My last class

Hello guys! Let me tell you that I’m so happy because we finished the teaching process for this semester. I feel proud of you because I know that it is not easy, so let me congratulate you because we achieved our objective.

This was the time to say good bye to a good group of students. I really liked this group because they always are ready to cooperate in the class, and as you know it is something that makes easier the learning process.

The last Thursday, I made a review with them because I had taught them the grammar part the class before, and the teacher just asked to bring practice.

I brought many practices in the oral and written form. For the warm up I included an oral activity. Students walked around the class answering some question that included infinitives and gerunds because it was the topic that I taught.

Then, I made some controlled practices using fill in the blanks. I could see all of them working so hard. It was kind of difficult for them; however, they could do it at the end.

As a warm up, I did an activity using the whiteboard. I asked students to complete some exercises that I wrote down on the whiteboard, so with that activity I wanted to be sure if they had understood the topic or not, but I felt happy because they did it nice.

To sum up, I must say that I was a nice opportunity. I enjoyed every class that I taught during the semester, and I’m really thankful with God because He gave me the opportunity to do it. GOOD LUCK GUYS, AND CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Hello Dear classmates! I feel so happy because we are almost to finish this semester, and we just miss a class, and that's great!

Well, this class  I taught about gerunds and infinitives. It seems like an easy topic. However, we must be careful with the verbs because as you know, we can not use infinitives or gerunds with all the verbs, so in order to don't get confused I gave to my students a list with the verbs that you can use as gerunds or infinitives. I made a review on the topic because the teacher had already taught the grammar part, and it was not necessary to explain too much because students had understood the topic.

I consider that it was a really nice class, and I could notice that students had understood the topic, and the teacher told me. I provided many practices because the teacher as me to do it, so I provided three different examples including the Controlled, Semi-controlled, and Free practice. Nevertheless, It is important to include an oral activity in a class. In order to make them to practice the topic in the oral way, I made groups of four, and they played a boardgame. In the game they had some questions using gerunds or infinitives, some of the questions that I included are: What would you like to learn to do?  What topics are you interested in reading about? What are you good at doing?, etc. They share in their own groups for 5 minutes, but then I asked for a volunteer per each group to share with their classmates. All of them wanted to participate, and believe me, I felt safisfied! 

It was what I can say about my class, but I must include that I really enjoy teaching that group! :-)

MY FIRST CLASS IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH II

Time goes fast and I feel so happy because it is nice to know that we just miss two practices more, and then we will finish this semester, for that reason, I decided to videotape this class. This period I am teaching in Intermediate English II with Teacher Geovanni Blanco.

Well, when I knew the group I must teach I felt worried because I hadn’t taken a class with Teacher Blanco, and I did not know his way to teach, so I decided to ask my classmates who already taught that group with him, and  they told me that he does not like to include games or something like that in his classes. Then, after I observed the class I could notice that he likes to teach a lot of grammar, and he also provides many examples and exercises. Later, I had an idea on how to prepare my class.

In this class, I taught the Modal verbs. It was not easy because in that level you must be really careful with your grammar because your students can correct you, so believe me that I needed to study Modals again, but it was not so difficult at all.

For the Warm up, I used a song named: “Could I have this kiss forever” by Enrique Iglesias and Whitney Houston. I divided the class into two groups. I played the song three times. The first one, they listened to the song; the second one, they order the sentence, for that I used sentence strips, and at the third time, they pasted the lyrics of the song on the board. Let me tell you that this activity was a little tricky to develop because the girls of one group did not want to cooperate, so believe me, I got angry for a while, but I tried to put my best face through that situation.

Then, I explained the grammar part. It was easy because I provide many examples and I asked them to give more. It was nice because all of them wanted to participate, so later, it was time to practice what they had learned. I provided two sheets of paper with some exercises. For students, it was really tricky to solve them, but all of them tried to do it. They asked me many questions and I felt so comfortable answering them because I knew I was prepared, as you know you feel satisfied. However, I spent many time answering their questions, and I couldn’t make the oral activity that I had prepared.

To sum up, I can say that after all, it was a nice class, and it is a good group, also as an experience I can say that time can be your enemy when you teach because sometimes you need to take more time than the one you had expected.

LAST CLASS- ENGLISH ACCESS

Hello Dear classmates! I just can’t believe that I’m done with the guys of English Access. I can tell you that it was a great experience because I had not had the opportunity to teach teenagers, and I learned a lot from them. This time I taught “Comparatives and Superlatives”, and let me tell you that I enjoyed every moment of the class. I felt so comfortable teaching that topic, so that’s why I was not nervous.

Well, as a warm up, I used an old, but nice song called: “My love” by Petula Clark. I gave to them the lyrics, and they filled in the blanks using the comparative or superlative form of the adjective according to the lyrics of the song. I played it three times, the first one just to listen to it, the second one to fill in the blanks, and the last one to sing it.

To explain grammar is not easy. There is too much to explain, and most of the time you do not have the enough time. That’s why I tried to explain to them in the easiest way, and I could see that they understood.

This class I included a reading comprehension, and believe it really functioned. They chose the correct answers, and it was a surprise to me because they are beginners, but they are really intelligent.

At the beginning of the class, I gave to them a piece of paper to write their names. In the back of the piece of paper an adjective was written. I used that to play the “Hot potato”. The student who had the ball when the music stopped must say the comparative and superlative form of the adjective that he/she had written in the piece of paper.

As I had brought to the class some real objects. I used them in order to make a review, for example: I compare the different sizes of three leaves (big, bigger, and biggest) also I compare the prizes of three earrings (expensive, more expensive, and most expensive). Then, I asked students to try it, and I felt happy because they could do it perfectly.

Second Class- English Access

Hello every one! Time goes fast and I taught the second class the last Monday. Well, this time I cannot say that it was a good experience because it was not well at all, but I just understood that we can learn from bad and good experiences.

This time I needed to lead with some uncomfortable situations which made me feel angry, nervous, and I got desperate, so I could not teach a good class as my students deserved. The point is that I had prepared everything and that problem was that someone “stole” some time from my class, and I could not perform the wrap up.

Just moving on, I taught the use of the “Possessive ‘s”. As a warm up, I made a short brainstorm using a game named “The broken telephone”. I divided the class into two groups. Students made two lines, and I told the last student a sentence using Possessive adjectives and Possessive pronouns. The students  whispered  the sentence and the first one must write down the sentence on the board. I made that activity because those were the topics that they learned before.

Then, for the presentation I show them a video on the use of the Possessive ‘s, and of course after that, it was time to teach the grammar part. I provide many examples per each rule, and of course some charts using nice colors because I considered that It was a nice way to catch their attention.

I provided many activities, such as: fill in the blanks, and of course some free practice activities in order to them to speak because they love speaking in the class.

To sum up, I can say that I just learned a lot from that experience, and I hope to have a better one the next class.

First class (Second period)

I am so glad because I started teaching the last Monday. I am teaching in English Access, and those guys are really nice. They participate in the class, they are not shy, they like to share with teachers, they are so respectful, and the best, they love English, so they put all their effort to learn it because they consider that it is great opportunity for their future.

Well, as you know, it is really difficult to prepare a class, especially when you need to teach at first time in a group that you do not really know, so what comes to your mind is: Which activities do I need to use to teach them, especially if they are teenagers?...

I needed to teach “Possessive adjectives”. It seems as an easy topic, but if you do not use the correct methodology, it can become complicated for you and for your students, so at first, it did not know which one I needed to use, and on Sunday it was really worried because the teacher sent me the lesson plan the night before to teach, so I just needed to prepare everything in some hours. It was really complicated, and I did not sleep that night thinking about it.  The first that comes to my mind was to look for a song to teach that topic, so I found a song named: “Ours” by Taylor Swift. I used that song as warm up. They formed groups of six students each, and they needed to order the song that was cut in sentences (sentence strips) I played the song two times, and at the second one they ordered it. At the end, we sang the song, and I was glad because all of them did a nice job ordering and singing it. 

For the next activities, I used some activities from the book because the teacher asked me to do it. It was complicated because I did not have enough time to make all the activities, and I have the time per each activity in my lesson plan, but sometimes some things can happen when you are teaching, and you always waste time. A mother of a student came to the class to talk with the teacher, so he asked to stop the class, and I waste around five minutes. Nevertheless, I developed my activities, and I think my students learn well the topic because they perfectly made all the activities in the oral and written form. 

Now, what I can say is that I am eager to teach the next week because I am sure that I can make a better job, and I just hope to have more time to prepare my lesson plan.