warm up activity called "Hot Potato", the students had to pass the ball and when I stopped the music, the person who had the ball , was going to open it and  create a sentence using the two words that were in the paper. In this activity, I noticed that they had fun, but the purpose of that, it was to make them to think and produce examples of using simple past tense by themselves.

Then, I continued with the last activity of the previous class in order to finish it because I couldn´t have the opportunity to check the answers. So, I began to ask some of the students the correct answers, almost all the students participate in this activity. Then, I pasted a chart on the board in which students had to write the correct form of the verbs in the spaces. The teacher told me that she liked this activity because students passed to the front and participate. When I reviewed, I noticed that some of them had difficulty in write the verbs, So I asked if someone wanted to write the correct form of the verb, and fortunately, they passed and did it. In addition, I explained the pronunciation of some verbs, but specially the differentiation of the  pronunciation of verb "read" in simple present and simple past. To continued, I asked the students to work in a worksheet in which they had to choose 10 verbs of the charts in simple past tense and write sentences, I was monitoring them meanwhile they had some minutes to do it.Then, I pasted a chart on the board which contained the same directions, So I asked some of them to pass to the front and write a sentences, but in this time they didn't see any chart or notebook, they had to create the sentences without any help. To continue, I checked the sentences and I asked them if the sentences were correct, and some students participate in the correction, So I realized that they were learning, In my opinion, it´s better to work with examples and practice a lot of exercise using different strategies than using just the structure of the simple past, and also students learn easier and more quickly.

To finish, I pasted another chart in which I wrote an example of writing a paragraph using the simple past the topic was "My last vacation" in order to led students know or have an idea about how they could write a paragraph about their last vacation using the simple past tense.

Then, the students had to pass to the front and read what they wrote, but unfortunately, the time wasn´t enough. In general, the teacher told me that she liked the develop of all the class, she told me that she noticed that students participate and learn more in my last class and they had fun too, but what I need to improve was the time which I consider one of my challenges that I need to be careful. Even though, I´m so surprise how much I changed my teaching during all this process of giving classes, I had different experience and I learned of each one, I improved the develop of the activities and meanwhile I was teaching more and more classes, I learned to use different strategies to help or motivate students to be interesting in learning of English language. I hope, I could continue with this improvement in my new classes and my future as an English teacher. 

My Second Class, 3°PED

In my second class, I began with an warm up activity using sentences strips, I asked the student to stand up and make three groups, then I gave a bag to each group that contained 3 sentences in pieces of paper that they had to order in the correct way. In this activity, I noticed that they had fun meanwhile they were working and all students were participating too. 

Later, I used some charts with some examples of verbs in simple past tense in order to remind the students about the previous class. First, I used a chart with regular verbs, in this chart, I explained them the three different pronunciations with the termination in "ED" of the simple past, so  I focused in the pronunciation and then, I asked them to pronounce the verbs after me.  I used the second chart which contained irregular verbs, and then, in the last chart, I explained them many examples using simple past tense with regular and irregular verbs. In my opinion, when I explain grammar,  I prefer to use examples than structures because it´s easier to the students to understand and pay attention in how they can use the simple past tense.

To continue, the students worked  in a reading;  first, I asked them  to look for new vocabulary, then, I explained the meanings and other examples. Later on, I asked them to read it and finally answers the questions.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the class, because one of the coordinators of access English asked everyone to go out. Even though, the teacher told me that I could continue the next class.

This time, I felt that I improved in my teaching, in other words, I have noticed that now I have more ideas to develop my classes than before and thanks good, this class it was successful because students paid attention to the explanation and they liked to participate in all the activities and learn how to use the simple past using regular and irregular verbs and some adverbs of time. I realized that they are a great group.

First Class, 3 Period!!

At this time, I already learned a lot of strategies and different ways to teach I can say with properly that I´m not same girl than before starting this subject because I had the opportunity to give classes in basic and advanced levels and now in English access, since many time ago I wanted to know how was it to work with this group, I listened the good comments of my classmates that had the opportunity to work with them; now that I could observe the learning environment, I noticed how nicely is to work with these children because they are so anxious to learn English and that motivated me to prepare a great class for them. No means that I didn´t right before,  but this time I enjoyed preparing my class.  As teacher, I felt realize to develop the class and how successful was it, not because I am saying, but because I noticed that children loved to work and they were so interesting to learn during all the class that I taught them. All this experience lead me to try to improve my teaching more every time. I realized how much I liked to give classes, specially now that I dedicated the best of me to do it.

Basically, before starting the class, I pasted some pieces of scotch in their desks and pasted the objective , the agenda and new vocabulary, and I had ready the charts that I was going to use in my class. Then, when they were ready, I introduced myself and I gave them pieces of paper to each one in order that they could write their names, I really wanted to call them by their names during the class. Later on, I develop the warm up, I wanted to use something that allows them to stand up, have fun and work at the same time, so I made 3 groups and because they are children I asked them to chose a name for their group and chose a representative, this last thing it had a purpose that I will mention later, after chose their group´s name and representative, I gave to each group a bag which contained 3 sentences in simple past, they had to order and then, the representative had to write the sentences on the board and then the group which had more correct sentences was going to win. I noticed that they were so anxious, I decided to use this because they are children, I know that I can use other strategies with adults, but in this case, they had fun by learning an practice. Finally, when the groups finished, I checked with them all the sentences, I did it in order to involve them in the review and allow them to notice their mistakes too, in fact, they participated in the activity and in the review by telling me the mistakes, they laughed a lot in this activity.

Later, I continued with a practice, I gave them a worksheet that the teacher asked me to use it, it was a writing activity. Meanwhile the students were working, I was monitoring them, it was easy for me, because I used seating arrangement before they came to class, I put the desks in semi-circle in order they could sit better and I could monitor them better too. Some of them asked me for the new vocabulary, but fortunately, I already wrote the new vocabulary on the board, so they noticed and understood the meanings. 

Then, I use another worksheet that the teacher asked me to use it, but I talked with her days before the class, asking her if I could use other strategies with the information of the worksheet in order to use not only writing activities, but some other kind of strategies that helped to students to not get bored in class, fortunately, she told me that I could do other things with the same information. So, my idea was to bring a chart in which  I put some verbs in different colors in order to call their attention and analyze which verbs were for each sentence that I wrote, some of them had to pass to the front and write the correct verbs in past for each sentence, in fact, I asked them calling by their names, then, together, we reviewed if they wrote the verbs correctly, then I used another chart that consisted in that I gave them a variety of verb in pieces of papers and then they have to pass to the front and paste in the spaces, it was like fill in the blanks, but in a more interesting way because my purpose was that all of them could pay attention not to the person that stand up and write or paste the verb, but to put attention to the mistakes in order to help them to notice the correct way to write the verbs and  I´m sure that they will remember that in the exam and later on because they were focused in the activity and pay more attention.


I consider that this class has been the best class that I had developed and the most successful, maybe it wasn´t perfect but I had improved a lot and I hope I continous improving my teaching during this time, fortunately, I put the best of me and I obtained the most successful class that I had taught because students clarify their doubt and they learned the correct way to write the verbs and the most important it´s that I´m pretty sure that they will remember not only for the exam but also it will be meaningful learning.

My last teaching in Advanced II !

This class was the best experience as a teacher that I never had before, because at this time, everything was so different, my development as a teacher improved so much, I never thought that I  had obtained a very successful class!!!

At the beginning, I began the class by developing a warm up activity that I invented it by my myself, I asked them to make two groups, then I gave a marker to the representative of each group, the activity consisted that everyone of each group had to pass to the front the board and write a noun, one group had to write countable nouns and the other one had to write uncountable nouns. They had 3 minutes to do it and the group with more answers was going to be the winner, in this activity they had fun a lot and at the same time I could observe how much they remembered about the topic.

To continue, I asked the students to listen 4 stories about  4 superstitious persons, after listening, I asked them some questions, for example if they believed that these 4 people were superstitious or not, we continued to discuss  about the 4 stories, some of the students were superstitious and others gave their personal opinions. So, I guess that this part of the class was so interesting because I was interacting with the students, I would like to give them more classes. 

After presenting the topic, I continued with the grammar, I thought that this part It was going to be one of the most  difficult parts of the class, but fortunately  the results were so productive. Because I remembered what the teacher Christian told us before, he said that we can use many strategies to explain grammar and not only the traditional way, so I tried to use attractive charts in order to get their attention, also, I explained the grammar by using a lot of examples in order to help them to understand better and make the things easier than the complicated explanation that make our students get bored. I explained only three rules that I considered were enough in one class, the topic was "Non-countable nouns made countable"; in addition, I used 2 little charts that contained examples of some phrases that could use with this topic, also I used two or three examples of how they could use for each phrase. Then, I did CCQ I asked them to give me other examples and they did it. I was impressed because they payed attention during all the time. Later on, I gave them a worksheet that contained some nouns, so they had to classify if the nouns could be countable or non-countable nouns, then they had to write sentences using the nouns by providing examples of countable nouns and non-countable nouns made countable.

Later, I asked them to go to their book and work in one exercise in which they had to read a paragraph and look for non-countable nouns that could make countable, I gave them 6 minutes to do it. Then, I asked some of them to give me the words that they found, but my surprise it was that many of them wanted to participate in the activity. At the end, I gave them a worksheet as homework assignment in order to they could practice at home.

What I liked, it was that the students were paying attention all the time and  they participated a lot and expressed their opinions in the discussion, also one of my favorite parts, it was the grammar explanation because it was not boring, students were attentive  and when I did CCQ I noticed that they understood the explanation. The teacher told me that the use of attractive charts called students´attention, also the use of a lot of examples helped them to understand easier, and personality I think that the use of examples helped me a lot, more than if I had explained to them the grammar in the traditional way, because they could observed how they could transform the non-countable nouns in countable.

This time, I improved a lot in my teaching practice, I consider that the developing of all the activities was successful and much better that I thought it would be, also I didn´t get nervous so I interacted with the students as never I did before. The students understood the topic and were participating in all the activities, I guess they liked the class too. So I  hope to continue improving my teaching that it´s my purpose, being a teacher and have a successful class, definitely, it´s a great experience!

My second teaching practice, Second Period!

Fortunately, my second teaching practice was gratifying; I noticed that I improved my teaching during this time. I began the class with a warm up activity in which they had so much fun, because it was dynamic, and especially, this group it was very active, even introverted students had fun and participate in the activity. If one student lost, he had to create a subjunctive mood sentence. Personally, I liked this activity because students had to think and say an example that other students didn´t say before, all the group participated. 

To continue, I gave them a worksheet that the teacher already told me. Before working in the worksheet, I gave them a few examples of subjunctive mood in order to introduce the next activity that consisted in writing an answer to each questions using subjunctive mood. After five minutes, I started to ask for the answers, I knew that there could be more than one option for the answers, and it was, some students had different answers, but the most important thing it was that the answers were correct.

Later, I asked them to make couples to talk about "Dealing with Stress" for some minutes; the teacher told me that they already knew about that topic because the students were going to talk about it in their impromptu speech, So I strongly believed that this activity could help them to improve in their speaking, fluency and to clarify ideas about it.

In addition, I asked the students to make trios and read an article from the book about "Dealing with Stress" and also, look for new vocabulary. I decided to make trios, despite sometimes could be wrong, because I asked them to read aloud one student for each paragraph in order to improve their pronunciation. Short time later, I asked the students if they had found new vocabulary, and some of them asked me for the meaning of some words, I answered them. Then, I asked some of them to read aloud in order to help them to feel less shy and improve their confidence at the moment to talk in front of the class, because I knew that they were going to had an impromptu speech with the teacher Walter.

To finish, students worked in an activity from the book in which they had to complete the information, using the subjunctive mood, for example if they had the beginning of the sentence, they had to complete with new information, something invented. Then, I asked some of them to give me they own examples based on the information in the book. Finally, I asked them to work in a worksheet that the teacher Walter asked me to do, in which they had to complete, order o create subjunctive mood sentences. However, I couldn´t review it, the teacher told me that my teaching time was exact and that I didn´t have to worry about review, because that activity was an extra just in the case to  need to cover any space, so, he was going to review it the next class because it was the homework. Briefly, in the feedback, the teacher Walter told me that I really did a better job this time, obviously, the developing of the class was much better and he advised me to continue like that. I had never thought that I could achieve it, no because getting better grades, but for improving in my teaching.

My first teaching practice,second period.

During my teaching practice in the second period, I felt more comfortable and able to do a better job; I realized that I improved my teaching because I commit less mistakes and I got not nervous; this time, I felt more competent as a teacher and actually, the develop of the class was much better. 

Through my class observation, I could observe that It was a big group, what meant that had some advantages and disadvantages but I started to think about activities that could be appropriated for them. 

Basically, to start with the class, I began to introduce myself, telling them my name, asking how was their week , why I was going to  teach the class on Mondays and what were my expectations with them. Then, I developed a warm up in which they had to introduce themselves telling their name and why they were studying English; however, my error was that I didn´t understood what the teacher had already told me before, he told me as advice, to do a warm up in order to break the ice, so he recommended me to develop an activity that could help me to know a little about them, So, despite it was a simple activity, I took some time to develop.

 Despite the inconvenient, I continued with the second activity, I already had written some questions on the board, according to a discussion about the topic "Frustration" like for example: What is your biggest frustration? What things make people feel commonly frustrated and why? etc.  I formulated the questions because sometimes, the internet doesn´t have  what we as  teachers really need to take to develop the activities with the students, so in many cases, the teacher has to invent or create the material that it will be more successful with students. I formulated questions according their interest, or situations that they were passing related with got frustration. During the discussion I was monitoring them in order to check if they were working in the activity or help them if they had any doubt or question. I realized that all the students were working and interested in the activity, that made me fell very well because everyone was paying attention to my class. After they discussed, I started to ask questions to some of them, and I could observe that they were very participate and their opinions were very good. In personal, I really liked this activity because I could interact with the students and talking a little more, that helped me to know them better and have more communication with them, so at the end of the activity students were more attentive to the class and they felt more comfortable. I strongly believe that this activity it was  successful for helping students to practice their speaking, fluency and express their opinions.

In addition, the activity of "Frustration" is going to take into consideration for their next oral exams and impromptu speech, I hope that through the practice of talking about it, it could help them to be more prepare and have and idea about this topic.

Moreover, the grammar that I used were "Past Progressive, Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive". So it was a little complicated because it was advanced level. But fortunately, I liked it because students understood me when I was explaining the class to them.

Then, I asked them to make trios to work in a worksheet to develop some exercises that the teacher asked me to work it,in the activity, Students had to create the Wh-questions for the answers giving to them, focusing on the underlined words to create the questions. I gave them some minutes to do it and then I started to ask some of them the answers, respectively. Some of them had different answers in some of the questions, but actually, it was right.

 Later on, I continued with the next activity, I asked to the students  to make pairs or trios to work in the book, page 30. In this activity, the student had to complete the sentences in the book, adding  "Wh-words" or "no matter" in some cases. I decided not to do many writing activities, so I asked to the students to complete the sentences just by talking and not writing the sentences, I gave them some minutes to do it. Short time later, I asked some of them to give me some examples, and many of them participated in the activity and the sentences were well structured. Even I wasn´t doing CCQ yet, I could realized that they were understanding the class.

To finish, I gave the students a worksheet in which they had to look at the pictures and complete the sentences using the past simple and the past perfect. The teacher asked me to work in this activity, despite it was a writing activity, I realized that It was helpful because after students finishing I noticed that all of them understood the class. 

Something that I have to improve is the timing because, I finished 5 minutes before, but It will be something that I will consider for the next time. 

My Second Teaching Practice!!

In my second practice , everything was much better, I could close to my students a little more and I felt more confident developing my class.

The first activity was a warm up in which students had to make groups of 5 and choose one color envelope per group, then they had to open it and read the piece of paper that contained 5 prepositions of place; students had to create a sentences and read aloud one by one in their group, then after some minutes, I asked some of the students to give me an example and they did it perfectly. These type of activities are difficult because you had to spend much of your time to prepare it.

Then, I used a reading to present the topic, and this activity as the previous one, I invented to use it and that´s one of my favorite experiences in my preparation as a future teacher, I felt comfortable to be able to decide to change somethings, for example: many activities in the lesson were about places that students didn´t know, so I changed it and I created a reading about where is the Santa Ana Cathedral? and places from El Salvador in order to transport students to get more familiar and to be able to use it in their real situations. Then, I asked them to work in pairs and practice the conversation.

Later, I developed my class with a listening activity, they listened twice and then students worked in a worksheet activity. I continued with my favorite activity, "sentences strips", because I could notice that they enjoyed it a lot and worked hard in learning and doing the best. Everyone participated in this activity and they helped each other. Finally in the last activity I asked students to describe some famous locations in their hometown. Many of them described Ahuchapan because they are from there. I felt very proud that I could achieve my goals, I mean what I expected them to be able to do it. It was satisfactory and I had never felt that before, its something that  you can feel when you are a teacher.

The teacher told me that he was surprised to see my activities and how I could adapt to our country, this was what he and me most liked about my teaching class.

What I have to improve it´s the seating arrangement, I couldn´t change it in my second class because the students of one class before were receiving the class in our room and it was to late, and they didn´t go outside the classroom. So I have to start to late, but fortunately, it didn´t affect me to much. I expect improving every more time and continue to make more effort and less mistakes.

Good lucky for all my classmates!!