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.

Peer Pressure	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.
Pruning	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.
Myelination	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.
Procrastination	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.

Things that I liked

·        I really enjoyed the full energy these students had. They were always laughing and having time.

·        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.

·        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.

·        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

was not there to do her job; however, she gave me the task to plan a complete lesson of two hours. That made me feels that she trusted me her class, her students! And I did not want to disappoint her. She definitely knows where to push you and in which stages you need to improve. She never criticized an activity and she was always willing to provide feedback. She applied ECRIF and PDP Lessons all the time; I could see that she took the time to prepare her class and her personal projects with the students. Of course, if I failed in something she let it me know and she gave me the opportunity to correct myself. Teacher Lorena is definitely a model to follow.

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

·        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.

·        Because of my duties in the mornings, my practices did not interfere with my job and I could be in the afternoons.

·        Students and my mentor  received me well since the first day

·        I had the opportunity to challenge myself in planning a lesson of 2 hours

·        I know how to plan a PDP lesson with extra activities

·        Writing a blog helped me to think twice the job and my performances of all the Saturdays

·        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

·        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.