Journal IV

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, April 29, 2019 to Friday, May 3, 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.

Fourth Week: Motivating my students

            The fourth week of my teaching practicum started on Monday with the students from English II. For this class, the topic to be taught was future “going to”. I prepared the class including some exercises from the book “World English”, which is the one students from this course are working with. In addition, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to carry out the first intervention of my innovation plan, so I prepared an activity in which I would provide students with some materials based on the real world. Then, I arranged to develop a travel brochure with different cities around the world for students to plan their next vacation. It seemed that students enjoyed the activity and the material since they were focused on working on the task. For developing this task, I gave them some questions for them to follow and make the activity easier. The time invested in the class was good. Students studied the topic in the previous class and although I had to explain the grammar structure again, I managed to carry out all the activities in time. The students’ level of participation in the other activities was low.

The next class I had this week was on Thursday since on Wednesday there was no class owing to the fact that that day was a holiday. The topic for this class was “present simple”. Like the other group, these students had also studied the topic in the previous class. However, I had to remind them about the spelling rules of the third person singular with verbs in the present simple tense. Then, I wrote the rules on the board and provided some examples for students to be clear about the topic. I asked them to do the first activity and since they had the rules clear, they did the task quickly and after that, I checked the answers along with the students. Afterward, I gave students a handout in which they had to find someone who does certain activities. They had to ask questions using the present simple structure. Students got excited about the activity that they wanted to do the task using all the questions in the worksheet; therefore, they did not sit down until they were done with all the questions. As the class started more than ten minutes later, it was impossible for me to carry out the final activity, which consisted of students writing about their daily routine. Hence, I told them to do it as homework. The participation with these students has never been a problem considering that some students participate very actively.       

Journal III

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, April 22, 2019 to Friday, April 26, 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.

Third Week: Learning from the Experience

           

            During the third week of my pedagogical practicum, things worked a little better for me in terms of students’ attention and participation. Firstly, I had a class with the students from the faculty, level II. The topic I was to teach was “the different types of communication”. It was a topic, which students were introduced by learning about the verbs of the senses in previous classes. Therefore, when explaining the topic, students knew what I was talking about. Although the activities went right, students still did not understand some aspects. The students’ participation still is a difficulty I have to deal with. However, when I started using the list to ask students to participate, some of them were willing to do so. On the other hand, some others were still unwilling to participate. I had good time management this time. I carried out all the activities I had planned, explained the topic, and answered and clarified students’ questions and doubts. For the reading exercise, I asked some students to read aloud for everyone to follow the reading, after that, I gave them some reading comprehension questions for them to answer. Students then, read the text again in pairs and I gave some time for them to answer the questions. When the time was up, some students participated by reading the questions and providing the corresponding answer for each one.

Secondly, the next class I had this week was on Wednesday. It was a class with students from the second level as well. For the classes with this course, the time has always been a problem since my teaching practice goes from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., but students tend to leave the classroom early. This time, students were more focused on my explanations, they made more questions, and the participation was better than the one for the previous class. As I was explaining the topic “future tense”, I provided some examples for each form “will, going to, and present progressive” so that students were contextualized with each form. When they did not understand the explanation or the examples I gave them, I tried to give them some related directly to them using them in the sentences. When developing the while-activity, students were also asking questions and working with their friends. After some time, we made the review of the answers and most of the students had all the answers right. However, it was impossible for me to carry out the post-activity since students had to go at 3:50. Perhaps, something I would change about this is the time arrangements. I need to prepare activities that take a little less than the estimated time given for the class. Finally, my week finished with the news that there was a civil strike and therefore, my Thursday class was canceled.

Journal II

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, April 8, 2019, to Friday, April 12, 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.

Second Week: Getting into the Teaching Experience

            During this week, I had the opportunity to carry out the planning and lessons I designed for the three different English courses at Universidad Surcolombiana I am in charge of. Firstly, I implemented the lesson plan for the English II students, who are from the Education Faculty. For these students, the topic to be taught was “past simple”. I had prepared all the materials I was going to need: I booked the video beam, printed the worksheets, studied the topic, and prepared the short video for the class. However, when I got to the university that Monday morning, I had to wait for almost 15 minutes until the professor in charge of the library arrives because I needed the video beam from the program in order to carry out the first exercise of my class. Then, I had to start the class 15 minutes late. In spite of that problem, I was able to accomplish all the stages established on my lesson plan since I made the adjustment of time so that the activities take a little shorter. The students from this group tend to be a little late for class; then, that was another problem, which I had to deal with. At the beginning of the class, students were a little shy but as time went by, some of them started to participate using some English. Overall, I consider this class was good.

            Secondly, the next class I had this week was the one with the other students from English level II, which are from different bachelor degrees. The lesson plan for this class was quite similar to the one I had implemented with the other students because the topic was practically the same. I used the same video for introducing the topic and then I made the explanation. I perceived that it was almost impossible that students pay attention to what I was saying or make them participate. When I handed in the worksheet to them and explained what the exercise was about, in the beginning, they have not understood the instructions I gave them, but then, I repeated the instructions and they seemed to have understood this time. At the end of the class, it was impossible to carry out the post activity because there was no time left and students started to go 15 minutes before the class ended.

            Finally, the last class I had to carry out was with the students from English level I. This class took place on Thursday at eight in the morning. I had to start this class five minutes later since the teacher that had class in that classroom earlier took so long to leave the classroom. The students from this group were quiet at the beginning of the class and they did not want to participate but when I gave them some examples, they wanted to participate. One good aspect of this group is that every time a student participated, they tried to do so using the target language. The class was good, students understood the topic right away and when they do not, they asked me some questions. In addition, the job carried out by these students was of great quality and they did it on time. I had no major problems with these students, but I consider that the classroom is a little small for thirty students and the noise from the air conditioner sometimes suggests a problem for the communication practices.         

What makes a good teacher?

What Makes a Good Teacher?

Very often in our life we talk about our teachers, what we like about them and what we do not, what we think is good about them and what is not. In this sense, we discuss from our, sometimes inexperienced, conception the factors that make a good teacher. The thing is that now that I am becoming a teacher, I have to think about this aspect as something not only for evaluating someone else’s behaviors, practices, and methods; but also mine. In this regard, some elements that make a good teacher are a willingness to be good; the ability to develop a good rapport with students; a patient, caring, and kind personality; knowledge of learners; an engaging personality and teaching style; and passion for teaching. First things first, in regards to the first element, I think a good teacher is someone who is always searching for improvement and no matter what can go wrong is willing to take a risk if it is what they think may be good. Secondly, good teachers are the ones who can construct a friendly but firm environment and relationship with their students. Therefore, good teachers should not limit themselves just to go and teach a lesson, but they should have the ability to build trusting relationships that make students feel comfortable in order to create a safe, positive, and productive learning environment. Thirdly, some aspects more related to the teacher's personality are characteristics related to being compassionate and sensitive to students’ differences. Another aspect has to do with knowing the students. A good teacher is someone who acknowledges each one of their students, their differences, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and interests and makes of that the base for their planning. Something else is the teaching style, which involves engaging students in the learning process and holds their attention in a way that they enjoy the process. Last but not least, the passion for teaching. I think this is one of the most important factors since when you are passionate about something; you enjoy what you do and do not see it as a thing you must do, but as something that brings you happiness. Besides, since the teacher is one of the responsible factors in the learning process, a passionate teacher will make students feel a good environment. In addition, aspects such as organization, knowledge about the subject matters, and good classroom management skills are other aspects that contribute to making a good teacher but that are not enough.    

Journal I

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

 

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago____ Date: _Monday, April 1, 2019 to Friday, April 5, 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.

           

First Week: Observation

In the first week of my practicum, I carried out the observations of the three groups I am in charge of teaching. It was impossible for me to do this process the first week of the semester since the Interlingua groups were still a little messy. The first group I observed is an English level II, which students are from the Education Faculty, more specifically from the BA Natural Sciences Education Program. I could observe this class in two occasions. The first time, the teacher told students about what book they were going to be working on, they made a short presentation about themselves, and they worked in groups in order to carry out an activity, which final product was a short role-play. I could identify that this group is tidy and quiet, which means it will not represent major problems about the group management. The students from this group seem to understand the target language most of the time since the teacher always speaks in English. However, students seem to have some problems in terms of the pronunciation, vocabulary, and the tense they are using to communicate. The second time I observed this group, I could notice it takes students a lot of time to complete the tasks they are asked to do since they do not understand what they have been asked to carry out; then, students have to ask their classmates in order to achieve the goals. In addition, they seem to forget some basic aspects about the target language such as how to tell the time or which possessive adjective use with the pronouns. Students from this group tend to be a little distracted. They are interested in having a good pronunciation so they asked many questions about how to pronounce a word. Since this is a homogeneous group, I think it will be interesting to implement my innovation plan with these students and because they seem to enjoy activities that means doing things different from the traditional ones.

            The second group I will be working with is also a lever II. This is a heterogeneous and large group, which means it may be difficult to manage. Students expressed they would like to develop the course through the implementation of different activities such as worksheets, dynamic activities, conversations, and vocabulary exercises. They also said they feel their English level is too low. From this class, only some of the students participate and most of the students do not follow the instructions given. Some students are very talkative and noisy, besides they are most of the time using their cellphones. At the beginning, they seemed to be a little confused about the verb “be”, but after some examples and explanations, they remembered about it and it turned out they do know the structures for present simple. However, when they are referring to the third person, they do not use the verb in the correct form. The teacher uses some motivation strategies such giving extra points to the students who participate in class and they like it. They lack of vocabulary and need to be provided with many clarifications for them to understand. Furthermore, students from this group do not like activities in which they have to work on their own. They like to move from their places and make communicative activities. These students also ask many questions.

            Finally, the last group I observed was English level I. Most of the students from this group seem to have good command of the target language. However, they are very noisy and talkative. There are some moments in which students are focused on what the teacher is saying and they like to participate when the activities are about something that is different in their perception. This is not a very large group, but the classroom is a little small for them to feel comfortable and for the development of the class implementing some activities that require movement. The majority of these students are from the BA Natural Sciences Education Program. Sometimes it is difficult to get students’ attention since they are noisy and messy. The implementation of good classroom management activities and strategies will be necessary for working with this group. It is important to keep students busy since after some time working in the same exercise, students get messy and noisy again.

            To sum up, I could observe that for making a successful job with these three groups, many interactive and dynamic activities will be necessary. It will be easier to work with the smallest groups. Students like activities that mean doing something different to what is usually done, but because of these activities, they also get messy. For the groups, which are level II, I will have to give them more time in the completion of the activities since they seem to work at a very slow pace. Finally, with the level I, I will have to implement activities that involve working in groups or at least in pairs and control the time carefully in order to avoid chaos.