Students don’t
remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.
Teaching Practicum II is over; however, the learning
process of a teacher never ends. I am more than grateful for this amazing experience;
I can say that I have grown as a teacher, as a student and as a person. I have
always said that it does not matter if you have the best pronunciation, the greater
ideas and creativity; here the most important thing is your ATTITUD! Students feel our mood and our willingness to
teach them, so I encourage my colleagues to make a change and put in practice
what we have learned. My impressions about the group of students I was working
with are the following:
Teenagers = troubles. This experience taught me that this assumption is more than wrong. The
group of students I worked with was wonderful. They paid attention to every
single instruction that was given. Also, they enjoyed all the activities and
role plays performed in the classroom. During this course I learned how
teenagers’ brain works. Here I added a chart of the normal aspects that a
normal brain has versus the behavior I saw n my students.
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Peer Pressure
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The pre-frontal
area is in charge of making judgements, choices and feelings. I could see
that most of the students were around 15 to 17 years old. However, I was
impressed of the nice environment they had, I could not see peer pressure at
all. On the contrary, they liked to help each other. I do not know if their
normal behavior were caused by how the other teachers treat them, or simply they
are normal teenagers.
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Pruning
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A process
in the brain in which unused information is eliminated. I expected to see
that they had forgotten what they had learned during 15 modules. My God! These
students had long term memory; they even knew words that I did not remember
when I was studying English! I believe that their brains are processing that
English is meaningful information that it needs to be retained.
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Myelination
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A process
in which the speed of the information travels, resulting in a higher quality of
thinking. The first day I observed that the teacher just explained once, and
all students understood. Probably from 14 students only one did not think
faster than the others. In this module be patient was not required, because
the topics and instructions were easily understood.
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Procrastination
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During adolescence
is harder when they do not finish tasks or homework. I could only observe
that one student had always an excuse of why he never did the homework. The rest
were very responsible.
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Things that I liked
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I really
enjoyed the full energy these students had. They were always laughing and
having time.
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They were
good listeners. I was impressed how fast they completed all the listening
activities. I will confess that even I could not complete some tasks, and they
did them at once.
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The projects
that they delivered were so meaningful for them that they shared them with
other modules. They had the opportunity to show their progress in English
trough oral presentations.
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I also
liked the friendly environment they created. There was not bullying at all, and
all of them respected each other.
I had the opportunity to be in front of them 8 times, my mentor since the very
beginning put me in front of them, participating in the activities that she
delivered. This really helped me to earn their trust. At the time of delivering
my whole lesson they really cooperate with me, because they did not see me as a
strange person.
I felt accepted among them, they asked me all the time
about the meaning of the vocabulary, or if I could help them to complete some exercises.
I liked when they asked me if I would be teaching them again. I also shared
with them in the break time, out of the classroom I could know them better, of
course, they saw me as a their teacher and they treated me with respect.
My tutor was more than my tutor; she is a model to follow.
I was blessed to observe their classes and how she delivered the activities so
easily. Since the very beginning she allowed me the time to deliver my
activities. She also took the time to check my weaknesses and improve them in
the classroom. While I was in front of the class, she was always taking notes
so that at the end of the class she provided me with feedback. This really
helped me to grown as teacher. She was more than willing to help me and she
gave me the opportunity to learn from her. Watching Teacher Lorena’s class was
like the goal of each teacher wants to reach, teach with love. She controlled
the class; her activities were so creative that none of them were repeated. She
understood that I
Teaching my own lessons
Before
Teaching teenagers was not the same as teaching to
children. I had confidence in myself because I have my own style and I did not
want to copy to my mentor. My first class was a PDP lesson. I was scared
because I needed to prepare a variety of activities and I was worried about the
time. When my teacher in charge of the subject gave me green light in my
lesson, I was more than ready to prove myself that I could do it. I did not
have any troubles in planning my lessons, perhaps the order of the activities
or in how should apply some activities in the topics. In all the classes I gave
the process was the same: think, plan, prepare and teach. Several times I changed
the activities or the materials because I came up with better ideas. At the end
I always had a plan b, c and d just in case an activity was not working.
During
Before or after the break, it does not matter. When you start a class you
need to be ready with full energy. I still do not know how I was capable to do
this. I work in the mornings and in the afternoons I was so tired. This was
what worried me, I was afraid of reflecting my tiredness to my students. Surprisingly,
when I greeted my students my batteries were reloaded! I had full energy and I did
not feel the time. I enjoyed being in front of the class, each Saturday was
different, but my attitude was the same. I wanted to give my best and improve
in each class.
After
I did it! That was always what I though after a
lesson. I could not believe that I did that or I want to do it again. I was
proud of myself and ready for the next topic or stage that I had to teach. After
a lesson, I received feedback from my tutor and for next lesson I always tried
to improve my mistakes.
Positive aspects about this experience
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I liked
that we were part of the English Course from the Saturdays’’ Program. What better
way to earn than with real students in a real life schedule. Theory is not the
same as practice, and I could learn a lot.
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Because of
my duties in the mornings, my practices did not interfere with my job and I could
be in the afternoons.
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Students and
my mentor received me well since the
first day
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I had the
opportunity to challenge myself in planning a lesson of 2 hours
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I know how
to plan a PDP lesson with extra activities
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Writing a
blog helped me to think twice the job and my performances of all the Saturdays
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I have
grown as a teacher and as a person. These practices are not just a subject;
these practices are building us to face in a good way to our future students.
Negative aspects
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In a blog I
cannot truly express how grateful I am for this opportunity, I believe that I will
shot it inside the classroom the things I have learned, because my words are
not enough for the experience I have earned.
