Autobiography

The Experience of Learning

It is all about uncovering facts, looking for clues, and asking the right questions until the whole mystery makes sense. That is how the learning process can be seen. Learning is a process that involves our whole life, since the moment we were born. We learn to walk, talk, ride a bicycle, read, write, and many more things. Our first teachers then are our parents and family; from them, we learn the essentials of life and then, there are the multiple experiences that we have in an educational institution. I spent my primary and part of my secondary education in Garzon. A very small town in Huila department. People from this town are not from a very upper class. Although a small town, Garzon has different public school buildings the residents can attend. The most popular are Bolivar School, Luis Calixto Leiva School, and Jenaro Diaz Jordan School.

During my primary education, I attended two different schools, Luis Calixto Leiva School and La Gaitana School. The first one of these tends to be a school where children were good at academics, or at least, that was the impression I had at that time. On the other hand, my perception of the second school mentioned was not as good as the one for the other school. However, as time went by, my opinion changed. I consider I did well at my primary education process and I learned a lot from my teachers at both schools. In terms of my classmates, I preferred the ones from La Gaitana School; they seemed to be less cocky than my peers from the other school and somehow, I can say I could learn from them as well. Something I remember from my time in one of those schools is that in first grade, the teacher would organize students in lines according to their performance in school. Therefore, if you were one of “the excellent students”, you would be placed at a line denominated “line number one”; but if your performance was not so good, you would be in “line number two”; and if you were doing really bad at school, you would belong to “line number three”. At that time, I was happy to belong to line number one and I was afraid of having to move to line number two or even number three. Now that I think about it, I consider that was not the right way to organize students since I think that is giving students a label. Labeling students from a very young age just will make students believe they cannot go beyond their limits.

On the other hand, I spent my secondary education in two different schools as well, but this time in two different cities. I carried out the first four years of high school in the Jenaro Diaz Jordan school in Garzon. Different from what my experience in elementary school, here I was one of the regular students with not very high grades. However, when there were only two years left to finish my secondary education, I decided to move to Bogota. My expectations about attending a school in a capital city were high; nevertheless, when I got there, I discovered that things were not so different from the ones at Garzon. Well, something that was completely new for me at that time was the system carried out by the school since they follow a system quite similar to the ones universities follow: semester system. I consider this change of school brought me many benefits. It was a new school in a new city with no friends; therefore, I had to make my place and I consider I did it well since my grades improved a lot and I became one of the top students of my class. Something remarkable of this new school was how teachers carried out their classes. Their teaching methodologies were all different from one another. The school also managed a type of rewarding for good students, which consisted in that these students will not have to present the final test of the courses at the end of the semester.

Over the four years of learning in higher education, I have realized some important aspects of my learning. I learn best when I have the flexibility to take the learning in the direction that I feel is important but that flexibility is tempered by guidance and high expectations. Besides, I have reaffirmed that teaching is not my way to go; however, in the meanwhile, I am trying to learn from the experience because I think there is no worthless knowledge.

Metaphor

Teaching, a concept that can be defined differently depending on who is defining this word. The thing is that we can agree on something: it involves a process. Taking this concept to one more ordinary, we can say it is like a bicycle. How so? Well, just as a bicycle allows us to travel distances and arrive at our destination, teaching is that conveyance that takes us from the darkness of the ignorance to the end of the road: understanding and knowledge. Although contradictory, in this journey, there is no end, but it is a path worth taking. In this sense, the bicycle travels through the road, which is the learning process.

Journal IX

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, June 3, 2019 to Friday, June 7, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Ninth Week: Teaching and Testing

During the ninth week of my pedagogical practicum, I implemented two lessons since with the third group a test about the learned topics was carried out. In this sense, for Wednesday’s session, I prepared the questions for the test, which were about comparative and superlative adjectives and modal verbs when being used for making requests. The test was developed during the first moments of the class and after all the students had finished, I was in charge of checking the answers along with the students. I asked different students to read the questions and the corresponding answer for each. Therefore, students know how well they did in this test immediately. I realized that students do not have any problem regarding comparative and superlative adjectives. However, in terms of modal verbs, they got confused about the degree of formality of these. Consequently, I think something I should do differently about this is giving students only two options instead of three so that they can see the difference between these easily and do not get confused.

On Thursday, I had a class with students from the first level. The topic to be taught was “some and any with countable and uncountable nouns”. At the beginning of the class, students worked on the vocabulary of the book by categorizing groups of food according to the group they belong to, for example, dairy products, drinks, and protein. In terms of vocabulary, there were no major problems. Subsequently, I proceeded to explain the countable and uncountable nouns. Even though I provided examples and explained the reasons why some nouns are uncountable, they kept on making sense of the Spanish situation for telling that they can count those nouns. In the end, they understood a little more about the topic and worked on the activities. I explained to them how to make questions and express sentences with both positive and negative meaning. When I asked them to classify the nouns from the first exercise, they could do it without any inconvenience. The listening exercise I planned to do, was successful, students understood the audio track and could answer the questions about it. However, the time passed so fast that it was impossible to carry out the last activity. Then, I thought it was better that students had the topic clear instead of jumping to the other activity. I have to consider the time management and how I address my explanations for me not to take more time than the estimated.

Finally, on Friday, I introduced the modal verbs when used for giving advice. The verbs to be worked for this lesson were “could, should, ought to, must, and have to”. I prepared a reading exercise for introducing the topic and asked students to try to tell me what the letter was about. Students managed to do so. In the beginning, they tried to participate but at the end of the reading exercise, they just stopped doing so. However, I tried to give them the first idea for them to complete it. After that, I told students that in the text there were some specific words that we used when giving advice. I wrote an example of a piece of advice on the board using all the modal verbs and explained to students when we use each one of them. The topic was addressed successfully since students understood right away how and when to use these modal verbs. I also asked them to tell me how they would advise their parents and their little siblings. Afterward, they played a game in which there were some problems or situations to which they had to provide a piece of advice. They played in small groups and at the end; I asked them to read the last situation they advised to and the corresponding piece of advice. At the end of the class, students were given a situation to which they had to provide as many pieces of advice as possible and then, we reviewed all the situations and advice given.

Journal VIII

 APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 27, 2019 to Friday, May 31, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Eighth Week: Explanations and Clarifications

During this week, I taught superlatives to students from the second level. At the beginning of the class, I showed them some pictures in which there was an obvious difference between the three objects in each picture. For example, I showed them a picture with three buildings and I told them one of them was the highest and another was the shortest pointing to the corresponding building. After I did that, I show them another image and they made sentences in Spanish. Afterward, I explained the grammar. Students got a little confused since the previous topic was comparatives and the rules are almost the same. Then, I had to clarify the difference between these two grammar topics. Later on, students worked on some exercises from the book in which they had to write the corresponding superlative for some nouns and other in which they had to write superlative sentences according to some information provided in a chart. Finally, I prepared a kind of a general knowledge contest for them to play and practice the superlative structure. From this lesson, I think I what would change is the amount of practice I allowed students to do since they are not used to English I had to explain more than once the grammar so they had little practice before making the contest.

Then, I worked with students from the other level II. There was no topic to be taught to them since what my class was based on is in practicing both comparatives and superlatives. At the beginning of the class, I asked students some questions using both of the structures. Some of the students participated but most of the students do not like participating when doing it in this way. As I noticed there were still some problems when expressing a correct sentence, I decided to make a quick review of the topics. However, I did not implement some examples to contextualize students. In spite of that, students remembered the correct use of the structures. After that, I gave a handout in which students had to complete the sentences writing a comparative adjective or a superlative adjective. Most of the students worked on the exercise but some others were just waiting for the activity to finish. I think I have to work more on making these students participate in every activity. Finally, students were divided into two groups and each group will make some questions to the other. The other team had to answer the questions providing the right answer and using the structure correctly. I tried that the students participating were different students from the ones that always participate.

Finally, on Thursday, I taught “should and should not for advice” to students from the first level. I brought a comic to the class and handed it out to students so that everyone had the comic and could read it. I asked them some questions such as “what was happening in the comic” and then we focused on the part in which one of the characters provides a piece of advice. Then, I explained the situation and proceeded to explain the grammar topic. I provided some examples. Students were a little confused about the use of the main verb in the sentences because it is always used in its base form and does not change when referring to the third person. When the grammar was explained, they worked on some exercises in their books for making some practice and then we checked them. Finally, I gave each student a piece of paper with a problem and a chart for writing some advice. They had to ask for advice to solve their problem and then select the best one. Before doing so, I made an example with the whole class so that they did not get confused with the instructions. This time, students were more focused on the class. Regarding something I would change, I think I would slow a little more when explaining because there were some doubts when doing the last exercise more than anything because of the use of the auxiliary verb should and the main verb.

Journal VII

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 27, 2019 to Friday, May 31, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Seventh Week: Slowing down

            This week of my pedagogical practicum started by teaching to the students from the second level. The topic assigned for this lesson was comparative adjectives and the vocabulary was related to clothes. For teaching the vocabulary, I prepared a crossword in which I gave them the descriptions of the different pieces of clothes. I helped students to develop this activity by reading the descriptions and reinforcing some words with body language so that they were able to know what the descriptions were referring to and all the answers were written on the board. Students seemed to like this activity since they claimed that this is a practical and entertaining way to learn vocabulary. When I started explaining the grammar topic, students were confused even though I provided them with a small chart with the rules and some examples different from the ones on the book and on the chart. I think that something I have to change regarding this group is the amount of English and Spanish I use in my lessons and probably the speed of my explanations because students do not fully understand them. However, after I explain the rules I always ask them if they have understood but nobody says anything then I do not know if I should move on or explain again, which I sometimes do by providing more examples. After that, I showed some images of clothes and asked students to create comparative sentences for which I started with the first one making an example and I guided them with the other ones. Some students tried to do the exercise and some others were just listening to all the time. Finally, when the topic was a little clearer for students, they organized themselves in groups and we made a kind of contest. For the contest, I allowed them to use the chart I had given them and the book. The participation for this activity was not a problem, but as I had to take more time in the explanation part, we had time just for one round.

            The class with the other second level was quite similar to the first group since the topic was the same and so was the main activity. The major difference between the two groups was that with this one, I did not have to explain the grammar rules since the teacher in charge of the course provided the explanation. Compared to the previous class I had with this group the week before, they participated more and were more focused on the activity since the winning team would get some extra points for the exam. The major problem I have with this group was in terms of discipline since they got very excited about the activity because they wanted to win. Then, they were really noisy and disorganized. One aspect that I noticed is that they tended to use always the same comparative adjectives so the main idea of practicing these was hindered. With this group, I have to look for strategies to control the discipline when making this kind of activities.

            Finally, I taught possessives to the students from the first level. This topic was a little difficult for students to understand so after I made the whole explanation in English and realized they have understood nothing at all; I had to make the whole explanation again using Spanish most of the time and giving some examples in English. When I thought the topic had been understood, I asked students to develop the exercises in their book in order for them to practice, but then again I noticed they still were a little confused, not as much as at the beginning but there were still something to be clarified. Then, I went back and return to my first example, I worked with it all the time in order for students to notice the difference between the possessive adjectives and pronouns. Then, the topic had finally been understood and students could complete the exercises. When the exercises were checked, we still had fifteen minutes, which I used for making a communicative and funny activity. I gave them some cards for them to play in small groups by completing the sentences with the correct possessive form. In the end, I gave some points to the winner of each group.  

Journal VI

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 13, 2019 to Friday, May 17, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Sixth Week: Taking Some Advice

            During this week, I had the opportunity to teach one lesson since the other two groups I am working with had this week for carrying out the exam. The topic to be taught to these students was modal verbs functioning for making requests. Then, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with short conversations in which the use of these modal verbs was highlighted in order to lead students into the topic. Talking to my advisor, she told me that something good I could have done in order for me to take advantage of this material was to work more with it, trying to explain each type of conversation so that the differences among the modal verbs were underlined and it was clearer for students. After I introduced the main topic for the lesson, I made an explanation of these modal verbs, telling students the main difference. Regarding this, something my advisor told me was that I could have used some Spanish because some students did not understand the explanation. For the last activity, I prepared a game in which students had to act out or draw in order for their team to guess what the request was. This activity was a little difficult to carry out since some students were not willing to participate. In order for me to not have this kind of problems, my advisor told me to think of some strategies that could make students be more active in terms of participation. In addition, she also told me about some strategies that could work. Additionally, she remarked the importance of catching all the students’ attention by asking them to repeat the answers from the other groups. Summing up, I would change a little the way in which I taught this lesson in terms of being more focused on what all the students were doing and try to catch their attention by trying that everyone participates in the activities being carried out.  

Journal V

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 6, 2019 to Friday, May 10, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Fifth Week: Adapting my Lesson Plans

            During this week, which was supposed to be the exam week, I had the opportunity to teach two of the three groups I am working with. For the students from the English I course, the topic to be taught was adverbs of frequency along with some celebrations and festivals. I started the class by asking students some questions that made them think of the grammar topic we were going to use, for example, I asked them “how often do you watch TV?” When I made this question they did not understand what I was asking them, then, I provided students with an example in which I highlighted the adverb of frequency I used for answering. After I did that, students knew and understood what my intention was. Hence, they answered the questions using the most common adverbs of frequency they knew. One of the activities that I carried out with these students was about giving students a set of cards for them to play asking and answering questions within small groups. For this activity, I tried that the verbs and vocabulary being used was familiar for students so that they would not have comprehension problems. In spite of the fact that I explained students the structure for making and answering questions, some of them were still confused about it so I had to approach them and explain again while the others that had understood were working on the activity. This makes me think that something I would change about this lesson is the amount of practice I ask students to do before introducing a communicative activity. I need to make sure they fully understood the topic before moving into the next stage and for doing so; I have to look for interesting activities because they tend to be very restless. Finally, I finished the class with a listening exercise in which students had to check if the statements were true or false. I had to play the audio track three times since the first time was almost impossible to comprehend due to the noise from the air conditioner. In the end, I checked the answers with the students and they did well.

On the other hand, the lesson for students from the English II course was about the difference between the uses of “be going to” and “will”. As students have been studying these structures in previous classes, I did not have to worry about explaining grammar structures. For starting the class, I gave students a piece of paper in which there were three different conversations; the first one was about a conversation using the “be going to” structure, the second one used the “will” structure, and the last one was a combination of both of them. What I intended to do was that students try to explain what the differences among these were; however, they were unable to so. Therefore, I had to read the conversations with them and analyze each situation. Fortunately, they did remember the uses for both structures so when I asked them “what do we use each structure for?” they answered correctly. The main activity I planned for this lesson was about providing students with a set of fortune telling runes for them to work in pairs and construct a dialogue by using the two future forms. In addition, I gave them an example of a conversation between a fortuneteller and a customer for them to be guided. Throughout the activity, some students asked me some vocabulary questions. What I had planned for the last stage of the class was that students perform what they have constructed, but as the time was short, I made the decision that they only deliver the written dialogue instead.